Kōji Wada

Kōji Wada
Native name 和田 光司
Born (1974-01-24) January 24, 1974
Kyoto, Japan
Genres Rock
Occupation(s) Singer
Instruments Singing
Years active 1999–present
Labels King Records
Website www.wadakoji.com

Kōji Wada (和田 光司 Wada Kōji, born January 24, 1974) is a Japanese rock singer. He debuted in 1999 with his first single, "Butter-Fly", the theme song of the anime Digimon Adventure. He is signed with the King Records recording label.

Life and career

Wada was born in Kyoto, Japan. In 2003, Wada released his first original album, All of My Mind, which included many of his previous works. He also collaborated in Michihiko Ōta's self-cover album Mirai e no Message: Ōta Michihiko Self-Cover, featuring in two tracks – a cover version of "Hontō no Tsuyosa" (本当の強さ) (Ken & Wormmon's Theme) and in "3 Primary Colors" (the Tamers theme), along with AiM. Later, he released an album called The Best Selection: Welcome Back!. It contains several of his earlier works as well as two new songs, titled "Pierce" and "Kimi no Keshiki." On August 1, 2008, he debuted a mini-album titled Ever, which contained five brand new songs. His most current complete album, called Kazakami no Oka Kara (風上の丘から), was sold at his live concerts in Japan throughout the end of 2009 in commemoration of his 10th anniversary in music, and it was released worldwide on January 11, 2010.

Wada has contributed songs to six of the seven Digimon anime series (with one of his songs reused for the seventh, to which he contributed no new songs), including opening themes for the first five of them. He also performed two songs used as ending themes for Digimon Frontier, "Innocent: Mujaki na Mama de" (イノセント～無邪気なままで～) and "an Endless Tale" (with AiM). He starred in various other songs for the series, such as "Bokura no Digital World" (the "memorial" theme for the Adventure series), "Yūki o Uketsugu Kodomo-tachi e" and also several Christmas songs. He also performed a song for Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

On October 4, 2011, Wada announced via his blog that he was putting his career on hold in order to deal with a sudden metastasized cancer which had previously seen treatment in 2003.[1]

International appearances

In July 2007, Wada made his first show in Brazil, doing a solo presentation and singing along other invited Japanese singers on the "Anime Friends".[2] This happened one year after Ayumi Miyazaki visited Brazil in another convention "ExpoAnime Brasil". He also visited the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil on October 14, 2007, during the Anima Weekend event. On December 15–16, 2007, he made a live presentation in the "Anime Festival XL" event in Santiago, Chile. In August 2008, he released a mini-album named "ever", which contains five original songs, with four of them composed and written by himself. In December 2008 he was performing in the "Animeku 08", in February the "AniCon", and in July the "Anime Friends" (Both in 2010) Events from "Yamato", in Brazil and Argentina. On June 5–6, 2010, he did 2 concerts in Monterrey, Mexico in the Santa Lucia Arena at the "Dengeki Live", a jpop event and anime convention. In response to his metastasized cancer in 2011, he cancelled two appearances planned for Chile and Peru.

Discography

All of My Mind

Kazakami no Oka Kara

Other songs

References

  1. ↑ "Digimon Singer Kouji Wada Puts Career on Hold Due to Cancer". Anime News Network. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Agitos da J-music" (in Portuguese). Rede Globo. July 16, 2010. Retrieved December 2, 2010.

External links

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