, is a Japanese

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

singer, lyricist, fashion model and television presenter.

Career

Born in

Adachi, Tokyo is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. It is located to the north of the heart of Tokyo. The ward consists of two separate areas: a small strip of land between the Sumida River and Arakawa River and a larger area north of th ...

, Japan to a Japanese mother and British father, Kimura started working as a model in 2002 for the Japanese magazine '' Seventeen''. She went on to host the morning television show ''Saku Saku'' from April 14, 2003 to March 31, 2006. Kimura released her only

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...

single, titled "

Level 42 Level 42 are an English jazz-funk band formed on the Isle of Wight in 1979. They had a number of UK and worldwide hits during the 1980s and 1990s. Their highest-charting single in the UK was " Lessons in Love", which reached number three on th ...

", but it was later released as her major label debut single on June 23, 2004, after she signed with

Columbia Music Entertainment , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

. The song was used over the end credits of ''Saku Saku''. On October 27, Kimura released her second single, " Happiness!!!", which was followed by her debut album, '' Kaela'', on December 8, 2004. Following the release of her third single, " Rirura Riruha", on March 30, 2005, Kimura saw her fanbase grow considerably. The song was used in a series of

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

commercials in Japan and helped make her a household name. It sold over 100,000 copies, her best-selling single to date, and it also received a nomination for "Best Video" in the

MTV Video Music Awards Japan The MTV Video Music Awards Japan (MTV VMAJ for short) are the Japanese version of the MTV Video Music Awards. Like the MTV Video Music Awards in the United States, in this event artists are awarded for their songs and videos through online vo ...

2005. Nearly seven months later, her next single, "

Beat Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

", was released. The song was composed by

Tamio Okuda is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and producer. He started his career in 1986 as a member of the band Unicorn. After Unicorn broke up, Okuda moved on to a solo career in 1994 with the single "Ai no Tame ni". He has written and composed many song ...

. The song had a more

pop punk Pop-punk (also punk-pop, alternatively spelled without the hyphen) is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop music, pop. It is defined by its fast-paced, energetic tempos, and emphasis on classic pop s ...

influence. On January 18, 2006, Kimura released her fifth single, "

You In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from ...

". In March 2006, ''

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...

'' was released and debuted at number two on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

chart. She continued promoting

Kit Kat Kit Kat (stylised as KitKat in various countries) is a chocolate-covered wafer bar Confectionery, confection created by Rowntree's of York, England. It is produced globally by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree's in 1988), except in the United S ...

with a promotional single titled "Circle"; a CD with the song was sold along with the candy in a limited package. At this point, Kimura decided to leave the TV show, ''Saku Saku'', to focus on her music career. Her last appearance as host was on March 31, 2006. During 2006, Kimura became the lead vocalist of the rock band

Sadistic Mika Band The was a Japanese rock band formed in November 1971 by husband and wife duo Kazuhiko Katō and . In a time when it was still rare for women to sing in rock bands in Japan, the fact that the Katōs were a married couple was even more unusual. Thi ...

, which started as a collaboration for Kirin products promotion, and later resulting in the album ''Narkissos'' as Sadistic Mikaela Band. That year, she also covered

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...

's ''

Oh, Pretty Woman "Oh, Pretty Woman", or simply "Pretty Woman", is a song recorded by Roy Orbison and written by Orbison and Bill Dees. It was released as a single in August 1964 on Monument Records and spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, '' ...

'', which was used as the theme song of 2006

Japanese television drama , also called or J-drama, are television programs that are a staple of Television in Japan, Japanese television and are broadcast daily. Format All major Television networks, TV networks in Japan produce a variety of Drama (genre), drama serie ...

s ''

Attention Please is a manga by Chieko Hosokawa about the training of flight attendants for Japan Airlines originally serialized in ''Shōjo Friend'' from Kodansha beginning in 1970. Tokyo Broadcasting System adapted a TV drama from the manga in 1970. Thirt ...

'' starring

Aya Ueto is a Japanese actress, singer and television personality. In 1997, Ueto participated in the seventh Japan Bishōjo Contest, where she won the special jury prize. Soon thereafter, Ueto joined the talent agency Oscar Promotion and began taking s ...

. She appeared on the program in a cameo role as an airline passenger in episode 10. On June 28, a new single, " Magic Music", was released, followed by the release of " Tree Climbers" three months later. Her eighth single, " Snowdome", was released in conjunction with her third studio album, ''

Scratch Scratch or scratching may refer to: Science and technology * Scratch (programming language), an educational programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab * Scratch space, space on the hard disk drive that is dedicated for only temporary ...

'', on February 7, 2007. The song "Snowdome" was composed by Japanese pop punk band

Beat Crusaders were a Japanese rock band active from 1997 to 2010. During all promotional appearances, their faces are masked by drawings resembling themselves as printed by a dot-matrix printer. History Beat Crusaders, commonly abbreviated BECR, was founded ...

. The album ''Scratch'' topped the

Albums Chart for two weeks and sold over 300,000 copies. Kimura's ninth single, "Samantha", was released on July 18, 2007. The song was inspired by

Samantha Stephens This is a list of characters in ''Bewitched'', an American fantasy television sitcom which aired from 1964 to 1972. Cast Main Recurring Cast notes: Main characters Samantha Stephens Samantha Stephens (Elizabeth Montgomery) is a good witch ...

, the protagonist from the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

TV series, ''

Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typi ...

''; and the music video features

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

designs. In September, a second

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

from her 'Scratch Tour' was released, followed by her tenth single, "Yellow", a month later. She released her eleventh single, "Jasper", a

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

song very different from her previous works, in early 2008. On April 2, her fourth album, ''+1'', was released and debuted on the Oricon weekly albums chart at number three. After the album's release, Kimura hosted her '+1 TOUR' and released her first

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

compilation ''Best Video 1''. Her song, "Jasper" is the theme song for the Japanese version of

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium ''Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium'' is a 2007 family fantasy comedy film written and directed by Zach Helm (in his directorial debut), produced by FilmColony, Mandate Pictures, Walden Media, Richard N. Gladstein and James Garavente, and with mus ...

. On September 10, 2008, she released her first

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

single . The first A-side was used in Lucido-L commercials, while the second was featured in the Japanese film . Kimura released her first ballad, titled on January 28, 2009, reaching number five on

, and her fourteenth single, "Banzai", on May 8, followed by her fifth studio album, ''Hocus Pocus'', on June 24, celebrating her fifth anniversary as a singer. "Wonder Volt" is the theme song for the Japanese version of

Frankenweenie (2012 film) ''Frankenweenie'' is a 2012 American gothic 3D stop-motion animated science fiction horror comedy film directed by Tim Burton, written by John August, and starring Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Sha ...

. She wrote the theme song for the Japanese version of

Moomins on the Riviera ''Moomins on the Riviera'' (Finnish title: ''Muumit Rivieralla'') is a 2014 animated family comedy film directed by Xavier Picard and produced by Hanna Hemilä, who is also co-director. The film is based on ''Moomin'' comic strips by Tove Janss ...

called "Eye". She supplies the theme song for the Japanese release of

The Secret Life of Pets 2 ''The Secret Life of Pets 2'' is a 2019 American animated comedy film, directed by Chris Renaud and written by Brian Lynch. It is the second feature film in the ''Secret Life of Pets'' franchise. The film features the voices of Patton Oswalt ...

, which is centered around the theme of "breaking out of your shell to try new things."

Personal life

On September 1, 2010, Kimura married actor

Eita Eita may refer to: * Eita (name), a Japanese male given name * Eita (actor), Eita Nagayama (born 1982), Japanese actor * Eita (wrestler) (born 1991), Japanese professional wrestler * Eita (mythology), or Aita, an epithet of the Etruscan chtho ...

after becoming engaged in late 2009. Although the official marriage announcement was delayed due to work commitments. They have a son (born October 2010, though without a disclosed exact birthdate or name), and a daughter (born October 2013).

Discography

* '' Kaela'' (2004) * ''

'' (2006) * ''

'' (2007) * '' +1'' (2008) * ''

Hocus Pocus Hocus-pocus is an exclamation used by magicians, usually the magic words spoken when bringing about some sort of change. Hocus Pocus, Hokus Pokus, or variants may also refer to: Books * Hocus Pocus (novel), ''Hocus Pocus'' (novel), a 1990 novel ...

'' (2009) * ''8Eight8'' (2011) * ''Sync'' (2012) * ''Rock'' (2013) * ''Mieta'' (2014) * ''Punky'' (2016) * ''Ichigo'' (2019) * ''

Magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or repel each other. Because both electric currents and magnetic moments of elementary particles give rise to a magnetic field, m ...

'' (2022)

Filmography

* '' Custom Made 10.30'' (2005) * ''

'' (2015)

References

External links