''Riri'' (stylized as RIRI) is the eponymous debut studio album by Japanese singer Riri, released February 14, 2018, by Sony Music Associated Records. The album served as her major label debut following a record deal with

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

. Three promotional singles were released prior to the release of the album. The first, a remix of "Rush" was released in November 2017. A second promotional single, "Keep Up" was released in December and a third, "Crush on You" was released in January 2018. Upon its release, the album peaked at number 34 on the

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon A ...

and number 18 on the ''

Billboard Japan ''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine '' Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway), holding an exclusive licence fr ...

'' Hot Albums chart.

Background

In 2016, Riri was discovered by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Ai and her recently launched talent agency, The Mic-a-holics, after winning a talent contest. Later that year, Riri released her debut extended play ''I Love to Sing'' under the agency. In 2017, her second EP ''Rush'' was released by The Mic-a-holics. Unlike her previous EP, ''Rush'' charted in Japan, debuting and peaking at number 70 on the ''

'' Hot Albums chart.* Riri ultimately was scouted by

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

and eventually was signed to Sony Music Associated Records.

Development and production

Wanting to appeal overseas and Japanese listeners, Riri worked with both western and far eastern producers. Five previously released tracks from ''I Love to Sing'' and ''Rush'' were included and recorded in Japan while five new tracks were recorded in

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, ...

. She worked with various songwriters and producers such as

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, Uta, Ai, and

Mayu Wakisaka is a singer-songwriter, composer, and lyricist based in Tokyo, Japan. Mayu grew up in Osaka, Japan, and studied law at Kyoto University. In 2007, she quit law school to pursue her career as a singer-songwriter and moved to Los Angeles. While stu ...

Music and lyrics

''Riri'' has been described as an R&B and EDM album. Riri was influenced by artists such as

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. With a career spanning over three decades, she has established herself as one of the most Cultural impact of Beyoncé, ...

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and

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. Riri's western appeal for the album was heavily influenced by Ai, who Riri has described as someone she "cherishes". In an interview with

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 ...

, Riri described "Promised Road" as a song about eventually having dreams come true.

Track listing

Notes

* Certain digital stores display "2018 remastered" within the title of tracks 1–2, 4, 6 and 10 * Tracks 1 and 9 are stylized in all capitals * Track 10 is stylized in

sentence case Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing systems ...

Charts

Release history

References

{{Reflist 2018 debut albums Onenation albums Sony Music Entertainment Japan albums