Surname: Koda

First name: Kumi

In Japanese: 倖田 來未

Birth Surname: Kouda

Birth First Name: Kumiko

In Japanese: 神田 來未子

Birthdate: November 13, 1982

Place of Birth: Kyoto, Japan

Blood Group: A

Official Website: http://www.rhythmzone.net/koda/index.html

Hobbies: Shopping, writting e-mails, nail-art

Favorite Colors: Purple and Green

Favorite Season: Summer

Favorite Movie: Moulin Rouge

Favorite Brands: D&G, HAK

Japanese Artists She Likes: Toshinori Yonekura, Sukimaswitch, dreams come true

Western Artists She Likes: Christina Aguilera, NELLY, PINK, Pharell Williams, Beyonce

Kumi Koda debuted in Japan in 2000 with her first single, "Take Back." She did not achieve major success until her seventh single, "Real Emotion / 1000 no Kotoba," which was a hit because of its connection to Final Fantasy X-2. Her popularity went high in 2005 after the release of "Butterfly" and being named one of the best selling artists of 2005 from the success of "Best ~first things~." At the end of 2006, Oricon named her the top seller of 2006.

The Dawn Era
Kumi Koda was virtually an unknown artist before the hit success of her first "best of" album. Before signing onto the Avex label, Koda auditioned alongside Maki Goto for the 3rd generation of the Japanese group of entertainers known as Morning Musume. However she ultimately ended up signing a contract with Avex.

She officially debuted as a singer under the Avex label with the single, "Take Back," released December 6, 2000. Sadly it sold poorly and failed to chart and when it was released in the United States in March 2001 it debuted at #20 in Billboard Hot Dance Music Sales, which is generally considered a general flop. Koda continued with a second single, "Trust Your Love," also released in the United States, and the last of hers to be released in The United States. It held the 19th position on Billboard's Hot 100 singles sales chart and went to number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart. Two more singles were released; "Color Of Soul" and "So Into You," which led to production of her first album, "affection," released March 27, 2002.

Koda remained active despite the charting failure. Her fifth single, "Love Across the Ocean," debuted at #19, and her sixth single, "m·a·z·e," fared much worse on the charts. However, she finally enjoyed success with her seventh single, "Real Emotion / 1000 no Kotoba," which were tied to the popular Final Fantasy franchise. The songs were the main vocal themes of Final Fantasy X-2, and Koda had also voiced the character of Lenne in the Japanese version of the game. The single debuted at #3 and outsold all her previous work. Her second album, "Grow Into One," came out shortly after "Real Emotion / 1000 no Kotoba" and was a modest success.

From then on, Koda would continue a string of top twenty hits with "Come with Me," "Gentle Words," and "Crazy 4 U." These singles were included in her next album, "Feel My Mind." The best performing single off that album was "Come with Me," which sold 42,000 copies. During the mastering of "Feel My Mind," Koda was asked to cover the theme song of the anime series, "Cutie Honey." The song, also titled "Cutie Honey," was included as a bonus track on the album and became the title track of her first single after the release of "Feel My Mind."

Koda's fourth album, "Secret," was released in February 2005 and charted third on Oricon Top 200 Chart. This was her highest charting release, and her first album to debut in the top five. The album included title tracks from singles: "Love & Honey," "Chase," "Kiseki," "Hands," and "Hot Stuff." The album ended up being certified two times platinum by RIAJ for selling 521,000 copies in total.

The Best ~first things~ Era
After "secret," Koda released her sixteenth single, "Butterfly." This is her highest charting single at this point in her career, debuting second on the weekly Oricon charts. The single had a great reception from the Japanese public; the single ended up ranking fifth in the monthly charts, and Koda won the Grand Prix prize for the single at the 47th Nihon Record Taishou and Japan Gold Disc Awards, and "Butterfly" was named song of the year for 2005.

She released two more singles, "Flower" and "Promise/Star;" both peaked fourth in the weekly Oricon charts and continued her string of top ten hits before releasing her first "Best Of" collection of her singles, which served as a monument of her achievement and evolution in five years as an artist. Titled "Best ~first things~," it was released on September 21, 2005 and ranked second to Mr. Children's "I♥U" album, even though Koda's album took the top position in the daily charts after four days of charting. Though in it's second week on the charts it grabbed the #1 one spot, earning Kumi her first #1 album. By end of 2006, the album sold 1,850,635 copies and ranked 17th on the yearly chart, dropping from sixth place in 2005.

The Best ~second session~ Era
In December 2005, Koda began a project called the "~12 Singles~ Collection" in which she released twelve singles for twelve consecutive weeks. Nine of the singles were limited to 50,000 copies while three of the singles remained normal editions (for future references, a "maxi single"). If all twelve singles were purchased, the cases could be put together to form a bigger image of Koda from the OBI strips and the back covers.

The first single of the project, a maxi single titled "you," ranked first on the Oricon weekly charts selling 72,000 copies and gave Koda her first single to hit the top spot in the weekly charts. "Birthday Eve" was released the week after and charted sixth on the weekly charts right after "you."

The fourth and fifth singles of the twelve singles, "Shake It Up" and "Lies," respectively released December 28, 2005, and January 4, 2006, grabbed the sixth and seventh position while "you" was still charting at ninth. This feat made Koda the first female artist to have three singles in the top ten of the Oricon Weekly Singles chart.

The "~12 Singles~ Collection" ended with the release of "Someday/Boys♥Girls" and later with the "00" single of the collection, "Get It On," released exclusively online via cellphone.

Because Koda’s project was a massive success, her management wrapped all of the twelve singles into one best album: "Best ~second session~." The album contained all the title tracks of the "~12 Singles~ Collection," with the exception of "Boys♥Girls" and all the music videos of the project. The album came in three versions: a CD-only version, a CD+DVD version, and a limited CD+2DVD version. The extra DVD in the CD+2DVD version contains footage of from her first live tour in Japan, specifically footage from her performance at Osaka.

The limited edition of the album, limited to 650,000 copies, sold out within days of news about the album. The album charted first on its debut week on the Oricon weekly charts with 983,000 copies sold. This accomplishment makes this album the first to surpass 900,000 copies after Ken Hirai’s "Utabaka: Single Collection" in December 2005 and the highest debut sales since Utada Hikaru’s "Single Collection Vol. 1" released in March 2004 with debut sales of 1,400,000 copies sold.

Oricon reports that 1,768,628 copies of "Best ~second session~" have been sold for the Oricon 2006 year, making it the album with the second highest sales in 2006.

The Black Cherry Era
Koda's first single after the "~12 Singles~ Collection" was "Koi no Tsubomi," released in May 2006. It charted second in its debut week with sales of 140,000 copies sold. This was the highest debut week sales for female artists in 2006 until Ayumi Hamasaki surpassed it with "Blue Bird" in June. Soon afterwards, Koda reclaimed the title with the release of "4 hot wave," which also ranked second behind KinKi Kids, nearly breaking their streak of consecutive #1 singles. Up until "4 hot wave," it makes it Koda's 19th consecutive single to debut in the top 10 since Kiseki.

After the release of "Koi no Tsubomi," there was news of Koda's first photobook in the making. The photobook was confirmed and titled "MAROC" and photographed by Leslie Kee in Morocco. It was later revealed that the photobook will be tied with her quadruple A-side 32nd single, "4 hot wave." Both items were released on the same date and have similar covers.

The title tracks in "4 hot wave" were used in advertisements. "I'll be there" was used in the Seabreeze ad for a sun tanning lotion, "Ningyo-Hime" was used in advertisements of the Vodafone 705T mobile phone, "With your smile" was the theme for NTV's 2006 Japan Pro Baseball, and "JUICY" was used by Gemcerey, a Japanese jewelery company, to promote their product, "Binary Face". "Binary Face" is designed by Koda and the concept is said to be based on her. The "lion" is to represent the dark, sexy and powerful woman while the "rabbit" is for the innocent, weak and cute side of a woman.

The single following "4 hot wave," "Yume no Uta / Futari de... (Dream Song/Two of us...)," was released on October 18, 2006. Named the "2 Story Ballad", it was released in CD and CD+DVD format. The first pressing for the CD+DVD version contained one of nine special photo liners and two bonus tracks, while a special 8 page booklet was available only in the CD-only version.

The "2 Story Ballad" single originally started out as a single song about "happy love". When Koda listened to the original melody given to her, she commented that the melody had both the elements of happiness and sadness. As a result, she collaborated with her staff on producing two songs but with the same melody, and her staff agreed to it. She wrote another set of lyrics for the song to represent sadness. This is the first single Koda had control over; she wrote the lyrics, chose the outfits, and produced the concepts for the videos of both songs. She confidently remarked that "it was a first time experiment for me, but I was able to convey how happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin."

After the success of "Yume no Uta / Futari de...," Koda and EXILE released their duet covering a pop classic called "Won't Be Long," originally by the Bubblegum Brothers. According to Max Matsuura, the president of Avex, this collaboration was planned at the beginning of the year and was meant to be a fun collaboration. The single charted second in its debut week and sold 130,710 copies.

She followed it up with "Cherry Girl / Unmei," released on December 6, 2006. It contained two major tie-ins; "Cherry Girl" is set to be the theme song of a drama starring herself, and "Unmei" will be the theme song of a movie named "OOKU". Toshiba also signed the usage of "Cherry Girl" in their television commercials to promote their new mobile phone, the SoftBank 811T. This single charted third in its debut week, with 61,817 copies sold.

Two weeks after the release of "Cherry Girl / Unmei," Koda's 5th studio album titled "Black Cherry" was released. The album has three versions: the CD-only version, the CD+DVD version, and the limited CD+2DVD version.

The album includes her singles from 2006: "Koi no Tsubomi," "4 hot wave," "Yume no Uta / Futari de...," and "Cherry Girl / Unmei," with the exception of "Yume no Uta / Futari de..." in which "Futari de..." will be excluded from the album. The number of tracks is totaled to fifteen, which is raised to eighteen in first pressings of the album. Announced on her official site, the last track on the album, "Milk Tea", will be Koda's first composition. Typical of album releases, the first DVD disc will contain most of Koda's music videos produced in 2006, including a video she made collaborating a duet with Taiwanese singer "Show Luo" of the English version of "Twinkle". This video of "Twinkle" will be on both Koda's and Show Luo's albums. According to Koda's official site, the second DVD disc, available only in the limited CD+2DVD editions, contains "Cherry Girl", a drama starring herself. It also includes famous drama actors such as Megumi, Yuko Ito, Masaharu Takeda, Mari Hoshino and Mari Hamada.

Oricon reports that "Black Cherry" is the first female studio album to stay at number one for four weeks in four years, selling 802,000 copies. The last female studio album to have done that is Ayumi Hamasaki's 2000 album, Duty.

The Kingdom Era
Koda began 2007 with three releases: But / Aisho-, Best ~Bounce & Lovers~, and a DVD release of her second tour "Live Tour 2006 ~ 2007: Second Session" in Japan. But / Aisho-, her thirty-fifth single, debuted second and sold 63,692 copies. Best ~Bounce & Lovers~ charted second as well, selling 161,458 copies. Her tour DVD fared better on the charts; it debuted first, selling 75,000 copies.

Her second single of 2007, titled "Freaky", was released on June 27, 2007 and features four songs, with only "Freaky", and "Run For Your Life" having a promotional video. The other two songs, "Sora" (Sky) and "girls" were used as Japanese television commercials for her Fever Live in Hall pachinko marketing campaign.

Koda also performed at the Japanese leg of Live Earth in Tokyo on July 7, 2007. in addition to attending ap bank fes '07., an environmental preservation themed concert, hosted by Kazutoshi Sakurai of Mr. Children on July 15, 2007. She performed hits "Cherry Girl", "But", "Freaky", "Kiseki", and "Girls".

Her third single of 2007, titled "Ai no Uta", was released on September 12, 2007 and was described as a "love ballad delivered straight to the person she loves," and also features the theme song to the World Judo Championships 2007, "Come Over". Despite low physical sales, the song reached number 1 on most of the download charts across Japan.

Koda's 38th single was a collaboration with Korean boyband Tohoshinki, released November 7, 2007, titled "Last Angel feat. Tohoshinki" and was the image song for Resident Evil: Extinction. The single also included a B-Side titled "Dear Family".

On December 1, she performed in Tokyo Dome as a special concert for her Black Cherry tour, the crowded reported was around 45,000 people. Koda is the fourth female singer to have a solo concert in Tokyo Dome.

On January 26, 2008, Kingdom was leaked out to the public via the internet, four days before it was scheduled to be released.

On January 30, 2008, she released her 6th studio album entitled Kingdom, and her 39th single entitled anytime on January 23, 2008. The single includes a B-Side titled "Bounce".

The album came in the same 3 formats as her previous studio album, Black Cherry; in CD Only, CD+DVD and CD+2DVD. The first DVD is a music video collection disc that is about 70 minues long. The second DVD is Kumi's "Premium Limited Live In Hall In Yokohama Arena" concert.

The tracklisting of Kingdom includes the A-Sides from her 2007 singles: But / Aisho-, Freaky, Ai no Uta, Last Angel, and anytime. The first press bonus track "Black Cherry" is the full version of "Introduction" from her fifth album Black Cherry (much like Introduction to the second session from Best ~second session~ was a short version of Get It On).

Oricon has reported that Koda's Black Cherry album was the best selling female album and the second best selling album overall in Japan for the year 2007. Koda received the same exact news at end of 2006 for her album Best ~second session~.