ORIGA's bio

Origa (real name Ol'ga Vitalevna Yakovleva (Russian: Ольга Витальевна Яковлева), born October 12, 1970 in Kochenёvo, Novosibirsk oblast, Russia) is a Japanese singer of Russian descent.

After graduating from music school in 1990, she took an opportunity to visit Japan in 1991 and finally contracted with the ROAD&SKY Organization in 1993. Origa has since participated in several projects with various artists in addition to the Radio Japan Series and being part of the chorus for the Kobe earthquake disaster charity single. Origa married Iranian producer Zhian Saedi in 1998. They met at a party where she was singing. She gave birth to a son, Alyosha, in 2000, but everyone knows him as Ilya. He is now 8 years old.

As of 2005[update], Origa has released seven solo albums, two mini-albums, and 3 singles. She gained popularity outside of Japan with the release of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and the subsequent original soundtracks, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex O.S.T. and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex O.S.T. 2. These were written by long-time friend and composer Yoko Kanno, and both the first season's theme song, Inner Universe (featuring boy soprano Ben Del Maestro) and the second season's theme song, Rise used Origa's vocals. Origa first performed with Kanno for ∀ Gundam, singing Gabriela Robin's "Moon" with the Gey's AX chorus.

In 2005, Origa performed songs for the anime series Fantastic Children, most notably the ending theme "Mizu no Madoromi"(meaning "Slumber of water").

In 2006 Origa was involved in lyrics & vocal performance for the opening song ("Player") and the ending theme ("date of rebirth") from the movie Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society.

In 2007, Origa performed with Yoko Kanno for the Ragnarok 2 Concert. There, she performed all three Ghost in the Shell opening themes, "Player" for Solid State Society, "Inner Universe" for the first season, and "Rise" for 2nd Gig respectively, and substituted for Ilaria Graziano on "Yoru_Vo", Pierre Bensusan on "ELM", and Gabriela Robin on "Torukia". She performed alongside fellow vocalists Maaya Sakamoto and Mai Yamane and joined in singing select songs originally performed only by Maaya.

It should be noted that Origa is not active in Russia anymore, but does tours over the world. close