Chihiro Onitsuka
Chihiro Onitsuka (鬼束ちひろ, Onitsuka Chihiro?, born October 30, 1980 in Nango, Miyazaki) is a female Japanese popular music singer-songwriter and pianist.
Onitsuka debuted with her single Shine in early 2000 and has captured many people with her vocals. She can reach incredibly high and low tones, giving her a wide array of options for singing, from fast-paced guitar melodies to melancholy piano pieces.
Her parents encouraged Onitsuka to listen to Western music and by the time she was ten, she wrote her first poems, receiving praise from her parents, friends and teachers, who called them ‘earnest efforts’. Secretly, however, she knew that just writing ‘earnestly’ wasn’t enough. From that time onward, she tried to write every day, and by the time she was in junior high school, she began to gain more confidence.
Having been influenced by Alanis Morissette in junior high school days, it was the encounter with Jewel’s music and presence during the high school years that strongly impelled Onitsuka to become a singer-songwriter. With some 70 original compositions and several other auditions under her belt, Onitsuka entered the 1998 Virgin Tokyo Artists Audition, going on to winning Grand Prize. Then only 17, Onitsuka started her career as a professional and moved to Tokyo in spring 1999 after graduating from high school.
February 2000 saw the release of Onitsuka’s debut single “Shine.” The following single “Gekkou” was selected the theme song to a TV drama series, gaining nationwide attention to this new artist. While “Gekkou” remained a long-term best-seller, the up-tempo single “Cage” was released in November 2000, followed by the fourth single “Memai/Edge” in February 2001 which was Onitsuka’s first love song. The highly anticipated debut album Insomnia was then released in March 2001, immediately topping the Original Confidence album sales charts in the first week of release.
In early September 2003, Onitsuka recorded her October single “Ii Hi Tabidachi, Nishi e,” a cover of a 1978 song, to be used as the theme for Japan Railway’s “Discover the West” campaign. She recorded this song right before she took a hiatus to have throat surgery.[1]
In early 2004, Toshiba EMI released a Singles Box against the wishes of Onitsuka. This caused so much anguish for her that she left Toshiba and signed on as an artist under Universal Music, and given a lot more freedom in her work. She released one single, “Sodatsu Zassou (育つ雑草)”, which was a major change from her folk-pop style into rock. Prior to the release, she held a concert in which she performed the song and a Nirvana cover. Contrary to popular belief, she did not announce a hiatus at this time; no hiatus was announced and the subsequent lack of release from her had been a great mystery to her fans, who eagerly anticipated the next release and hoped that one would indeed be forthcoming. Later on, she admitted that the reason for her departure from the music scene was because of mental fatigue caused by the series of new releases and tight schedules.
Onitsuka started her full come-back to the music industry in 2007, with a live performance on March 17 at AP BANG! Tokyo Kankyo Kaigi, Studio Coast, Tokyo and has announced plans to release a come-back album and do concert touring. Her first release is the single titled “Everyhome”, which was released on May 30. It reached #9 on the Oricon weekly charts.
It is interesting to note that even though Onitsuka is on a different label now, Toshiba EMI has still been releasing her music in the forms of DVDs and singles collections. The singles collection does not even have a photo of Chihiro as the cover, and instead a drawing replaces her. It is most likely that they will stop soon as there are no more new songs or footage that they own.
Song: Infection
Song: Shine
Song: Back Door
- 
