Shizuka Kudo

Overview

Shizuka Kudo (工藤静香, born 14 April 1970 in Hamura, Tokyo) is a Japanese singer, actress, talent and former idol. She writes lyrics under the name Aeri (愛絵理). A former member of Onyanko Club, she went on to a successful solo career with 11 number-one singles and four number-one albums on the Oricon charts as of 2022. She is married to Takuya Kimura, and their daughters are flutist and model Cocomi and composer and model Kōki,.

Career

Early years and Onyanko Club

Kudo took part in the 1984 Miss Seventeen Contest and then joined the three-piece pop unit Seventeen Club, formed from contestants of that contest. The group debuted on CBS/Sony on 21 January 1985 with "Su Ki Futari Tomo!" and disbanded after two singles.

On 23 May 1986 she passed an audition on Fuji TV's Yūyake Nyan Nyan and became Onyanko Club member number 38. In October 1986 she sang backing vocals with Akiko Ikuina on Marina Watanabe's debut single "Shinkokyu-shite". In 1987 she joined Ushirogami Hikaretai with Ikuina and Makiko Saito; their debut single "Toki no Kawa wo Koete" (7 May 1987), the opening theme of the anime High School! Kimengumi, reached number one. She was also one of four main vocalists on Onyanko Club's "Katatsumuri Samba" (21 May 1987).

Solo breakthrough

Just before Onyanko Club disbanded on 20 September 1987, she launched her solo career on 31 August with "Kindan no Telepathy", which debuted at number one. "Fu-ji-tsu" (1 June 1988), with lyrics by Miyuki Nakajima, also topped the chart, as did "Mugon... Iroppoi", another Nakajima lyric used in Kanebo Cosmetics commercials. She enjoyed eight consecutive number-one singles between 1988 and 1990, eleven in total, and four number-one albums between 1988 and 1991, including the album Shizuka (July 1988). She also worked as an actress alongside her singing career.

The 1990s

In 1993, the drama theme "Doukoku" sold about 939,000 copies, her biggest-selling single. In June of that year she held her first overseas shows, the RISE ME TOUR, in Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore. With the 1994 single "Blue Rose" she began self-producing, writing most of her own lyrics. "Gekijo" (1996) was the first song for which Nakajima provided both lyrics and music. In 1997 she formed the unit Little Kiss with Takaaki Ishibashi and released "A.S.A.P.".

Marriage and later career

She married Takuya Kimura of SMAP on 5 December 2000; their daughters Cocomi and Kōki, were born in 2001 and 2003. In 2004 she unveiled her own jewelry brand, TREASURE IIII, in Las Vegas. In February 2005 she released "Lotus Umareshi Hana", her first single in about three years, and returned to Pony Canyon. For her 20th solo anniversary in 2007 she released the best album Shizuka Kudo 20th Anniversary the Best and held concerts in Tokyo and Osaka. In 2008 she reunited with Nakajima for the double A-side "Night Wing"/"Yuki Gasa".

Recent activity

She has remained active in the 2020s. After the 2020 Night Tempo project "The Showa Groove", she released the self-covers "Doukoku (Self Cover)" and "Blue Velvet (Self Cover)" in 2022, followed by the 35th anniversary self-cover album Kansei -Shizuka Kudo 35th Anniversary self-cover album (a Deluxe Version followed in August 2023). Later releases include "Yusha no Hata" and "Kosetsuran" (2023), "Maru" and "Mizore" and the album Meikyō Shisui (2024), "Umitsubame" and the album Love Paradox (2025).

Musical style

Her work is categorized as city pop, kayokyoku, J-pop and enka. In her idol days she stood out with a hard, sultry image and a distinctive voice, while "Daite-kuretara-iinoni" showed a rock-ballad side. Her long collaboration with Miyuki Nakajima is a defining thread, and from the mid-1990s she shaped her own music through self-production and her own lyrics.