Akina Nakamori

Overview

Akina Nakamori (中森 明菜, born 13 July 1965 in Ōmori, Ōta, Tokyo, and raised in Kiyose) is a Japanese singer and actress. She debuted on 1 May 1982 with the single "Slow Motion" and became one of the leading female idol singers of the 1980s. She won the Japan Record Award in 1985 for "Meu amor é..." and again in 1986 for "Desire (Jōnetsu)", and she also starred in the TV dramas Sugao no Mama de and Tsumetai Tsuki. She is now affiliated with her own office, HZ VILLAGE, and releases music through the Utahime Records label under Universal Music Japan.

Career

Early life

Nakamori was the fifth of six siblings and the third daughter; all the children were named with the character 明 after their father. Her mother, a fan of Hibari Misora, taught her to sing from an early age, inspiring her dream of becoming a singer. She attended a ballet school from age four to fourteen. After several attempts on the talent show Star Tanjō!, she passed in 1981 on her third try by singing Momoe Yamaguchi's "Yume Saki Annainin" and went on to sign with Warner-Pioneer.

1982–1984

She debuted with "Slow Motion" on 1 May 1982; her second single, "Shōjo A", brought her breakthrough success. Her first album, Prologue, came out in July 1982, followed in October by Variation, which became her first No. 1 on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart. The single "Second Love", released in November, gave her her first No. 1 on the weekly singles chart. In February 1983 she began her first national concert tour, and later that year released New Akina Etranger and her first best-of album, Best Akina Memoires. In 1984 she released "Kita Wing", "Jukkai (1984)" and "Kazari ja Nai no yo Namida wa", a song written by Yosui Inoue that marked her transition from idol to singer and artist.

1985–1989

She received the Japan Record Award in 1985 for "Meu amor é..." and in 1986 for "Desire (Jōnetsu)", becoming the first female solo singer to win two years in a row. In January 1985 she co-starred with Masahiko Kondo in the film Ai, Tabidachi. She produced her own 1986 album Fushigi and continued with self-produced work afterwards. In 1987 she took her first leading role in a TV drama, Best Friend, and topped Oricon's annual artist total sales for a record fourth time (1983, 1985, 1986 and 1987). Her May 1988 single "Tattoo" reached No. 1 on the Oricon weekly chart, extending her streak of consecutive No. 1 singles to 15, and it also topped The Best Ten, where she set the programme's record of 69 weeks at No. 1.

1990s onward

In 1992 she co-starred with Narumi Yasuda in the Fuji TV drama Sugao no Mama de, and in 1998 she co-starred with Hiromi Nagasaku in Tsumetai Tsuki. She moved to Universal Music Japan in 2002 and released the cover album -ZEROalbum- Utahime 2, followed by further entries in the Utahime series such as Utahime 3 and Folk Song. She founded the private label Utahime Records in 2004. In October 2010 she announced an indefinite hiatus due to poor health, and on 31 December 2014 she returned with a live link-up from a New York studio on the 65th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen. In January 2015 she released the single "Rojo -Tierra-" and the cover album Utahime 4 -My Eggs Benedict-, followed by FIXER in December 2015, Belie in 2016 and Akina in 2017. After scaling back activity from 2018, she founded HZ VILLAGE in August 2022 and announced her official YouTube channel in December 2023, gradually resuming new recordings, dinner shows and outdoor festival appearances.

Musical style

Her work spans kayōkyoku, city pop, enka and J-pop. Early in her career she alternated between pure ballads and singles with bolder lyrics. She was deeply involved in costumes, makeup, choreography and song production, and increasingly self-produced her work. Known for her deep, low voice and rich emotional expression, she has also reinterpreted songs by senior singers through her Utahime cover album series.