Misia

Misaki Itō (伊藤 美咲) commonly known as Misia (ミーシャ) and stylized as MISIA, is a Japanese singer and songwriter.

Born in Tsushima, Nagasaki, Misia moved to Fukuoka at the age of 14 to pursue a recording career.

There, she continued her secondary education and briefly attended Seinan Gakuin University before withdrawing to focus on her musical career.

Misia was born on July 7, 1978, to parents who were both doctors.

She was signed to BMG Japan in 1997, after auditioning for record producer Haruo Yoda.

In April 1997, she was accepted into Seinan Gakuin University in commercial science.

In May 1997, Misia finally passed a BMG Japan audition to find a soulful female R&B singer.

Misia sang "Goodbye Darlin'" by Dreams Come True and was chosen from about 3,000 candidates.

She decided to pursue a music career instead of school education and took a leave of absence from university.

Her perception of the image of an R&B singer is hair styled in dreadlocks, so she styled her own hair that way that November.

She used the stage name "MISIA" at the beginning of her music career.

Misia came to prominence following the release of her debut album, Mother Father Brother Sister (1998), which became the seventh best-selling Japanese debut album of all time, earning her two Japan Gold Disc Awards and one Japan Record Award.

Misia debuted on February 21, 1998, with "Tsutsumikomu Yō ni..." which peaked at number 11 on the Oricon single charts.

Her second single "Hi no Ataru Basho" reached number 9 and was used in the soundtrack of the movie Hood.

Her first album, Mother Father Brother Sister, was released on June 24, 1998, entering the charts at number 3 and reaching number 1 after 4 weeks.

In March 1999, she won Best New Artist of the Year and Best Pop Album of the Year at the Japan Gold Disc Awards.

In 2000, Misia released her sophomore album, Love Is the Message, which earned her another Japan Gold Disc Award and Japan Record Award.

Misia's second album, Love Is the Message was released on January 1, 2000, which went on to sell over 2 million copies.

In October of the same year she released her most well-known song "Everything", which sold nearly 1.9 million copies.

Her third studio album, Marvelous (2001), spawned her first number-one single on the Oricon singles chart, "Everything".

The song became one of the best-selling singles of all time in Japan, and is the third best-selling physical single by a Japanese solo female artist of all time.

In 2001, Misia and her management, Rhythmedia, signed a recording contract with Avex and formed their own label, Rhythmedia Tribe.

Her first album under Rhythmedia Tribe, Kiss in the Sky, became Misia's fourth consecutive number-one album on the Oricon albums chart.

In doing so, Misia became the fourth solo female artist with the longest streak of number-one albums since their debut.

Following a series of successful records, including Mars & Roses, Singer for Singer and Ascension, Misia returned to her former record label, BMG Japan.

After Sony Music Entertainment Japan's acquisition of BMG Japan, Misia relocated to the Sony subsidiary, Ariola Japan.

Misia has released thirteen studio albums and is among the all-time best-selling Japanese music artists, having sold more than 20 million records.

In 2001, one of Misia's dreams came true with the release of "I Miss You (Toki o Koete)", a collaboration with Dreams Come True, her favorite band.

She and Masato Nakamura, the leader of DCT, created the music while Misia wrote the lyrics.

BusinessWeek reported in 2002 that her real name was Misaki Ito (伊藤美咲, Ito Misaki) though her official site lists only her stage name.

Her father loved jazz, and her mother loved Western music.

Originally both her parents studied vocal music.

She grew up in Tsushima, Nagasaki.

She gradually came to want to leave Tsushima, where she was not able to get enough information about music, and wanted to take voice lessons in earnest in Fukuoka.

Subsequently, she left her home and moved to Fukuoka with her elder sister where she attended high school.

During junior high and high school she sang and played the trumpet in the brass band club.

While going to the high school, she also began to go to a music academy and met two Black American vocal trainers there while she was in the eleventh grade.

She began training with them in gospel and R&B.

She is one of the top-touring artists in Japan, becoming the first female artist to play all five of Japan's largest stadiums in 2004.

Besides her musical career, Misia is also a committed philanthropist and involves herself in humanitarian causes and biodiversity conservation activities.