Mari Hamada
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is a Japanese rock singer and songwriter. Having performed in bands since high school, Hamada made her professional debut as a solo act in 1983. She quickly became known as the . In 2019, Hamada become the first Japanese musician to top the vocalist category of heavy metal magazine ''
Burrn! is a monthly Japanese magazine for fans of heavy metal music, published since September 1984. It is the major publication on heavy metal music in the country. As of 2013, it is published by Shinko Music Entertainment in Tokyo Tokyo, off ...
''s readers poll in its 36 year history. Throughout her career, she has released 25 singles and 23 studio albums.


Biography


Early history

Mari Hamada started singing when she joined a choir at elementary school and participated in recording TV commercial jingles while in junior high. While at Musashigaoka High School, she formed a
punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...
band called Mari Band. During her tenure at
Aoyama Gakuin University is a private Christian university in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Originally established in 1874 by missionaries from the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was reconfigured in its current form in 1949 as tertiary component of the Aoyama Gakuin. The u ...
, Hamada was a backing vocalist for the band Hamachan and the lead vocalist of the all-female rock band Misty Cats; the latter having recorded the demo song "Misty Blue" for the various artists album ''Kichijōji Yamaha Studio Take-1 Presents: 7th One Way Contest'' in 1982.


1980s

In 1983, Hamada released her debut album '' Lunatic Doll ~ Ansatsu Keikoku'', which was produced by Daiko Nagato and
Loudness In acoustics, loudness is the subjectivity, subjective perception of sound pressure. More formally, it is defined as the "attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud". The relat ...
drummer
Munetaka Higuchi (December 24, 1958 – November 30, 2008) was a Japanese musician and record producer. He is best known as the original drummer of the Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Loudness (band), Loudness, but first rose to prominence as a member of La ...
and released by
Victor Entertainment is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Entertainment operates the RC ...
under the "Invitation" label. She gained some attention when
Shigesato Itoi is a Japanese copywriter, essayist, lyricist, game designer, and actor. Itoi is the editor-in-chief of his website and company '' Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun'' ("Almost Daily Itoi Newspaper"). He is best known outside Japan for his work on Nintendo ...
wrote: . The album made her the flag bearer for Japanese female rock vocalists, which was a small and unusual market at the time. A year later, Hamada released the album '' Misty Lady'', which began her career as a songwriter. Hamada said it was around the time she headlined the Music Wave 84 event, which also featured Earthshaker, 44Magnum, Ann Lewis and
Make-Up Cosmetics are substances that are intended for application to the body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering appearance. They are mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources or created syn ...
, at
Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall The is an outdoor music venue in Hibiya Park, located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, music events are limited to weekends and holidays between April and October out of consideration for the surr ...
in July of that year that she was first dubbed the "Queen of Heavy Metal". In 1985, Hamada released '' Blue Revolution'', with the
title track A title track is a song that has the same name as the album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-t ...
becoming her first career single. It was also her first self-produced album. For her 1987 album '' In the Precious Age'', Hamada flew to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
to work with producer Mike Clink and record with artists such as Toto's
Mike Porcaro Michael Joseph Porcaro (May 29, 1955 – March 15, 2015) was an American bass player known for his work with the rock band Toto. He retired from touring in 2007 as a result of being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was t ...
and
Jeff Porcaro Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer. He is best known for being the co-founder and drummer of the rock band Toto, but is also one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundr ...
. From that point on, she changed her musical style to a more mainstream
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 ...
sound. In 1988, Hamada released the song " Heart and Soul", which was used by
NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...
on their coverage of the
1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...
in
Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
. The song peaked at No. 7 on
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 ...
's singles chart. Hamada was invited to perform on the 39th ''
Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...
'', but she declined the offer. In 1989, Hamada's ninth album '' Return to Myself'' topped Oricon's albums chart and went Platinum. In addition, the title track " Return to Myself ~Shinai, Shinai, Natsu." hit No. 1 on Oricon's singles chart.


1990s

Hamada's 1990 album ''
Colors Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpt ...
'' reached No. 2 and was certified Gold. A year later, she switched labels to MCA Victor, with '' Tomorrow'' also peaking at No. 2, but going Platinum. Hamada's 10th anniversary album '' Anti-Heroine'' topped the albums chart in 1993. That year, she participated in the charity group "Used to Be a Child", concept similar to Band Aid where performers donate earnings from a single to charitable causes; in this case the money went to Imabari City's Islet Organization. Hamada also went global with the international release '' Introducing... Mari Hamada'', which consists of original English-language songs and some of her hits reworked in English. The album was released in Asia on May 30, 1993. She made her European debut in 1994 with a re-arranged version of the album and participated at that year's Midem in France. Hamada also released the follow-up album '' All My Heart'' in Asian markets that year. The album features " Fixing a Broken Heart", a duet with Australian band
Indecent Obsession Indecent Obsession (also known as Obsession) were an Australian pop rock band formed in early 1987 in Brisbane with founding mainstays Daryl Sims on drums and Michael Szumowski on keyboards. By 1988, the line-up also included Andrew Coyne on l ...
. In 1996, Hamada's album ''
Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
'' hit No. 2 on Oricon's albums chart. During this time, she put her touring activities on hold to focus on songwriting and recording. Two years later,
Universal Music Japan , often referred to as just Universal Music Japan or UMJ, is a Japanese subsidiary of the Universal Music Group founded in 1990. It is the largest subsidiary for a foreign company in Japan regarding music distribution. The company is responsible ...
transferred her to the
Polydor Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...
label. Her two albums under the label, '' Philosophia'' and '' Blanche'', failed to crack the top-10.


2000s

In 2002, Hamada signed with
Tokuma Japan Communications is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company's product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, man ...
and released '' Marigold''. She also resumed live touring that year when she performed at the Akasaka Blitz just before it was completely demolished and rebuilt. Since then, Hamada would release a new album and tour every two years. Her album sales, however, were not of the same level as the decade before, with each album barely hovering within the Top 100.


2010s

In 2010, Hamada returned to her heavy metal roots with '' Aestetica'', which received heavy airplay. The album sparked a resurgence in her career, reaching No. 35 on Oricon's albums chart. Her live video '' Mari Hamada Live in Tokyo "Aestetica"'', which was filmed at the Nakano Sun Plaza, peaked at No. 2 on Oricon's DVD chart. Hamada followed up the success with her 2012 album '' Legenda''. Hamada kicked off her 30th anniversary celebration in 2013 with the compilation album '' Inclination III'' and an extensive national tour. In 2014, she released the boxed set '' Mari Hamada Complete Single Collection''. At the same time, her former and current labels reissued her past albums in Super High Material CD (SHM-CD) format. In April, Hamada performed an extended concert in Tokyo, which was filmed for WOWOW. The concert was aired on Japanese television on July 20, 2014, including two interviews with Mari, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in January 2015. On August 16, Hamada performed live at the
Summer Sonic Festival is an annual music festival held on one weekend in August simultaneously in both Chiba and Osaka, Japan. The festival features revolving lineups performing one day in Osaka then performing the next day in Chiba and vice-versa. The lineup often ...
, an annual two-day rock festival held at two venues simultaneously with bands switching venues for the second day. On August 31, September 3 and 7, 2014, she performed concerts with a symphony orchestra titled "Rock Queen Orchestra". On October 11, 2015, Hamada performed live at the Loud Park Festival, with Loudness guitarist
Akira Takasaki is a Japanese musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist and sole constant member of the heavy metal band Loudness. He is also the guitarist of the band Lazy, with which he first rose to prominence in the 1970s. Career He started his ...
as a special guest. On January 13, 2016, Hamada released the album '' Mission'', which peaked at No. 11 on Oricon's albums chart. The last show of the ''Mission'' tour was filmed and released on DVD and Blu-ray as '' Mari Hamada Live Tour 2016 "Mission"'' on February 22, 2017. To celebrate her 35th anniversary, Hamada returned to Victor Entertainment in April 2018. She released '' Gracia'' on August 1; the album went all the way to No. 6 on Oricon's albums chart, becoming her first top-10 album since ''Persona''. A year later, she released the compilation album '' Light for the Ages -35th Anniversary Best~Fan's Selection-''. She also performed at the
Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. The Budokan was a popular venue for Japanese professional wres ...
for the first time in 25 years on April 19. The concert was released on DVD and Blu-ray as '' Mari Hamada 35th Anniversary Live "Gracia" at Budokan'' on December 18.


2020s

In 2020, Hamada became the first Japanese vocalist to win the reader's popularity vote on ''
Burrn! is a monthly Japanese magazine for fans of heavy metal music, published since September 1984. It is the major publication on heavy metal music in the country. As of 2013, it is published by Shinko Music Entertainment in Tokyo Tokyo, off ...
'' magazine's 36th Heavy Metal Championship for 2019. Hamada's 24th studio album '' Soar'' was released on April 19, 2023 to coincide with her 40th anniversary.


Personal life

Hamada's younger sister tours with her band as a backing vocalist. In a 2014 interview with Japanese media website
Natalie Natalie may refer to: Places * Natalie, Michigan, an unincorporated community People * Natalie (given name) * Natalie (singer) (born 1979), Mexican-American R&B singer/songwriter * (born 1999), better known as Natalie Zenn, Indonesian act ...
, Hamada stated that she does not do
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or blogs because she is not good at using social media. She did, however, open her official Twitter account in February 2017. She also does not follow other artists and prefers to listen to anything different from her genre, such as
Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celts (modern), Celtic people of Northwestern Europe (the modern Celtic nations). It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and ...
or
world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...
.


Band personnel


Current members

* Takashi Masuzaki (Dimension) – guitar (1987–present) * ISAO – guitar (2018–present) * BOH – bass (2018–present) * Hideki Harasawa – drums (2018–present) * Takanobu Masuda – keyboards (1985–1992; 2002–present) * Masafumi Nakao – keyboards, sound effects (1991–present) * ERI (Eri Hamada) – backing vocals (1985–present)


Former members

* Katsuya Satō – guitar (1983–1987) * Fumio Kaneko – guitar (1983–1986) * Hiro Sugihara – guitar (1983) * Kenji Kitajima (Fence of Defense) – guitar (1984) *
Tak Matsumoto is a Japanese musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist and main composer of the Rock music, rock duo B'z, the List of best-selling music artists in Japan, best-selling music act in their native Japan by certif ...
(
B'z is a Japanese rock duo consisting of guitarist, composer and producer Takahiro "Tak" Matsumoto and vocalist and lyricist Koshi Inaba,佐伯明『B'z ウルトラクロニクル』ソニー・マガジンズ、2003年。新型光B'zはなぜ ...
) – guitar (1986, 1988) * Kazuo Shimizu – guitar (1988–1991) * Junichi Kawauchi – guitar (1993) * Yōichi Fujii – guitar (2007–2016) * Nozomi Wakai – guitar (2016) * Kinta Moriyama (5X) – bass (1983) * Toshimi Nagai – bass (1993) * Tony Franklin – bass (1994) * Tomonori "You" Yamada – bass (1983–1992; 2002–2016) * Jun Harada (5X) – drums (1983) * Haruki Niekawa – drums (1983–1986) * Noriyuki Okada – drums (1986–1991) * Hirotsugu Homma (
Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to sho ...
) – drums (1991–2007) * Tony Thompson – drums (1994) * Satoshi "Joe" Miyawaki ( 44MAGNUM/ZIGGY) – drums (2008–2016) * Takayoshi Kobayashi – keyboards (1984–1986) * Kazuhiro Hara – keyboards (1988–1990) *
Paul Mirkovich Paul Mirkovich (born March 20, 1963) is an American musician from Los Angeles. He has previously been band leader, keyboardist and duet singing partner for Cher. He has also been the band director for Janet Jackson and Anastacia and a member of t ...
– keyboards (1994) * Mai – backing vocals (1983–1984) * A-mi (Eiko Kamata) – backing vocals (1991–1993)


Discography

* '' Lunatic Doll'' (1983) * '' Romantic Night'' (1983) * '' Misty Lady'' (1984) * '' Rainbow Dream'' (1985) * '' Blue Revolution'' (1985) * '' Promise in the History'' (1986) * '' In the Precious Age'' (1987) * '' Love Never Turns Against'' (1988) * '' Return to Myself'' (1989) * ''
Colors Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpt ...
'' (1990) * '' Tomorrow'' (1991) * '' Anti-Heroine'' (1993) * ''
Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
'' (1996) * '' Philosophia'' (1998) * '' Blanche'' (2000) * '' Marigold'' (2002) * ''
Sense of Self A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the surroundings through the detection of stimuli. Although, in some cultures, five human senses were traditionally identified as su ...
'' (2003) * '' Elan'' (2005) * '' Sur lie'' (2007) * '' Aestetica'' (2010) * '' Legenda'' (2012) * '' Mission'' (2016) * '' Gracia'' (2018) * '' Soar'' (2023)


Notes


References


External links

* * (Victor Entertainment) * (Tokuma Japan Communications) * (Tri-M Records) * (Universal Music Japan)
Mari Family – official fan club
* *
Mari Hamada
at
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 ...

Mari Hamada on Idollica
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamada, Mari 1962 births Living people 20th-century Japanese women singers 21st-century Japanese women singers Singers from Tokyo Japanese women heavy metal singers Japanese women singer-songwriters English-language singers from Japan MCA Records artists Tokuma Japan Communications artists Universal Music Japan artists Victor Entertainment artists