is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician who achieved success and popularity during the 1970s and 80s in the

city pop is a loosely defined form of Japanese pop music that emerged in the late 1970s and peaked in popularity during the 1980s. It was originally termed as an offshoot of Japan's Western-influenced " new music", but came to include a wide range of st ...

music scene.

Early life and career

Taeko Onuki was born in

Suginami Ward is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The ward refers to itself as Suginami City in English. As of June 1, 2022, Suginami has an estimated population of 588,354 and a population density of 17,274 persons per km2. The total area ...

, Tokyo, in 1953. Her father was Kenichiro Onuki, a member of the

Japanese Special Attack Units During World War II, , also called ''shimbu-tai'', were specialized units of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army normally used for suicide missions (specifically, suicide attacks). They included ''kamikaze'' aircraft, ''fukur ...

during the Second World War. In 1973, she formed Sugar Babe with

Tatsuro Yamashita , occasionally referred to as Tatsu Yamashita or Tats Yamashita, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and record producer, who is known for pioneering the city pop style of music. His most well-known song is "Christmas Eve", a best-selling song rel ...

and Kunio Muramatsu. Because the dominant music style at the time was hard rock, audiences did not respond too warmly, and the group disbanded three years later. In 1976, Onuki began her solo career by releasing the album ''Grey Skies'', which carried the same sound as Sugar Babe. Her second landmark album, ''Sunshower'' was released the following year in 1977 and had a much different style, mixing pop music and jazz. In 1978 she released her third album, ''Mignonne'', in which she worked with producer Eji Ogura, but the sales-focused process was difficult for her and the album didn't sell as expected. She took a two year break from music afterwards. Beginning from 1980, she released her “Europe” trilogy of albums: ''Romantique'', ''Aventure'' and ''Cliché'', taking on a more electronic sound.

Later career

In 1998, she won the 21st Japan Academy Award for Best Music Award in the movie "Tokyo biyori". She sung the theme song for the Japanese dub of ''Kirikou and the Sorceress'', "Hadaka no Kiriku". From October 5, 2005, she served as Wednesday navigator (DJ) of the program " NIGHT STORIES " " THE UNIVERSE " of FM radio station J-WAVE in Tokyo. On November 2, 2006, the soundtrack for the Game Boy Advance game ''

Mother 3 is a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the third and final entry in the Mother (video game series), ''Mother'' series. The game follows Lucas, a ...

'' was released, featuring the song "We miss you ~ The theme of love ~", which Onuki sang. She also sang the theme song for '' Animal Crossing: The Movie'' based on

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

's ''

Animal Crossing is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo. It was created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. The player character is a human who lives in a village inhabited by various anthropomorphic animals and can ...

'' video game series. In 2009, Onuki covered

Eiichi Ohtaki was a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He first became known as a member of the rock band Happy End, but was better known for his solo work which began in 1972. In 2003, Ohtaki was ranked by HMV at number 9 on their l ...

's song "Kimi wa Tennen Shoku" for the album ''

A Long Vacation ''A Long Vacation'' is an album by Japanese musician Eiichi Ohtaki, released on March 21, 1981. It sold over a million copies and won Best Album at the 23rd Japan Record Awards. It has been called one of the greatest Japanese rock albums of ...

''. In 2020, the movie ''

Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is a Japanese animated slice-of-life romantic comedy-drama film produced by Sublimation and Signal.MD and directed by Kyōhei Ishiguro. It premiered at the 2020 Shanghai International Film Festival. It was released to Japanese theaters on July ...

'' was released, for which Onuki sang the insert song "YAMAZAKURA". On March 11, 2022, Onuki participated in the Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami tribute concert "One Last Live", performing "Tokai" and "Mon doux Soleil".

Discography

Albums

References

External links

* * Living people People from Suginami Singers from Tokyo Japanese women singer-songwriters 1953 births 20th-century Japanese women singers 20th-century Japanese singer-songwriters 21st-century Japanese women singers 21st-century Japanese singer-songwriters {{Japan-singer-stub