Koda Kumi - Japanese Singer

Japanese pop singer Koda Kumi was born on November 13th, 1982 in Kyoto, Japan.
She debuted in 2000 with the single Take Back.
Koda is the older sister of pop singer Misono (the former lead singer of the J-pop group day after tomorrow).
She did not achieve major success until the release of her seventh single, Real Emotion / 1000 no Kotoba. Her songs were featured on the Final Fantasy X-2 video game.
Koda also did the voice of "Lenne" in the Japanese version of the game.
Her popularity peaked in 2005 after the release of her sixteenth single, Butterfly.
Later that year Koda became one of 2005's best-selling artists with the success of Best ~first things~.
She released her 41st single on October 8th, 2008. It sold 66,569 copies the first week.
In 2006, she was the most searched person on Yahoo! Japan.
On December 24, 2008 her 42nd single, "Stay With Me" was released.
Kumi released her 43rd single, "It's All Love!" on March 31, 2009. The song is an collaboration with her younger sister, Misono.
"Faraway", the second song from the single was used for the theme song of a manga based movie called Subaru.
She also released two albums on March 25th, "Out Works & Collaboration Best" (her fourth best-of album) and "Koda Kumi Driving Hit's" (her first Remix album).

Koda has released seven Studio albums, four Compilation albums, one Remix albums and had seven singles hit number one.

In 2006, she starred in the J-Drama (Japanese television drama) Cherry Girl, kinda of a Japanese Charlie's Angels.

In 2009, Koda Kumi, along with Ayumi Hamasaki and Ai Otsuka all had to cancel major concerts in Japan because of the threat of Swine Flu.

UPDATE: Koda Kumi will be releasing a new single "Can We Go Back" ( which is a cover of a bonus track on Kelly Clarkson's fourth album) on Jan 20, 2010.
And on February 3, 2010, she will release a new greatest hit album, Best: Third Universe and her eighth studio album, Universe.
The two albums are set to be packaged together.

On July 7, 2010, Koda released her forty-seventh single, "Gossip Candy".
The single included four songs and a DVD that has music videos for "Inside Fishbowl," "Outside Fishbowl," and "Lollipop."

On October 6th, 2010, Koda released the DVD of her "Koda Kumi Live Tour UNIVERSE" tour.
Then the next week, she released "Eternity -Love & Songs-" her very first cover album.
It features songs from the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Koda announced on her website (12-12-2011) that she will be marrying rock band Back-On's vocalist Kenji03.

Kumi Koda released her 49th single "Pop Diva" on February 2nd, 2011.
She quickly followed that up with "Eternity -Love & Songs- at Billboard Live", released on February 23rd, 2011.
On March 2nd, Koda released her ninth album, Dejavu.
Then on May 4th, she released her fourth Remix album, Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 3.
Kumi released "KODA KUMI 10th Anniversary ～FANTASIA～in TOKYO DOME" on May 18th on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Affection (2002)
Grow into One (2003)
Feel My Mind (2004)
Secret (2005)
Best: First Things (2005)
Black Cherry (2006)
Best: Second Session (2006)
Koda Kumi Remix Album (2006)
Best: Bounce & Lovers (2007)
Kingdom (2008)
Trick (2009)
Out Works & Collaboration Best (2009)
Koda Kumi Driving Hit's (2009)
Best: Third Universe/Universe (2010)
Best: Third Universe (2010)
Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 2 (2010)
Dejavu (2011)
Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 3 (2011)

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