Mari Hamada

Not to be confused with Mari Hamada (actress).
Mari Hamada
浜田麻里
Birth name 浜田麻里 (Hamada Mari)
Born July 18, 1962
Tokyo, Japan
Origin Tokyo, Japan
Genres AOR, metal, rock
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter
Years active 1983–present
Labels Tri-M
MCA
Victor
Associated acts Indecent Obsession, Munetaka Higuchi
Website Official site

Mari Hamada (浜田麻里 Hamada Mari, born July 18, 1962 in Tokyo, Japan, height 158cm) is a Japanese female rock singer, songwriter and producer.

Biography

Since junior high school, Mari Hamada has been participating in the recording of commercial songs. While attending Metropolitan Musashigaoka high school, she formed the punk rock band "Mari Band". After being admitted to Aoyama Gakuin University, she worked as a vocalist in "Misty Cats". In the 1980s, she attracted attention as a well-known female rock vocalist in Japan, at the time when hard rock was a genre known to specialists only and not many hard rock albums were sold. In 1985 "Blue Revolution" was announced, followed up by "In The Precious Age" in 1987. For the overseas production of the latter album, the decision was made to hire a renowned foreign music producer/musician. Around this time, Mari employed a wide range of music that also incorporated pop melodies from strong hard rock color seen in the early 1980s, in order to further expand the fan base. In 1988, The NHK theme of the Seoul Olympics (NHK relay theme song which was played at local Japanese NHK stations), "Heart and Soul", was released. In the same year, Mari would have gotten permission to perform on stage for the 39th NHK Red and White Singing Contest, but she declined after all. In 1989 "Return to Myself ~" was released.

With the start of the 1990s, the album "Colors" (featuring Oricon as a debuting label) was released, lifting the big hits "Tomorrow" and "Anti-Heroine" (which climbed to number 1 on Japanese charts). In 1993 she participated in the charity group "Used To Be A Child", changing the location of musical activities into places around Asia. One year later, in 1994, she performed in Europe as well as further locations abroad. Then, in 1996 the album "Persona" was announced, however Mari Hamada decided that she wanted to take a short break to leave her a little time to take a breath after her demanding live performances.

After a 9-year hiatus, in 2002, she gave a concert in Japan at Akasaka Blitz. Since then new albums were announced nearly every two years, and live tours at a rate of once a year. In 2010, the album "Aestetica" got heavy airplay, and was subsequently turned into a DVD performance of the Nakano Sun Plaza portion of the related tour, "Mari Hamada Live in Tokyo 'Aestetica' ". Two weeks after its initial release, it achieved rank #3 in the charts. In February 2012 the album "Legenda" was released, ranking 5th on the Oricon Music Daily Chart and 9th (week # 23) in the Daily CD album chart. 2013 the DVD from the "Legenda" Tour, recorded on May 26, 2012 at Nakano Sunplaza Hall in Tokyo was released.

The Complete Single Collection box-set includes 4 CDs, 2 DVDs and a book, was released on January 8, 2014; it includes the very rare songs "Bye Bye My Little Summer", "Someone Like You" and "Heartless Woman" (first time on CD).

On April 27, 2014, Mari performed her special anniversary concert in Tokyo. She played 28 songs and it was filmed by WOWOW. 14 songs of this concert including two Interviews were shown on Japanese TV on July 20, 2014.

Mari performed at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo on August 16, 2014 and played 7 songs.

On August 31, September 3 and September 7, 2014 Mari performed 3 Premium Symphonic Concerts with 13 songs, titled "Rock Queen Orchestra".

The 2-DVD-Set "Mari Hamada 30th Anniversary Live Tour - Special" will be released as DVD and Blu-ray on January 7, 2015. It´s the complete concert from April 27, 2014 in Tokyo and it includes 28 songs.

Discography

Albums

International releases

DVDs

Compilations

Singles

References

    External links