Kohmi Hirose's bio

She started piano lessons at the age of 4 and within a year was writing songs. Graduated from Fukuoka Jyogakuin and then Kunitachi Music University in 1989. During her student days, she visited LA and decided to pursue a career in pop music after seeing Bobbie and Babyface in concert. Soon after, she began taking voice lessons from Seth Riggs, Michael Jackson's voice trainer of 3 years. Her favorite singer is David Foster.

After returning from America, her first album "Bingo!" was released in July 1992, but the first big smash hit for her was her 3rd single released in December 1993, "Romance no Kamisama", which sold 1.75 million copies. Subsequent album and single releases around that time of year earned her the title of the "Queen of Winter", and this was reinforced with the single "Gerende ga tokeruhodo koi shitai" in December 1995. She is rather unique in the J-pop world in that she writes virtually all her own music & lyrics, and does most of the arrangements as well. She did not do any live tours until 2001, and when tickets went on sale, they sold out in 15 minutes. Another concert tour, only her second, was performed during early 2007 and a DVD of this tour was released in December of that year. Her musical output seems to be slowing down, with 2007 only producing 2 greatest hits albums, and 2008 a re-release from 1997.

Kohmi married actor Takao Osawa in 1998, but they announced they were getting divorced in November 2006. She has written songs and produced music for many other artists, including Hitomi Shimatani, and is now the principal of a successful vocal school in Shibuya called "DoDream". close