Tomiko Van

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Tomiko Van (伴 都美子?)
Tomiko Van, at Shibuya with Do As Infinity partners.
Tomiko Van, at Shibuya with Do As Infinity partners.
Background information
Birth name 伴 都美子 (Van Tomiko, pronounced Ban Tomiko)
Also known as Ban-chan
Born January 9, 1979 (1979-01-09) (age 29)
Origin Yamato, Kumamoto, Japan
Genre(s) J-Pop, J-Rock, Jazz
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Years active 1999-2005 (Do As Infinity)
2005-Present (solo)
Label(s) Avex Trax
Website Official Site

Tomiko Van (伴 都美子 Ban Tomiko?) (born January 9, 1979), is a Japanese J-Pop singer and occasional actress, as well as a former member of the now disbanded band Do As Infinity, along with Ryo Owatari and Dai Nagao.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Do As Infinity

Main article: Do As Infinity

[edit] Beginnings as solo artist

Tomiko began as a solo artist while she was with D·A·I with the song "Again", which appeared in charity album Song Nation, and later in 2003 with the song "drive me nuts", which was recorded for trance DJs project Cyber X. Tomiko also appeared in six commercials for the Japanese hair product company LAVENUS[1].

[edit] Official solo career

[edit] 2005

After Do As Infinity disbanded on September 29, 2005, Avex Trax, Tomiko's label, announced that the singer was going solo[2].

[edit] 2006

In 2006 Tomiko made her debut as a solo artist with her album FAREWELL. Singles were not released prior to her album, released in March 2006.

Her first official single as a solo artist, Flower, was released in June of the same year, and made the weekly top 10 of the Japanese charts. Two other singles followed that year, Senkou, in September, and Yumeji, a late November release.

On October 3, 2006, Tomiko announced her debut role in the Japanese movie, Heat ISLAND, as a café bar manager. Tomiko also announced her second stage role in the Japanese version, Brooklyn. She has stated that this will not take away from her career as a singer.[citation needed]

[edit] 2007

2007 started out with Tomiko's first cover album entitled VOICE ~cover you with love~. Though it entered the top 20, the album was not considered a great success as it did not manage to sell as well as her original album FAREWELL a year before. The album was Tomiko's only release that year.

[edit] 2008

In 2008, Tomiko's 3rd album and 2nd cover album, Voice 2~cover lovers rock~, was released in March. In this album, she covered songs performed by male artists, such as SPITZ and Masaharu Fukuyama. Despite her one year hiatus from the music scene, the album charted at #10 on the 1st day of release.

Recently, it has been revealed that Tomiko's fourth solo single, Tokyo Biyori (東京日和 lit. Tokyo Weather), is to be released on June 18, 2008[3][4].

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

# Information Sales
1st /
Debut
Single
Flower
  • Released: June 7, 2006
  • Oricon Top 200 Weekly Peak: #10
  • Weeks on Chart: 6
24,230
copies sold
2nd Senkō
閃光
  • Released: September 27, 2006
  • Oricon Top 200 Weekly Peak: #14
  • Weeks on Chart: 4
13,860
copies sold
3rd Yumeji
夢路
  • Released: November 29, 2006
  • Oricon Top 200 Weekly Peak: #14
  • Weeks on Chart: 2
10,237
copies sold
4th Tokyo Biyori
東京日和
  • Released: June 18, 2008
  • Oricon Top 200 Weekly Peak: TBA
  • Weeks on Chart: TBA
TBA

[edit] Albums

# Information Sales
1st /
Debut
Album
FAREWELL
  • Released: March 29, 2006
  • Oricon Top 200 Weekly Peak: #7
  • Weeks on Chart: 10
  • Oricon Daily Chart: #5
36,591
copies sold

Cover
Album
Voice~cover you with love~
  • Released: March 28, 2007
  • Oricon Top 200 Weekly Peak: #22
  • Weeks on Chart: 4
  • Oricon Daily Chart: #13
14,581
copies sold

Cover
Album
Voice 2~cover lovers rock~
  • Released: March 5, 2008
  • Oricon Top 200 Weekly Peak:#28
  • Weeks on Chart:1+
  • Oricon Daily Chart: #10
7,979
copies sold

[edit] Featured and collaborative releases

  • drive me nuts (Cyber X Feat. Tomiko Van)
  • TRUTH'94-meets tomiko van- (Cover version of TRF's original song)
  • again (Various Artists album, Songnation, an Avex project consisting of collaborations between many different Avex artists)

[edit] References

[edit] External links