| Mika Nakashima 中島 美嘉 |
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| Born | February 19, 1983 |
| Origin | Hioki, Kagoshima, Kyūshū, Japan |
| Genres | Pop, jazz, adult contemporary, easy listening, rock |
| Occupations | Singer, model, actor |
| Instruments | Singing |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Sony Music Entertainment Japan |
| Website | mikanakashima.com |
Mika Nakashima (中島 美嘉 Nakashima Mika) (born February 19, 1983) is a Japanese singer, model, and actress.
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Born and raised in Kyūshū, Mika was the youngest of three children. From a young age, she wanted to become a singer, and decided not to attend high school or college.
At the age of 17, she was chosen from 3,000 girls to be the heroine of the Fall 2001 Fuji TV drama Kizudarake no Love Song (傷だらけのラブソング Tainted Love Song). In November, she made her debut with Sony Music Associated Records with the single "Stars," which was also the theme song of the drama. The single would go on to become her best-selling single. Her second single "Crescent Moon", an 80s themed song, was limited to 100,000 copies. It sold out the first day of its release. In March 2002 she released her third single, "One Survive," and her first video collection, "Film Lotus". This was followed in May by her 4th single, "Helpless Rain", and in August, by her 5th single "Will", which went on to rack up sales of over 140,000. Both were top ten hits and sold around 100,000 copies, proving Nakashima's rising star appeal.[1]
Nakashima's first album, True, released in August 2002, was a number 1 hit on the Oricon charts. The album boasted a mature mixture of jazz and adult contemporary pop. In 3 weeks, True sold a million copies, and has sold nearly 1,174,000 copies to date. Then, as a commemoration of one year since her debut, Nakashima released a Premium EP: Resistance, which hit the charts' number 1 spot for two weeks in a row. On December 18, a documentary video, Kiseki: The Document of a Star, was released. In 2002, the singer received the "New Artist of the Year" award at the Japan Gold Disc Awards and "Best New Artist of the Year" at the All Japan Request Awards 2002. She also won the "New Artist of the Year" award from the 44th Japan Record Awards.
Nakashima's second album, Love, which was released in November 2003, sold nearly 1.45 million copies, surpassing that of her debut. The Japan Composers Association awarded Love the Best Album Award. After releasing a second mini-album, Oborozukiyo: Inori, in September 2004, Nakashima topped the Oricon Album Chart again with Music in March 2005, as well as with her first greatest hits album Best in December of that year. Best is the third album by Nakashima to have sold a million copies or more, but like her second album, Best also outsold True in sales - by nearly 30,000 copies.
Her most popular songs include "Stars", Gundam Seed's ending song "Find the Way", "Sakurairo Mau Koro", and "Yuki no Hana", which was covered by South Korean male singer Park Hyo Shin and this covered song was inserted in the popular Korean drama I'm Sorry, I Love You. Another Korean version was sung by female singer Seo Young Eun. It was also one of the most popular karaoke songs in Japan in 2004. The song was first covered by Singapore singer Joi Chua in 2005 by the same title "Sorry I Love You". It was also covered by Mainland Chinese singer Han Xue on August 2004 in Mandarin; and by Hong Kong singer Vincy Chan in 2006, in Cantonese. English version of Hana no Yuki was covered by Eric Martin (Mr.Big's vocalist) and featured in his solo album Mr.Vocalist 2008 which was produced and released in Japan. Another covered version was released on June 2006, sung by Japanese male singer Hideaki Tokunaga. "Find the Way" was covered by Korean singer Bada (former member of kpop legend SES). In 2004 she sang the ending theme of the anime series based on the manga Hi no Tori as aired on NHK.
In 2005, Nakashima co-starred alongside Aoi Miyazaki in the live-action movie Nana, based on the manga of the same name, which was released September 10, 2005. She also sang one of the theme songs for the movie, which was released as a single under the name "Nana starring Mika Nakashima". The single, titled "Glamorous Sky," was written by the manga's author, Ai Yazawa, and composed by L'Arc-en-Ciel vocalist Hyde. It was Nakashima's only #1 single on the Oricon Singles Charts. It sold over 423,000 copies in 2005, making it the best-selling female single of the year and the tenth highest selling in the world. The single continued selling well into the next year and sold 444,067 copies, which was about 25,000 copies less than her Nana co-star, Yuna Ito's "Endless Story". The single would be featured in Konami's guitar/drum simulation game GuitarFreaks and Drummania V3, as well as Nintendo's Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2.
Nakashima was nominated at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan as "Best BuzzAsia from Japan" for "Amazing Grace '05", and the "Glamorous Sky" video was nominated as "Best Female Video" and "Best Video from a Film". She won the "Best Video from a Film" award.
Due to the success of Nana, a sequel was released in December, 2006. It included two new songs by Nakashima, again under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima. The theme song to Nana 2 movie was "Hitoiro" (One Color), which has also been written by Yazawa, while the music is composed by Glay's leader, Takuro, also the author of the coupling song, "Eyes for the Moon". Besides the single, Mika released the album The End, featuring all her songs under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima.
On December 18, 2006 Nakashima and Yui Ichikawa came to New York City for the International Premiere of 'Nana 2' at the IFC Center.
Following the release of the Nana movie, Nakashima visited Memphis, Tennessee, and started another project beginning with the heavily gospel-influenced "Cry No More", the ending theme of the anime Blood+. She also contributed to the New Orleans charity tribute when she teamed up with American musicians such as Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers and famed jazz pianist/musician Alan Toussaint, and released the single All Hands Together, whose sales were poor. A month after "All Hands Together", Mika released another single "My Sugar Cat" following the same theme of "Cry No More" and "All Hands Together", her earlier 2006 singles. Unfortunately, "My Sugar Cat" dropped out of the Top 50 a week after its release.
On February 21, 2007 Nakashima's 21st single, "Mienai Hoshi" was released. The single is the theme song for the Japanese drama Haken no Hinkaku (ハケンの品格 lit. Haken's Dignity), which aired starting January 10, 2007. The b-side track "I Love You" is a cover of the Ozaki Yutaka ballad. Promotional videos were made for both songs. On March 14, 2007, Nakashima's 5th studio album, Yes, was released in Japan. The title "Yes" continues Nakashima's trend of having one-word album titles, such as "Love" and "True", excluding the Nana album "The End". Her 22nd single, Sunao na Mama, was released on the same day.
Following the release of Yes, Nakashima embarked on her first tour since 2005, Mika Nakashima's Concert Tour 2007 "Yes My Joy", which ended in late July and was subsequently released on DVD on November 7, 2007. Nakashima's 23rd single "Life" as well as "Film Lotus VI", her sixth compilation of music videos, were released in August 2007. "Life" was the theme song for the drama adaptation of the shoujo manga series of the same name by Keiko Suenobu.
Nakashima's 24th single, "Eien no Uta", appeared in October 2007, and was the theme to the movie Southbound. Promotional videos were made for both Eien no Uta and its B-side, a cover of Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To".
Her 25th single, "Sakura: Hanagasumi", was released in March 2008. It reached number 12 on the Oricon chart.
"I Don't Know", Nakashima's 26th single, was a collaboration with owarai group Morisanchū (森三中) and was released under the name MICA 3 CHU (Mikasanchuu). The songs on the single are rock songs, and the single was marketed as Girls Angry Rock. The single was released in two versions: a limited edition CD+DVD version and a CD only version. The CD+DVD version also featured a picture label disc and a sticker. "I Don't Know" is Nakashima's first single sung entirely in English, and was used as the Kanebo Kate commercial song.
Nakashima's next single, "Orion", was released on November 12, 2008. It was used as an insert song for the TBS drama "Ryusei no Kizuna", in which Nakashima herself appeared in a minor role.[2][3]
Nakashima's fifth studio album, Voice, was released on November 26, 2008. Voice, which leaned closer to a mainstream yet mature form of adult contemporary pop than her previous albums, was the first album by Nakashima to top the Oricon Album Chart since Best in 2005, and sold over 155,000 copies in its first week of release and over 340,000 copies in total. [4]
After releasing a new album called No More Rules on March 5, 2009, Nakashima embarked on her fifth tour. This Japan-based tour was called the "Trust Our Voice Tour 2009", which started on April 10, 2009 and concluded in Tokyo at the end of July 2009. She introduced her then-new single, "Over Load", released on May 13, 2009, during the tour.
"Life" ranked number 7 in JASRAC Award 2009: 10 best interactive song.[5] "Life" was also used in the TV series Life (ライフ). The story is based on major school problems such as bullying, rape, abuse, etc. Nakashima's 29th single, "Candy Girl", was released on September 30, 2009, as a collaboration with the fashion brand SLY. Her 30th single, "Nagareboshi", was released on November 4, 2009.
The DVD of Nakashima's "Trust Our Voice Tour 2009", titled "Mika Nakashima Concert Tour 2009 Trust Our Voice", was released in Japan as her first 2-DVD concert release on December 2, 2009.[6]
Nakashima's 31st single, "Always", was released on January 20, 2010, and was the theme song for the Japanese movie Sayonara Itsuka (サヨナライツカ). She also starred in the Japanese supernatural monster film Death Kappa[7], which was directed by Tomoo Haraguchi.[8]
Nakashima's 32nd single, "The Most Beautiful Me" (Ichiban Kirei na Watashi Wo; 一番綺麗な私を) will be released on August 25, 2010 in collaboration with the new TV series on TBS, Unubore Deka (Conceited Detective, うぬぼれ刑事).[9] A story about a male detective that has the illusion of being the "ladies man". He is a romantic but conceited, he tries to convince female criminals, into either marrying him or being arrested. Mika Nakashima plays a role in the show as well. The name of her character in the television series will be known as Rie Hagurashi.
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