Yuna Itō
Yuna Itō ( Japanese 伊藤 由 奈 Itō Yuna ; born September 20, 1983 in Los Angeles ) is an American pop singer and actress who was successful in Japan .
Life
Yuna Ito was born in Los Angeles to a Japanese father and a Korean mother. However, she grew up in Hawaii in Oahu , where she lived until she graduated from school at 18. Only then did she travel to Japan for the first time.
Ito had her breakthrough in Japan in 2005. She played the role of Reira Serizawa, the singer in a rock band , in the film Nana for the manga series of the same name. There she sang the song Endless Story , which was released as a single under "Reira Starring Yuna Ito". The record sold over 450,000 times ( double platinum ) in Japan and reached number 2 on the Oricon charts. It was voted the best love song of 2005 by 20,000 Oricon-style readers.
After the success, she hosted her own radio show called Journey for half a year on the Tokyo local broadcaster InterFM , before her second single Faith / Pureyes was released. Faith was used in the credits of the Japanese television drama Unfair and Pureyes was used in a television commercial for "Bioclen Zero". The single peaked at number 6. The following release, Precious , was the theme song for Limit of Love: Umizaru . The single sold over 200,000 times (platinum) and came in at number 3.
The next two single releases in summer and autumn were under the motto Hot and Cold . The "Hot" single contained the title Stuck on You and a cover version of These Boots Are Made for Walkin ' , which was used in a Daihatsu commercial. The song Losin ' from the second single ran in Japan in the credits of the second season of Lost . Both singles were limited to 70,000 copies and buyers of both singles also received an invitation to Ito's first tour. Nevertheless, the singles only reached number 19 and 20 in the single charts and each sold less than 16,000 pieces.
That same year, Ito played again the singer Reira Serizawa in the film sequel Nana 2 . This time the film single Truth was released three days before the premiere of the film and became the fourth top 10 single. In early 2007, the debut album Heart was released on the newly founded label Studioseven Recordings with all previous singles. It came to number 1 on the album charts and was awarded double platinum.
In 2007 Ito brought three singles on the market, which were able to build on the previous successes and landed between number 5 and number 15. I'm Here was released in March of that year, followed in June by Mahaloha with singer Micro from Japanese indie band Def Tech . Urban Mermaid was released in October. Before the release of their second album, Ito recorded the song A World to Believe In with Celine Dion , which was originally a solo song by Dion. It was recorded in both Dion's album Taking Chances and Ito's album Wish and was also released as a single. The single reached number 8, the album Wish number 3 in the Japanese charts.
At the end of 2008, two more singles followed, but they were not very successful. It was not until March 2009 that Trust You followed her eighth top 10 hit, which became known as the music for the second season of Kidō Senshi Gundam 00 .
Discography
Albums
publication | title | Oricon | Sales * | annotation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
January 24, 2007 | Heart |
1 (50 weeks) |
530,000 | 1st studio album | |
February 20, 2008 | Wish | 3 (19 weeks) |
103,000 | 2nd studio album | |
May 27, 2009 | Dream | 7 (8 weeks) |
36,000 | 3rd studio album | |
December 8, 2010 | Love: Singles Best 2005-2010 | 8 (11 weeks) |
50,000 | 1st compilation | |
"-" means no chart entry, no information or no publication. * Charts and sales for Japan only . |
Singles
publication | title | Oricon | Sales * | annotation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
September 7, 2005 | Endless story | 2 (53 weeks) |
472,000 | 1. Single as Reira Starring Yuna Ito | |
March 1, 2006 | Faith / Pureyes | 6 (15 weeks) |
56,000 | 2nd single | |
May 3, 2006 | Precious | 3 (31 weeks) |
218,000 | 3. Single | |
August 9, 2006 | Stuck on you | 20 (5 weeks) |
16,000 | 4. Single | |
September 6, 2006 | Losin ' | 19 (4 weeks) |
10,000 | 5. Single | |
December 6, 2006 | Truth | 10 (10 weeks) |
47,000 | 6. Single as Reira Starring Yuna Ito | |
March 14, 2007 | I'm here | 15 (9 weeks) |
37,000 | 7. Single | |
June 27, 2007 | Mahaloha | 5 (8 weeks) |
43,000 | 8. Single | |
October 24, 2007 | Urban Mermaid | 10 (8 weeks) |
24,000 | 9. Single | |
January 16, 2008 |
Anata ga Iru Kagiri: A World to Believe in あ な た が い る 限 り ~ A WORLD TO BELIEVE IN ~ |
8 (8 weeks) |
24,000 | 10. Single with Celine Dion | |
September 3, 2008 | Miss you | 20 (5 weeks) |
9,000 | 11. Single | |
November 26, 2008 | Koi wa Groovyx2 恋 は groovy × 2 |
44 (4 weeks) |
5,000 | 12. Single | |
March 4, 2009 | Trust you | 5 (9 weeks) |
46,000 | 13. Single | |
November 11, 2009 | Let it go | 36 (3 weeks) |
4,000 | 14. Single | |
November 3, 2010 | Mamotte Agetai 守 っ て あ げ た い |
41 (3 weeks) |
3,000 | 15. Single | |
"-" means no chart entry, no information or no publication. * Charts and sales for Japan only. |
Awards
- Best New Artist (Best Hit Kayousai 2005, November 21, 2005)
- Best New Artist (Japan Kabel Awards 2005, December 17, 2005)
- Special Award for Nana (47th Japan Album Awards, December 31, 2005)
- Best New Artist (Japan Gold Disc Awards 2006, March 9, 2006)
- Gold Artist Award (Best Hit Kayousai 2006, November 20, 2006)
swell
- Chart discography Japan (Oricon, Japanese)
- ↑ Starting at the top ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2011) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Metropolis, May 4, 2007
Web links
- official homepage (Japanese)
- Yuna Ito at Allmusic (English)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Itō, Yuna |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 伊藤 由 奈 (Japanese); Itō, Yuna (Japanese) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American singer |
DATE OF BIRTH | 20th September 1983 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Los Angeles , California , United States |