Nanase Aikawa

Nanase Aikawa (相川 七瀬, Aikawa Nanase, born February 16, 1975) is a Japanese rock and pop singer. She publishes her music under the Motorod label, a division of Avex Group.

Early life

Nanase Aikawa was born on February 16, 1975, in Osaka, Japan. Throughout her school years, Nanase had sung and participated in a several singing competitions. When Aikawa auditioned for Sony Music Entertainment at the age of 15, she failed, but met a well-known music producer Tetsuro Oda.

At the age of 17, she dropped out of school, and she contacted Oda to be trained by him. At the age of 20 she released her first single, Yume Miru Shoujo ja Irarenai on 8 November 1995.

Career

The cover for the album "Red" and the CD from the album.

After she released her first single on 8 November 1995, she released three more singles, and then her first full album Red in 1996, which sold more than two million copies in its first month. That album won her an invitation to perform on Kōhaku Uta Gassen, a New Year's Eve singing contest between male and female teams of popular singers sponsored by NHK (one of Japan's television networks).

Since then, she has released about one album each year, plus an average of three mini- or maxi-singles. Her second album, Paradox, was released in July 1997, selling 1.8 million copies, coinciding with her first concert tour Live Emotion '97 (consisting of 20 concert dates, and attracting a total of 65,000 fans, according to Avex).

July 1998 saw her third album Crimson, and another concert tour with over 40 concert dates. Her 1999 release, I.D. was a compilation album, but it debuted at number one on the rock chart, her fourth consecutive album to be released at the number one slot.

Some music-journalists said that a large part of her fan base, during the 1990s, was the Bōsōzoku (motorcycle gang) youthes especially those in the western areas of Japan.

In 2001, she also released a 'mini-album' (sometime between a full album and a single) with only 7 tracks called the Last Quarter of uncharacteristically soft ballad-style music, recorded during her later months of pregnancy.

It was not until 2003 that she released another album, another compilation, called ID: 2.

At the 11th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards, Nanase's album Red was voted the Best Album (Japanese Rock and Folk music, female vocalist category). Her album Paradox was also voted Best Album of the Year at the 12th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards.

In February 2004, three years after her last original album and many singles, she released 7 Seven. An album devoted to feelings relating to music and color, with each song dedicated to a certain color. Since then she has released four more singles.

In 2004, her song BYE BYE was covered by the English singer Jennifer Ellison as "Bye Bye Boy", and Swedish girl group Play as "Girls Can Too".

As of August 2004, Nanase Aikawa has released six albums, plus two compilation albums and the mini-album, a total of 24 singles, and no less than three separate concerts and two music video collections on video and DVD.

A year later, in February 2005, she released The First Quarter mini-album. This album focused more on ballads and soft music than her well-known rock edge. In November of that same year she released R.U.O.K?!, a mini-album with seven songs. In July 2007, Nanase Aikawa began work on her new album.

Her first music release while working on this album is as part of a limited unit called "Crimson-FANG" for the soundtrack of Kamen Rider Kiva: King of the Castle in the Demon World, having performed on the soundtrack on Kamen Rider Blade in 2004. The single for "Circle of Life", was released on August 6, 2008.

Subsequently, Aikawa released her first digital single off her album Reborn entitled PRISM, which was released May 24, 2008. Her thirty-first single, Yumemiru..., a remix of her debut single Yumemiru Shoujo Ja Irarenai was released January 2009.

Aikawa Nanase released tAttoo, on November 11, 2009.

December 8, 2010, is the release date of "Fine Fine Day," the first single from the "Rockstar Steady" project. A break from her previous image, Rockstar Steady is an all-girl rock band with Aikawa as its singer, and with songs such as "Fine Fine Day" entirely in English . For the music video, Nanase Aikawa went to Paris to work with the fashion film duo of Antoine Asseraf & René Habermacher, who gave the video a lesbian-chic aesthetic.

Band members

A list of her band for the album R.U.O.K?! and with whom she toured for the album:

• Guitar: Marty Friedman (ex. Megadeth, ex. (Cacophony)
• Guitar: Pata (X Japan, Ra:IN)
• Bass: Crazy Cool Joe (Dead End)
• Drums: Shinya (Luna Sea)
• Keyboards: D.I.E (Ra:IN, ex. hide with Spread Beaver)

• Source: Tokyograph

Aikawa Nanase was married on her twenty-sixth birthday, 16 February 2001 and their first child, a boy, was born on 6 September 2001. Aikawa had their second child, another son, on 9 September 2007. On 15 September 2012, Nanase gave birth to a third child, a baby girl.

Aikawa is a good friend (as stated in an interview) of Yumi Yoshimura from Puffy.

Albums

• Red (3 July 1996)
• paraDOX (2 July 1997)
• Crimson (22 July 1998)
• I.D. (19 May 1999) (Compilation)
  • 01 - Yume Miru Shoujo ja Irarenai (夢見る少女じゃいられない)
  • 02 - Bye-Bye. (バイバイ。)
  • 03 - LIKE A HARD RAIN
  • 04 - BREAK OUT!
  • 05 - Imademo... (今でも…。)
  • 06 - Koi Gokoro (恋心)
  • 07 - Trouble Maker (トラブルメイカー)
  • 08 - Sweet Emotion
  • 09 - Konnani Aishite Mo (こんなに愛しても)
  • 10 - Tori Ni Naretara (鳥になれたら)
  • 11 - OOOO?
  • 12 - Bad Girls
  • 13 - Kanojo to Watashi no Jijou (彼女と私の事情)
  • 14 - Nostalgia
  • 15 - Lovin' You
  • 16 - Koi Gokoro (Acoustic Version)
  • 17 - [bonus track] Cosmic Love (Acoustic Version)
• Foxtrot (16 February 2000)
  • 01 - Second Wind
  • 02 - Bitch
  • 03 - Heat Of The Night
  • 04 - China Rose
  • 05 - THANK U
  • 06 - "7"
  • 07 - Cosmic Love
  • 08 - Gin Iro No Fune (銀色の舟)
  • 09 - -Gozen Niji No Koibito- (－午前2時の恋人－)
  • 10 - Sekai Wa Kono Te No Naka Ni (世界はこの手の中に)
  • 11 - Crying
  • 12 - Jealousy
  • 13 - Hanabi Ga Owaru Koro (花火が終わる頃)
• Secret Live Recordings (8 cm CD)
  • 1 - Sweet Emotion (secret live)
  • 2 - China Rose (secret live)
  • 3 - BUB (secret live)
• Purãnã (21 February 2001)
  • 01 - Party☆2001
  • 02 - Trick
  • 03 - NO FUTURE
  • 04 - SEVEN SEAS
  • 05 - Adieu
  • 06 - trust me
  • 07 - Sakura Saku (サクラサク)
  • 08 - Shugaa Beibi (シュガーベイビー)
  • 09 - midnight blue
  • 10 - 「THE END」
  • 11 - Anata no Ondo (あなたの温度)
  • 12 - ~dandelion~
• ID:2 (26 March 2003) (Compilation)
• 7 seven (18 February 2004)
  • 01 - LIE LIE　LIE
  • 02 - R-shitei (R-指定)
  • 03 - BLUE KNIFE
  • 04 - Renai Taishitsu (恋愛体質)
  • 05 - BLACK ANGEL
  • 06 - Mokka no Koibito (目下の恋人)
  • 07 - Dahlia -She Knows Love- (ダリア-She Knows Love-)
  • 08 - Ai no Uta - Magenta Rain- (愛ノ詩-マジェンタレイン-)
  • 09 - Natsu no Hi no Coral (夏の日のコーラル)
  • 10 - Hi wo Tsukeru Baby!! (火をつけろベイビー!!)
  • 11 - Toki no Kaze (時の風)
  • 12 - NIGHT RAINBOW
  • 13 - Shock of Love
• REBORN (18 February 2009)
  • 01 - Yumemiru..
  • 02 - Keep Singin'
  • 03 - I love my way
  • 04 - PRISM
  • 05 - Come Closer
  • 06 - REBORN
  • 07 - GOODBYE YESTERDAY
  • 08 - Dark & bright
  • 09 - Glorious Night
  • 10 - "Sukidayo" (「すきだよ」) "I Like You"
  • 11 - Circle of Life (Bonus Track)
• Konjiki (今事紀) (6 February 2013)
  • 01 - Hikari no Mi (ヒカリノミ)
  • 02 - Kaleidoscope (カレイドスコープ)
  • 03 - Butterfly
  • 04 - Otohime (オトヒメ)
  • 05 - Hana no you ni (花のように)
  • 06 - Dareka no Tame ni Nara (誰かのためになら)
  • 07 - A Message
  • 08 - Kotonoha (ことのは; Word)
  • 09 - Hello
  • 10 - Atto Iuma (あっというま)

Mini Albums

• The Last Quarter (27 September 2001)
  • 01 - Koibito ja Naku Naru Hi (恋人じゃなくなる日)
  • 02 - STILL RAIN
  • 03 - Shiawase na Jikan (しあわせな時間)
  • 04 - Saikou no Tomodachi (最高の友達)
  • 05 - HIMAWARI (ヒマワリ)
  • 06 - BYE-BYE-BYE
  • 07 - THE LAST QUARTER
• The First Quarter (16 February 2005)
• R.U.O.K?! (19 November 2005)
  • 01 - FOOLISH 555
  • 02 - R.U.O.K?!
  • 03 - FLY TO RAINBOW RAY
  • 04 - ROCK STAR's STEADY
  • 05 - RED WHEEL
  • 06 - Snowfall
  • 07 - EVERYBODY GOES

Mini-Singles

• "Yumemiru Shoujou Ja Irarenai" (8 November 1995)
• "Bye Bye" (9 February 1996)
• "Like A Hard Rain" (17 April 1996)
• "Break Out!" (5 June 1996)
• "Koigokoro" (7 October 1996)
• "Troublemaker" (13 February 1997)
• "Sweet Emotion" (1 May 1997)
• "Bad Girls" (12 November 1997)
• "Kanojo To Watashi No Jijou" (4 February 1998)
• "Nostalgia" (8 May 1998)
• "Lovin You" (6 November 1998)
• "Cosmic Love" (17 March 1999)
• "Across" (06 July 2016)

Maxi-Singles

• "Sekai Wa Kono Te No Naka Ni" (23 July 1999)
• "Jealousy" (29 September 1999)
• "China Rose" (8 December 1999)
• "Midnight Blue" (31 May 2000)
• "Seven Seas" (9 August 2000)
• "No Future" (31 January 2001) (Zoids: New Century Zero opening theme)
• "Dandelion" (31 January 2001)
• "Owarinai Yume" (5 June 2002) (InuYasha third opening theme)
• "Roppongi Shinjyu" (9 October 2002)
• "Shock of Love" (13 February 2003)
• "R-Shitei" (27 November 2003)
• "Ai no Uta" (21 January 2004)
• "Round ZERO ～ BLADE BRAVE" (18 February 2004) (Kamen Rider Blade first opening theme)
• "Mangekyo/UNLIMITED" (29 September 2004) (Samurai 7 first opening theme)
• "Kagiriaru Hibiki" (19 January 2005)
• "EVERYBODY GOES" (25 February 2006) (Madan Senki Ryukendo first ending theme)
• "PRISM" (24 May 2008) (Digital Single)
• "tAttoo" (11 November 2009)
• "Ai ga Tomaranai" (29 September 2010)
• "Hikarinomi" (31 October 2012)
• "Sakura Maioriru Koro, Namidairo" (5 March 2014)

• "No Future" - Zoids: New Century Zero opening theme
• "Owarinai Yume" - InuYasha third opening theme
• "Unlimited" - Samurai 7 opening theme
• "Round ZERO ~ BLADE BRAVE" - Kamen Rider Blade first opening theme
• "EVERYBODY GOES" - Madan Senki Ryukendo ending theme
• "Love Terrorist" - Heavy Metal Thunder OST
• "Circle of Life" with Crimson-FANG - Kamen Rider Kiva: King of the Castle in the Demon World theme song
• "Yumemiru.." - K-tai Investigator 7 third ending theme