Miyuki Nakajima's bio

Miyuki Nakajima is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Since the debut in 1975, she has been working as a musician for over thirty years.

From 1979 through 1986, Nakajima had released studio albums every year, and all of them reached top3 at the Japanese Oricon album chart. Most of her albums became top 10 hit at Oricon. She has ever sold over 21 million records, [1] and also has 4 million-selling singles. In Japan, she and Yumi Matsutoya are regarded as the most successful female singer-songwriters.

She is also popular in east Asia, and many her songs have been rewritten by the Hong Kong and Taiwan music industry in Chinese for singers such as Priscilla Chan, Teresa Teng and Faye Wong.

Early Life
Miyuki Nakajima was born to the affluent family in 1952 in Sapporo, Hokkaidō. Her father, Shinichiro Nakajima was a gynecologist, and a grandfather Buichi Nakajima was a politician in Obihiro, Hokkaido. In 1957, Nakajima and her family moved to Iwanai , and they lived in there until 1964.

Music career
In 1975, Nakajima signed to Canyon Records, and released her debut single "Azami jo no Lullaby" on September 25, 1975.

In May of same year, her original song "Wings of Love (I Knew Nothing)" nominated and won the prize of the music contest "Popular Song Contest", which sponsored by her management office "Yamaha Music Foundation". Autumn in this year, Nakajima won grand-prix of another award which organised by the Yamaha. In the May 1976, Nakajima released first album Watashi no Koe ga Kikoemasuka. Since then, she has released albums frequently over thirty years.

In 1977, Nakajima's fifth single "Wakareuta (The Parting Song)" reached top of the Oricon single chart. At that time, Japanese top-ten hit chart had dominated by Pink Lady about over six months. However, record sales of "The Parting Song" exceeded their single "Nagisa no Sinbad" for only a week. It was first number one single for Nakajima, and this striking success made her more famous than before. That song was also included in the next year's album Aishiteiru to Ittekure. It reached #2 at Oricon chart.

One of notable song in her early career is "Sejou (The World Context)". It was first appeared in Aishiteiru to Ittekure. In 1981, "The World Context" was used as background music of TBS popular drama series, San nen B-gumi Kinpachi-Sensei. This tie up made a strong impression to the TV audiences. "The World Context" has not ever been released as a single. However, her past album appeared in the chart agains after Kinpachi Sensei was screened.

In the early 1980s, Miyuki Nakajima was most popular singer-songwriter in Japan. From April 1979 to March 1987, she also worked as disc jockey of Nippon Broadcasting System radio program, All Night Nippon. Her humorous talk in this program was well-received for youth, and she became more popular as a musician. "Akujo" Nakajima's eighth single released in 1981, sold 800,000 copies and reached number one at oricon chart. Following the success of the single, her 1982 album Kansuigyo became top selling album in Japan at this year's hit chart.

By contrast, her record sales was on the decline in the mid of 1980s. In those years, she groped for her own musical stile. Many gorgeous personnel's name was entered in her 1980s albums. Those records were mixed by Bob Clearmountain and Steve Boyer, and mastered by Ted Jensen. The singles released in 1985, "Tsumetai Wakare (Cold Farewell)" and "Atai no Natsuyasumi" were featured Stevie Wonder on harmonica and synthesizer. In this era, Nakajima was worked with some important musical partners. In her records and concerts, Tsugutoshi Goto and Kazuo Shiina worked as the producer, arranger, composer and bass player. Goto and Nakajima also united songwriter team in the end of 1980s to early 1990s, and they wrote many songs for idol singer Shizuka Kudo. In the album 36.5 C and Nakajima Miyuki, she collaborated with Yoshihiro Kai, a reader of Kai Band. He produced 36.5 C, and composed the single "Kamen" (It also including in Nakajima Miyuki).

In 1988, Nakajima released 18th studio album, Goodbye Girl. This album produced and arranged by Ichizo Seo. Seo had worked on a lot of musicians records, such as Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, Takuro Yoshida, Chage and Aska, Mariya Takeuchi and Rita Coolidge. Nakajima considered he is best musical partner for herself, and she has been working with him since the end of 1980s.

Seo produced many her masterpieces in the 1980-90s. Especially, East Asia is well-received among reviewers , listers and musicians. Koshi Inaba, a vocalist and lyricist of B'z selected this album as a one of the best album which released in 1992. "Asai Nemuri (Shallow Sleep)", First single from East Asia became first millionseller record for Nakajima.

Nakajima recent albums are recorded by famous American studio musicians. After 1996 album Paradise Cafe, she is recording with Vinnie Colaiuta, Neil Stubenhaus, Gregg Bissonette, Russ Kunkel, Dean Parks, Michael Thompson and Leland Sklar.

Since debut in 1975, Nakajima had belonged to Pony Canyon Records over 25 years. Though, in 2000, she left "Canyon/AARD-VARK" and signed to her own record label "Yamaha Music Communications". On November 3, 1999, her final albums for Pony Canyon, Hi: Wings and Tsuki: Wings were released. These records sold only 40,000 copies, and they are lowest-selling studio albums for her.

At the Yamaha Music Communications, She has released six albums and three singles. Her latest album Lullaby Singer will be released in November 2006. close