MIREI (Mirei Toyama)

Overview

MIREI (born Mirei Toyama, 當山 みれい, on July 27, 1998) is a Japanese singer-songwriter and dancer. She is signed to the MASTERSIX FOUNDATION label and the YARD agency, and releases in the United States under the name MIREI via Cool Japan Music. Because she writes her own songs and dances, she is sometimes called a "dancer-songwriter." She debuted in the US at 14 and in Japan at 15, working in J-pop and J-R&B.

Career

Before debut

Mirei began dancing in her final year of kindergarten at her mother's urging and started serious vocal training in second grade. She says she could never imagine any career other than singing. In 2008, as a fourth-grader, she entered the Osaka round of the kids' dance battle "SPROUT" with Misaki (now of Dancing Dolls) and took second place. In fifth and sixth grade, she taught herself songwriting using a MacBook Pro and music software bought by her parents.

New York and US debut

In September 2011, in the first year of junior high, she visited New York as a reward for passing the Eiken Grade 3 exam and performed at the open mic at the Village Underground. After about three short stays of one to two weeks, she won Amateur Night "Stars of Tomorrow" at the Apollo Theater on April 11, 2012, and studied in New York for a year from September 2012.

There she attended the Professional Children's School and joined "Gospel For Teens," led by Vy Higginsen, author of the musical Mama, I Want to Sing! She was the only Asian member and, chosen through an internal audition, served as lead vocalist. She also took one-on-one voice training and dance lessons from Rhapsody James, who has choreographed for Beyoncé.

On January 13, 2013, she contributed the song "Hysteric Girl" under the name MIREI to DJ Wa's compilation A GIRL↑↑ mixed by DJ和 before her own debut. On June 18, 2013, aged 14, she released the digital single "Tattoo," making her US debut, and also appeared on "Online" by Young Money artist Torion.

Japanese debut and beyond

Back in Japan, she provided "I Wanna NO feat. SHUN" to A GIRL↑↑2 (December 4, 2013) and appeared on "未来へと feat. 當山みれい" from Douji-T's album T's MUSIC (March 19, 2014). On June 25, 2014, at 15, she made her Japanese debut with the double A-side single Fallin' Out / I Wanna NO feat. SHUN, which topped the iTunes R&B/Soul chart. On June 28 she became the first Japanese act to perform at the "BET Experience," held in Los Angeles as the pre-event of the BET Awards, together with the dance unit BAD QUEEN.

Her second single, Memories, followed on October 1, 2014, and she joined SPICY CHOCOLATE's "ひとつだけの feat. TAK-Z & 當山みれい" on the album 渋谷純愛物語 (October 22).

In 2015 she contributed "Memories" to A GIRL↑↑3 (February 4) and released lyric videos for "Love Me Crazy" (October 21) and "Our Song" (December 2), both later included on her album My Way. She also took part in the globe tribute album #globe20th -SPECIAL COVER BEST- with "Can't Stop Fallin' in Love" (December 16), Beat Buddy Boi's mini-album JUICEBOX with "better days feat. 當山みれい," and SPICY CHOCOLATE's 渋谷純愛物語2 with "ベイビーガール feat. RAY & 當山みれい" (December 23).

On July 20, 2016, she featured on RADIO FISH's digital single "GOLDEN TOWER (feat. 當山みれい)," and on July 29 she made her first appearance on TV Asahi's Music Station as RADIO FISH feat. Mirei Toyama. She was a guest at RADIO FISH's one-man show "PERFECT SUMMER" at Akasaka BLITZ on August 26. On her 18th birthday, July 27, 2016, she released her first album, My Way, which again reached No. 1 on the iTunes R&B/Soul chart. Her third single, 君のとなり, followed on November 23, and in December she wrote lyrics for Sunmini's "Look at Me." On October 14, 2020, she released a cover of Yuuri's "Kakurenbo" on YouTube as the third installment of a cover series.

Media appearances

She appeared repeatedly on TV Tokyo's Chouryuuha between 2013 and 2017, and also on Terrace House (2014), COUNT DOWN TV, Music Station (2016) and Buzz Rhythm 02 (2019), among others. On radio she hosted InterFM's NEXT UP! (April–September 2014, fourth Mondays) and shared DJ duties on After School Swag (October 2014–March 2015) with LUHICA and Little Glee Monster.

Musical style

Mirei writes her own material, using Logic on PC and GarageBand on her smartphone. She grew up on Western compilation albums such as the What's Up series (USM Japan) that her father played in the car, and names hip-hop and R&B as her roots. Her cited influences are Rihanna, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder. After starting high school she also began listening to Johnny's acts and bands such as RADWIMPS on friends' recommendations.

Wanting to "make songs with everyone," she opened an official LINE account on August 7, 2014, and took advice requests via its ON-AIR feature. A demo built from those worries, "LINE ME," became "DON'T CRY, LINE ME" on the single Memories and grew into the "DON'T CRY, LINE ME project." Another song born from the project, "Strongers," was released as "Our Song" and included on My Way.

Personal profile

She is 154 cm tall with blood type O. Her surname Toyama is common in Okinawa, where her father is from. She wore her hair in buns as a trademark early on but stopped after My Way. Her label-mate senior Shota Shimizu provided a song for her first album, and FISHBOY, whom she has known since junior high, appeared in the "I Wanna NO" video and choreographed the "Memories" video. With childhood friend Misaki she occasionally enters dance contests as "Shrimps."