Maki Goto (後藤 真希, Gotō Maki?, born September 23, 1985 in Edogawa, Tokyo, Japan) is a J-pop singer and a former soloist of Hello! Project and member of Morning Musume. She has performed in numerous Hello! Project subgroups such as Petitmoni, Akagumi 4, 7-nin Matsuri, Sexy 8, Gomattou and Nochiura Natsumi.

In 1999, Maki Goto was selected as the only member for the 3rd generation of Morning Musume. Their first single after Goto joined, “Love Machine” sold over a million copies, over nine times the amount of copies they had sold for their previous single. During her time in Morning Musume she was one of the founding members of Pucchi Moni and she started a solo singing career in 2001 with the single “Ai no Bakayarō” (愛のバカやろう, “Ai no Bakayarō”?). Until her graduation from Morning Musume she was one of the leading vocalists in most of the songs released. Post-graduation she has mostly concentrated on her solo career and occasionally on limited time Hello! Project units such as Gomattou, Nochiura Natsumi, and DEF.DIVA. As time has passed, she has increasingly concentrated on acting in addition to singing. She has also performed at the Asia song festival 2005 in Pusan, Korea to represent Japan.

In early 2007, Goto was chosen to be a member of Morning Musume Tanjō 10 Nen Kinentai (モーニング娘。誕生10年記念隊, Morning Musume Tanjō 10 Nen Kinentai?)—a unit created to celebrate Morning Musume’s 10th anniversary as a group. Morning Musume Tanjō 10 Nen Kinentai also consists of Natsumi Abe, Kaori Iida, Risa Niigaki and Koharu Kusumi. Their single, Bokura ga Ikiru My Asia (僕らが生きるMy Asia, Bokura ga Ikiru My Asia?), was released on January 24, 2007.

Her seventeenth single, Secret (シークレット, Secret?), was released on April 11, 2007. On September 19, 2007, Goto’s fourth original album How to Use Sexy was released.

On October 20, 2007, Goto’s younger brother and former member of EE Jump idol group Yūki Goto (祐樹, Yūki Goto?) was arrested on the grounds he and two accomplices, aged 18 and 19, had broken into a construction site in Edogawa Ward in Tokyo back on July 15, 2007 and made off with 80 reels of electric cable worth approximately 1 million yen. According to Flash magazine, Goto and one of her brother’s accomplices had been romantically involved for some time, after the two met at Yūki’s wedding in 2005. Due to the circumstances surrounding the robbery scandal, they haven’t been in contact with each other.

On October 28, 2007, during the last concert of her G-EmotionII ~How to Use Sexy~ tour, Goto suddenly announced to fans that she would be graduating from Hello! Project, though she was also leaving UpFront Agency completely. Her graduation was said to be that she was overworked and overly stressed, causing her health problems. She also had different ideas of the direction of her career than what her agency had planned.[5] Because of her graduation, she would not be able to participate in the Hello! Project 2008 Winter concert tour, previously said to be because of “scheduling conflicts”.

Goto’s official blog reopened on March 25, 2008. Over the course of several entries, she revealed that she was in Los Angeles, California, taking singing and dancing lessons.

Song: Uwasa No Sexy Guy

Song: Secret

Emyli (エミリ, Emyli? b. April 23, 1988) is a Japanese pop singer. Her debut album Flower of Life was released from BMG Japan label in 2003. Since the release of her first album, she has performed with popular acts such as m-flo and Shinhwa. She is currently attending Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, along with Crystal Kay, and Beni Arashiro.

Trivia:
* Emyli’s vocal style and strength has often been compared to United States Artist, Christina Aguilera.
* Performed with M-flo at the Beat Space Nine Budokan tour in 2006 and at the Cosmicolor Tour at Yokohama Arena in 2007.

Check out Emyli’s official site: Emyli

Song by Mika Nakashima: When the petals of cherry blossom fall

Nanase Aikawa (相川 七瀬, Aikawa Nanase?) is a Japanese musician known for employing a variety of musical styles, most notably rock. She publishes her music under the Motorod label, a division of Avex Group.

Nanase Aikawa was born on February 16, 1975, in Osaka, Japan. Throughout her school years, Nanase had sung and participated in a several singing competitions, which brought her to the attention of a well-known music producer Tetsuro Oda. At the age of 15, she dropped out of school to be trained by Oda. At the age of 20 she released her first single, Yume Miru Shoujo ja Irarenai on 8 November 1995.

After she released her first single on 8 November 1995, she released three more singles, and then her first full album Red in 1996, which sold more than two million copies in its first month. That album won her an invitation to perform on Kōhaku Uta Gassen, a New Year’s Eve singing contest between male and female teams of popular singers sponsored by NHK (one of Japan’s television networks).

Since then, she has released about one album each year, plus an average of three mini- or maxi-singles. Her second album, Paradox, was released in July of 1997, selling 1.8 million copies, coinciding with her first concert tour Live Emotion ‘97 (consisting of 20 concert dates, and attracting a total of 65,000 fans, according to Avex).

July of 1998 saw her third album Crimson, and another concert tour with over 40 concert dates. Her 1999 release, I.D. was a compilation album, but it debuted at number one on the rock chart, her fourth consecutive album to be released at the number one slot.

In 2001, she also released a ‘mini-album’ (sometime between a full album and a single) with only 7 tracks called the Last Quarter of uncharacteristically soft ballad-style music, recorded during her later months of pregnancy.

It wasn’t until 2003 that she released another album, another compilation, called ID: 2.

At the 11th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards, Nanase’s album Red was voted the Best Album (Japanese Rock and Folk music, female vocalist category). Her album Paradox was also voted Best Album of the Year at the 12th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards.

In February of 2004, three years after her last original album and many singles, she released 7 Seven. An album devoted to feelings relating to music and color, with each song dedicated to a certain color. Since then she has released four more singles.

In July 2004 her song BYE BYE was covered by UK singer Jennifer Ellison.

As of August of 2004, Nanase Aikawa has released six albums, plus two compilation albums and the mini-album, a total of 24 singles, and no less than three separate concerts and two music video collections on video and DVD.

A year later, in February of 2005, she released The First Quarter mini-album. This album focused more on ballads and soft music than her well-known rock edge. In November of that same year she released R.U.O.K?!, a mini-album with seven songs. In July 2007, Nanase Aikawa began work on her new album.

Song: Bye Bye

Song: Ai No Uta

Check out her official website

This is Utada Hikaru’s latest single out from her fifth Japanese Album called Heart Station.

The video reminds me so much of Madonna’s Frozen video. Check it out:

Copycat. :P

Does her face look porcelain to you? Damn airbrushing! But she’s beautiful none-the-less. I am sure with the number of Hikaru’s videos you would know by now that I am a big fan of hers :)

And this song comes with subtitles too. This is her latest video :)

Chinen Rina (知念 里奈) is a female former Japanese popular music artist, turned Japanese TV Drama Actress. Her blood type is O. Rina was born in Okinawa in February 6, 1981. Although Okinawa is now part of Japan, it has evolved its unique culture and music blended from Chinese, Japanese and Pacific influences. Rina was trained in dance and song at the Okinawa Actors School, whose graduates include Namie Amuro and SPEED.

Debuting in 1996 with the Single “Do-Do for Me”, Rina’s career transitioned through bouncy pop songs and ballads to rock and then R&B. Rina had a powerful and versatile voice and could deliver powerful rock ballads such as “In Your Eyes”, hard rock “Yes!” or bouncy pop-cum-dance “Baby Love.” Her voice is at its best when she sings at lower, throaty pitches. Some earlier songs such as “God Bless the World” and “Wing” sung in a high-pitched voice, perhaps in an attempt to come across as cutesy, are not so pleasant to the ear. Although there are many high-pitched singers in Japan, in Rina’s case this tended to polarise listeners in a way seldom seem. The songs were hits nonetheless. Like other Okinawa Actors School alumni, she is an accomplished dancer.

n 2002 Rina appeared in the Japanese TV Drama “Yume no California” (夢のカリフォルニア, “Dream of California” also known as “California Dreamin’”). She subsequently moved to another drama, “Kochira Hon Ikegami Sho” (こちら本池上署, Central Ikegami Police) and was with the successful show for its entire five season run. In 2007, she appeared[6] in the Tokyo Production of Les_Miserables.

Song: On My Own (From Les Miserable)

Song: Baby Love

This are last year’s contenders, this year’s haven’t been decided yet so I thought I’d do a recap over J-Pop’s top 10 female artist.