Kana Nishino

Widely considered one of Japan's most popular songstresses of the late 2000s and 2010s, she gained early popularity with the R&B singles "Tookutemo" (with rapper WISE) and "Kimi ni Aitaku Naru Kara".

Her first studio album, "LOVE one."

In 2006, she was signed to SME Records.

In 2007, while preparing to be a singer, she was also studying English literature at college.

At the time, she met Australian duo Nervo, who offered Nishino a song called "I Don't Wanna Know" for use in her music project.

Nishino rewrote the song's lyrics into Japanese herself, and re-titled it "I".

In December 2007, her official site opened, and from that time onwards "*I* ~Merry Christmas ver.~" was available as a digital download from several Japanese sites, including Mora.

The original version of the song "I Don't Wanna Know" was available as a digital download on the American iTunes site from New Year's Day onwards.

Kana Nishino (西野カナ) is a Japanese singer and songwriter signed with SME Records' Newcome Inc. She debuted on February 20, 2008 with the single "I".

The physical version was released two months later, on February 20, 2008.

Nishino's second single was called "Glowly Days".

Her third single, "Style", was used as the second ending theme song for the anime series Soul Eater and her fourth single "Make Up" is used in the ONA Chocolate Underground from UK's miniseries Bootleg with one of its b-sides, "Kirari", as an insert song.

After her first four singles, her music took a more R&B feel to it.

(2009), debuted at number four on charts and went on to become certified platinum.

In 2009, CNN said that she was the favorite singer of teenage girls in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Nishino is also known for her "relatable" lyrics about love.

Her fifth single "Tōkutemo feat. Wise" was released as a full-track digital song (Chaku Uta Full) on March 11, 2009.

The physical CD was released on March 18, 2009.

It is her first physical single to enter the top 50 in the Japanese Oricon single charts.

Wise's digital single "Aenakutemo feat. Kana Nishino" debuted at number 9 on the RIAJ Digital Track Chart.

Nishino released her sixth single "Kimi ni Aitaku Naru Kara" on June 3, 2009.

The single hit number 14 on the Oricon weekly single charting, being her best single release of the six.

The digital version of the single debuted at number 5 on the RIAJ Digital Track Chart.

She achieved further success with her sophomore and first number-one album, "To Love" (2010), which was preceded by the singles "Motto...", "Dear...", "Best Friend" and "Aitakute Aitakute" which were all certified "million" for full song downloads of over 1 million by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), establishing Nishino as a dominant force on music charts and digital platforms.

The Triple Platinum certified album became the third best-selling album of 2010 and the single "Aitakute Aitakute" was the hottest selling digital song of the year.

In the mid-2010s, she successfully ventured into country pop with the singles "Darling" (2014) and "Torisetsu" (2015).

While enjoying mammoth mainstream success with her following records "Thank You, Love" (2011), "LOVE Place" (2012) and "with LOVE" (2014), Nishino's music also evolved from R&B to pop.

She was awarded "Artist of the Year" two times in 2014 and 2015 by Billboard Japan.

Since her debut, she has sold over six million records and over 46 million downloads, making her one of the most successful female artists in the digital chart history of Japan.

The latter, the theme song of the live action film Heroine Shikkaku, became the best-selling digital song of 2015 with over one million copies sold.

She subsequently released the albums "Just LOVE" (2016) and "LOVE it" (2017), certified platinum and gold respectively.

In 2016, she won the Grand Prix at the 58th Japan Record Awards for her single "Anata no Suki na Tokoro", the first female solo artist to do so since Koda Kumi in 2005.

In 2017, she reached a new milestone when becoming the youngest female solo artist and the first female one born in the Heisei era to perform at the prestigious Tokyo Dome as part of the "Kana Nishino Dome Tour 2017 Many Thanks".

Due to her popularity with the Japanese female audience, Nishino appears frequently on fashion magazine covers and she is usually regarded as a fashion icon.

It was particularly apparent in her early days due to her association with the Gyaru fashion subculture, leading her music to be referred to as "Gyaru Enka" ("Gyaru heartbreak songs").

On January 8, 2019, Nishino announced an "indefinite" hiatus starting on February 3 of the same year.

Nishino studied English from an early age, and went to America twice.

She became interested in various genres of music, including hip-hop, R&B and reggae, but she also enjoyed Japanese literature, and started singing Japanese folk songs.

Her dream of becoming a singer started in junior high school.

When she was 16, her mother secretly sent a demo tape of hers to the organized by Sony Music, and she was rated the top singer entrant out of approximately 40,000 applicants.