Post by smashers7nisa on Apr 19, 2008 4:23:36 GMT -5
Mika Nakashima was born and raised in Kyushu, Japan with two older sisters. At the age of 17, Mika decided not to attend High School in order to pursue a career in music. After sending a demo tape to Sony Music Associated Records, she was soon signed as a singer and an actress.
Mika's musical debut was the theme song to the drama in which she also made her acting debut, namely “Kizudarake no Love Song.” This theme song became her first single, STARS. STARS sold nearly 470,000 copies despite coming in at third place on the Oricon charts. Her second single, Crescent Moon, was limited to 100,000 copies, which all sold on the first day. Her first album, TRUE, was released in 2002 and went straight to #1, selling a million copies within the first three weeks of release. Her second album, LOVE, has sold nearly 1.5 million copies since its release in 2003 - an occurrence that happens rarely with regard to sophomore and other albums released after one's debut album.
Mika has done four Live Tours: 'The First Tour 2003,' 'Concert Tour 2004 LOVE,' 'Let's Music Tour 2005,' and 'Concert Tour 2007 YES MY JOY.' Her 'First Tour 2003' and 'LOVE' tours are notable for having sold out in only 2 minutes.
In 2005 she starred in the movie NANA and finished her third tour. Her single for the movie, GLAMOROUS SKY (composed by L'Arc~en~Ciel's Hyde), was released August 31st and climbed to number one on the Oricon Singles Chart. It was, in fact, her first time being number one on that chart.
In 2002, she received The Japan Gold Disc New Artist of the Year Award, the All Japan Request Best New Artist of the Year Award and the 44th Japanese Record New Artist of the Year Award. She also won several other awards, including the 'Best Video from a Film' trophy at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards in Japan. Mika was also ranked #8 most downloaded artist of 2007 by Recochoku.
Official website - www.mikanakashima.com/