Tigarah's bio

The same year that she entered Keio University in Tokyo to contemplate a career as an ambassador, she found Baile Funk, Brazilian hip-hop, through her Brazilian friends in Tokyo. Her proactive and fearless character lead her to rap and record by herself.

Soon after this inception into the creative world of song-writing, she went to Sao Paulo, Brazil and tried to establish her music career there. During a trip to Rio, she met MR.D, a Swiss DJ/producer based in L.A. Their meeting triggered a series of professional recording sessions together and Tigarah started spending a lot of time in L.A.

At the age of 19 years old, she made an EP with her first 7 songs that she recorded with MR.D and put it on Myspace. In 6 months, she received a lot of press like the L.A Times (U.S), Dazed n Confused(U.K/Japan), EXL8R(U.S), BPM(U.S), URB(U.S), Rolling Stones(AUS), Folha Do Sao Paulo(Brazil), Sonic(Sweden, cover), NPR radio(U.S), etc.

The head of Universal UK quickly signed her for a multi-albums deal for Universal Japan International in 2007.

Tigarah remembers: ”Things just happened so quickly. I just decided to be a musician and started to write songs and all of sudden, many people from many countries contacted me on the internet, and I got a major label deal “like this”. I was super lucky, but I didn’t really realize what was really going on.”

Her songs were licensed to the TV dramas and programs in the U.S such as “The L Word”, “Numbers”, “FIFA World Cup”, “NFL”, and the TV commercial “Mobizzo” on FOX. In addition some of her songs were licensed to the video games from EA Sports, “FIFA2007″, “FIFA2008″, “Need For Speed” and “Breakers”.

After signing her deal, Tigarah worked on her album in L.A and Tokyo and released her new EP “TIGARAH!” in April 2009 and her 1st album “The Funkeira Goes BANG!” in August 2009 in Japan. Then she toured in Japan, Brazil and Australia.

That same year, she was contacted by Timothy James Rice-Oxley from the British Rock band KEANE to feature her for their EP “Night Train”. She did a cover of “You’ve Got to Help Yourself,” an 80′s international hit of the Japanese legendary band YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra), and recorded in L.A. Their EP was released worldwide in May 2010.

To prepare her 2nd album, Tigarah parted on a voyage to find inspiration in different and fresh sounds and new producers. She spent her time between London and Paris in 2010 to work on her new production and then settled in Paris in 2011.

All these years of world-wide music journeying, her music has touched base with many kinds of urban/dance music like Baile Funk, Boltimore Club, Miami Base, Ghetto Tech, Electro, UK Grime, Glitch Mob, Old school Hip-hop and Pop. She also writes in English, Japanese and French. One of her biggest inspirations and influences is Gwen Stefani. A journalist once wrote, “If Gwen had a Japanese baby, it would have been Tigarah.”

When reflecting on herself: “After living in many countries, I realized that I’m probably one of those future pop artists who are influenced by many different cultures and so I can create my own original style musically and lyrically. You know, you never can find another Tigarah. So, it just came out pretty fresh.”

She adds, “I could say I’m the International Tokyo Cool Kid representing Japanese Girl Swag with my music, my lifestyle and my fashion.”

Now, this 24 year-old young lady is ready for the next stage. She released her mixtape, ‘TIGARAH Supa MixtapeMoshi Moshi Bomb’ in May 2012 and her 2nd album for Japan will be dropped in the fall of 2012. She’s also working on another album for the U.S. which will be out in 2013. close