Hyde

Hideto Takarai (寶井 秀人), known by his stage name Hyde (stylized as HYDE or hyde), is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor.

Hyde rose to fame in the 1990s as part of L'Arc-en-Ciel, who have sold over 40 million records and were the first Japanese act to perform a solo show at Madison Square Garden.

Best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel since 1991, he is also the lead vocalist of Vamps and has a solo career.

In 1991, Hyde left his band Jelsarem's Rod and joined L'Arc-en-Ciel, where he became the main lyricist and vocalist.

L'Arc-en-Ciel was signed to Danger Crue Records, where they released their first official album Dune.

It peaked at number five on Oricon's main chart, but topped its independent chart.

Between the years 1993–2000, L'Arc-en-Ciel released 8 albums and in 1999, becoming the first Japanese musicians to not only release two albums simultaneously, but have both albums reach number 1 and number 2 on the Oricon charts, respectively.

After the success of their eighth studio album, Real, L'Arc-en-Ciel went on hiatus, during which each of the members pursued solo activities.

In December 1997, L'Arc-en-Ciel sold out the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome in a record-breaking four minutes.

Since then, L'Arc-en-Ciel has sold-out the Tokyo Dome 16 times.

He began a successful solo career in 2001, releasing several number one singles, and many of his albums have reached the top five on the Oricon chart.

Hyde made his debut as a solo artist with the release of his first single, "evergreen" in October 2001.

The single was released under Hyde's own record label, Haunted Records, which was a division of Sony's Ki/oon Records.

After releasing two more singles, "Angel's Tale" and "Shallow Sleep," Hyde released his first solo album, Roentgen, in March 2002.

An overseas edition featuring all-English lyrics was released in July of the same year.

By 2003, L'Arc-en-Ciel expanded their market overseas and had their first North American debut at Otakon in Baltimore, playing to an audience of 12,000 people.

In 2003, L'Arc-en-Ciel ranked 58 on a list of the top 100 Japanese pop musicians by HMV Japan.

Three years later, L'Arc-en-Ciel returned in 2003 for a series of seven concerts titled "Shibuya Seven Days" in June and July.

In April 2003, Hyde starred alongside fellow Japanese rock musician Gackt in the film Moon Child, which was co-written by Gackt himself.

The duo performed the duet "Orenji no Taiyou", which was used as the movie's theme song.

The song was also released on Gackt's fourth full-length album, Crescent.

Hyde followed up Roentgen with the release of two singles, "Hello" and "Horizon", in June and November 2003, respectively.

"Horizon" was used as the ending theme in Ryuhei Kitamura's film Sky High.

His second solo album, 666, was released in December 2003.

In March 2004, their ninth album Smile was released, and the single "Ready Steady Go" became the opening theme for the anime Fullmetal Alchemist.

In the summer of 2004, L'Arc-en-Ciel officially debuted in North America, where they performed at the anime convention, Otakon in Baltimore, Maryland on July 31, 2004, as part of their Smile tour.

The performance was their first international performance outside of Asia.

In 2008, Hyde teamed up with K.A.Z to form the hard rock duo Vamps.

Through both his solo career and Vamps, Hyde has collaborated/toured with artists such as Apocalyptica, Motionless in White, Starset, Yoshiki, Sixx:A.M., In This Moment, and Danzig, and producers such as Kane Churko, Nicholas Furlong, Drew Fulk, and Howard Benson.

In April 2008, their Tour 2008 L'7 Trans Asia via Paris led them to 7 cities across the world, where a total of 320,000 people were in attendance.

To celebrate their 20th Anniversary, L'Arc-en-Ciel held their 20th L'Anniversary concert at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo, a two-day event held from May 28–29, 2011, with each day dedicated to one-half of their career.

All of the proceeds from the concerts were donated to the Great East Japan earthquake relief efforts.

By 2012, L'Arc-en-Ciel became the first-ever Japanese act to sell out Madison Square Garden in New York.

In 2012, L'Arc-en-Ciel released their twelfth studio album, Butterfly, at the beginning of their first world tour.

The tour led the band to Shanghai, Taipei, London, Paris, Singapore, New York, Indonesia, Seoul, Japan, and concluded in Hawaii.

On March 23, L'Arc-en-Ciel became the first Japanese act to ever perform at Madison Square Garden.

At their concert in Hawaii, the mayor of Honolulu, Peter Carlisle, appeared at the show and declared May 31 to be "L'Arc-en-Ciel Day", saying he felt the band "made a great contribution to cultural activities, and built a bridge of friendship between Hawaii and Japan".

In 2014, L'Arc-en-Ciel performed at the National Stadium in Tokyo.

A year later in 2015, the band put on yet another two-day event called "L'ArCasino", which was held outdoors at the Yumeshima Outdoor Special Stage in Osaka, constructed specifically for their use.

L'Arc-en-Ciel announced a 23-city tour in 2020.