MISIA

Overview

MISIA (born Misaki Itō on July 7, 1978) is a Japanese singer-songwriter widely credited with igniting the female R&B boom in Japan and helping bring R&B into the mainstream. Blessed with a five-octave vocal range, she has also become a frequent presence on variety television since the 2010s. Born in Ōmura and raised in Tsushima, Nagasaki, she is managed by Rhythmedia and signed to Ariola Japan under Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Her debut album Mother Father Brother Sister sold over 2.5 million copies, and in 2004 she became the first female solo artist to complete a tour of Japan's five major domes. She has released thirteen studio albums and sold more than 20 million records.

Career

Early life

Both of her parents, and her siblings, were doctors. Her surgeon father moved the family to Tsushima with the wish of bringing new medical care to a remote island. Her father loved jazz and her mother loved Western music. In junior high and high school she sang and played trumpet in the brass band club. Wanting serious vocal training, she moved to Fukuoka with her elder sister, where she studied gospel and R&B with two Black American vocal trainers while in high school. In April 1997 she entered Seinan Gakuin University.

In May 1997 she passed a BMG Japan audition for a soulful female R&B singer, singing Dreams Come True's "Goodbye Darlin'" and standing out from about 3,000 candidates (the audition was with producer Haruo Yoda). She took a leave from university to pursue music and styled her hair in dreadlocks that November. Her stage name comes from her wish to share music with people across ASIA.

1998–2002: Debut and breakthrough

Misia debuted on February 21, 1998 with the single "Tsutsumikomu Yō ni...", which peaked at No. 11 on the Oricon chart; the pre-release 5,000 vinyl copies sold out immediately, driven by grassroots club-scene buzz. Her second single "Hi no Ataru Basho" reached No. 9. Her debut album Mother Father Brother Sister (June 24, 1998) entered at No. 3 and hit No. 1 after four weeks, becoming the seventh best-selling Japanese debut album of all time and winning two Japan Gold Disc Awards (including Best New Artist) and a Japan Record Award. In 1999 she held her first hall and arena tour, "THE TOUR OF MISIA".

Her second album Love Is the Message (January 1, 2000) sold over 2 million copies and earned another Gold Disc Award and Japan Record Award. In October 2000 she released her signature song "Everything", the theme of the drama Yamato Nadeshiko, which passed 2 million shipments. In 2001 she realized a dream with "I Miss You (Toki o Koete)", a collaboration with her favorite band Dreams Come True, with music by Masato Nakamura and lyrics by Misia. That year's first self-produced album Marvelous yielded her first Oricon No. 1 single, "Everything", one of the best-selling singles in Japan and the third best-selling physical single by a Japanese solo female artist.

2002–2007: Rhythmedia Tribe

In 2002 she moved to Rhythmedia Tribe, a new label formed by her management in connection with Avex. Her first album there, Kiss in the Sky, was her fourth consecutive No. 1 on the Oricon albums chart. Albums such as Mars & Roses, Singer for Singer and Ascension followed. Her songs were used as themes for the film Dragon Head ("Kokoro Hitotsu", 2003) and the drama Tenka ("Namae no Nai Sora o Miagete", 2004); "Tobikata o Wasureta Chiisana Tori" was featured in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, and "Sea of Dreams" was the Tokyo DisneySea 5th anniversary theme. In 2004 she became the first female solo act to tour Japan's five major domes (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo and Fukuoka), drawing 357,000 spectators in seven performances. In 2005 she appeared at Expo 2005 Aichi with Erykah Badu.

2007 onward: Return to BMG Japan and humanitarian work

On May 1, 2007 it was announced she would return to BMG Japan; "Any Love" followed in July, composed by Satoshi Shimano, who also produced her debut hit. In September she held her first overseas concert in Taipei for about 7,000 people. After Sony Music Entertainment Japan acquired BMG Japan, she moved to the Sony subsidiary Ariola Japan. In 2008 she toured Asia with "THE TOUR OF MISIA DISCOTHIQUE ASIA" (13 cities, 24 shows, roughly 250,000 attendees, including Taiwan, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong) and founded Child AFRICA, a nonprofit supporting children's education. Her 2009–2010 tour "Hoshizora no Live V Just Ballade" brought her career attendance past 2.5 million.

In 2010 she was named honorary ambassador of the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10), and her track "MAWARE MAWARE" appeared on the official FIFA World Cup album representing Asia. In March 2012 she performed at the opening ceremony of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C., thanking the U.S. for its support after the Tohoku earthquake; in December she became a JICA-TICAD official supporter and on December 31 made her first appearance on NHK's 63rd Kōhaku Uta Gassen. In January 2013 she was appointed honorary ambassador for TICAD V, and "MAWARE MAWARE (feat. Doudou N'Diaye Rose)", re-recorded in Senegal, became its theme song. The best-of MISIA SUPER BEST RECORDS -15th Celebration- topped the weekly Oricon chart in February 2013, and that August she made her first summer festival appearances at Summer Sonic and Rising Sun Rock Festival.

In 2015 she performed "Orphans no Namida" live from Nagasaki's Peace Park on the Kōhaku broadcast. From December 2016 to February 2017 she held "THE TOUR OF MISIA LOVE BEBOP all roads lead to you", the final chapter of the tour series begun in 1999, and in July 2017 released her first soul-jazz mini-album, MISIA SOUL JAZZ SESSION, co-produced with trumpeter Takuya Kuroda. Her 20th anniversary in 2018 brought "20th Anniversary THE SUPER TOUR OF MISIA -Girls just wanna have fun-", a hall tour, her first solo show at Blue Note Tokyo, and an appearance at Fuji Rock Festival '18.

At the 70th Kōhaku in 2019 she closed the Red Team with a medley of "Aino Katachi", "Into the Light" and "Everything", joined by many LGBT performers and a rainbow flag backdrop; the performance drew both praise and some criticism. In 2020 she competed on China's music show Singer 2020. In November 2020 she fractured a thoracic vertebra in a fall from a horse during a TV shoot and returned to the stage on December 19 at Tokyo International Forum. On July 23, 2021 she sang the national anthem "Kimigayo" at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. In August 2022 she received the 30th Pestalozzi Education Award for her educational support in Africa, and the same year voiced Meena in the Japanese dub of Sing 2 (after Sing in 2017). In December 2023 she performed "MISIA PEACEFUL PARK Dialogue for Inclusion 2023" at Todai-ji temple in Nara.

Recent releases

Since 2021 she has released "Omoi Hara Hara to", "Higher Love", the album HELLO LOVE (December 2021), "Kibō no Uta / Ohayō Universe" (2022), the best-of MISIA THE GREAT HOPE BEST (January 2023), "Kizudarake no Ōja" and "Ai o Arigatō" (September 2023), "Niji Hero" (October 2023), "Yubikiri Genman" (March 2024) and "Fleur de la Passion" (July 2024). The single "LOVE NEVER DIES" arrived in April 2025, followed by the album of the same name on May 28, 2025, and the single "Yoru o Wataru Tori" in February 2026. In May 2026, "Aino Katachi feat. HIDE (GReeeeN)" became her first work to surpass 300 million cumulative streams on the Oricon weekly streaming chart.

Musical style

Misia's music spans J-R&B, J-pop and kayōkyoku, built around a five-octave range and powerful vocals. She trained in gospel and R&B as a teenager, and from 2017 explored soul jazz with Takuya Kuroda. She began self-producing with Marvelous in 2001 and writes lyrics as a singer-songwriter.

Personal life and activism

Misia advocates for a society free of discrimination against sexual minorities and appeared at LIVE PRIDE in 2019. She has supported children's education in Kenya since 2008, received the 3rd Chowa Futurist Award in 2018, and is a committed philanthropist in humanitarian and biodiversity causes. A devoted melon-pan fan, she even designed a character called "Melon Panda" with its own theme song, "Amai Koibito".