Akina Nakamori

Commonly regarded, with Seiko Matsuda, as one of two queens of ’80s Japanese pop, Akina Nakamori is a popular and best-selling performer renowned for her emotive love songs and sustained chart dominance. The mature themes in Nakamori’s songs are dealt with candidly, and often delivered in a sultry and seemingly world-weary tone, making her stand out from more conventional peers. She sent 12 studio albums, three compilations, and 22 singles to number one during her golden period, and is one of only a few artists to place an album in the Top Ten of Japan’s Oricon Charts in four straight decades. Born in Tokyo in 1965, Nakamori showed a knack for the performing arts from kindergarten age, and by 14 she entered the popular talent search TV show, Star Tanjō!, winning it on her third attempt in 1981, when she scored the top result in the show’s history, as well as a deal with Warner Pioneer. Her debut single, “Slow Motion,” recorded in Los Angeles, reached a modest number 39, but its follow-up, “Shoujo A,” a song about a motorcycle-riding girl, took the number five slot. The more conventional ballad “Second Love,” Nakamori’s third single, set her personal record, selling close to one million in total sales, and spending nine weeks at the top of the charts. Nakamori didn’t miss the chance to strike while the iron was hot, and released two studio albums in 1982, Prologue and Variation. The latter record became her first number one album and sold close to three quarters of a million copies in its first year of release. 1983 brought two further number one albums — Fantasy and New Akina Entranger — a compilation, and another slew of singles. In fact — bar 1988′s rock-inspired Stock, which peaked at number two — Nakamori sent each of her remaining full-length albums of the decade to the top spot in Japan. She had her acting debut in 1985, starring in the movie Aitabidachi with Kondo Masahiko, who became her boyfriend for part of the decade. She also won the Japan Record Taisho Grand Prix, for the singles “Meu amor é…” and “Desire (Jōnetsu)” in 1985 and 1986, respectively. With its reverb heavy vocals and experimental approach, 1986′s self-produced Fushigi was indicative of Nakamori’s maturing musical style and decidedly her most adventurous album to date. On the more ballad-focused Crimson, which closed out that year, Nakamori delivered her vocals with an uncharacteristic, hushed restraint. Next, inspired by the soundtracks to American blockbuster films of the period — such as Top Gun and Footloose — in 1987 she released an upfront English language album, Cross My Palm, which became her first to reach the Billboard Top 100. After recording 1988′s Femme Fatale in Los Angeles, Nakamori returned to Japan to lay down its follow-up, 1989′s Cruise. The latter album was issued only two weeks after Nakamori attempted to take her own life. In the period that followed, she prioritized her mental and physical recuperation, putting her career on hiatus for 12 months. Nakamori returned in 1990 with “Dear Friend,” a bright and energetic single that hit number one in Japan. Later that year, the comparatively somber “Mizu ni Sashita Hana” became her last to repeat the same feat, and after the 1991 release of Best III — a compilation album covering the years 1989 to 1991 — Nakamori and Warner Pioneer parted ways. Unable to record for another company for at least two years for contractual reasons, she spent some time in New York, and also hosted a radio show before starring in a 1992 critically acclaimed Japanese TV drama titled Sugao No Mamade. Next, Nakamori released a trio of albums for MCA — 1993′s Unbalance+Balance, 1995′s La Alteración, and 1997′s Shaker — the first two of which entered the Japanese Top Ten. Along the way, her 1995 single “Tokyo Rose” — which featured production and guitar from Brian Setzer — found her embracing rockabilly. Two underperforming albums for Gauss Entertainment — 1998′s Spoon and 1999′s Will — closed out the decade. During 2000 and 2001, Nakamori made two national tours. The first was based around acoustic performance, while the second was to promote her first foray into Latin R&B, the Adya-penned, May 2001 single, “It’s a Brand New Day.” This activity got the attention of Universal Music, which soon signed Nakamori to a multi-album deal, beginning with 2002′s Resonancia. Building on the renewed vigor that this opportunity created, Universal issued three further Nakamori studio albums of original material that decade: 2003′s I Hope So, 2006′s Destination and 2009′s Diva. Although these releases performed modestly, during the same period, she placed two cover records — 2002′s Zero Album: Utahime 2 and 2007′s Enka — in the Japanese Top Ten. Due to fatigue and general health issues, Nakamori resumed significant studio and live activity in the mid-2010s. Universal simultaneously issued two carefully curated compilations — All Time Best: Original and All Time Best: Utahime Cover — in August 2014, which hit numbers three and seven, respectively, in Japan. This laid the path for a high-energy January 2015 comeback track, “Rojo (Tierra).” It was her first single in five years and became her first to reach the Top Ten in 20 years. Its accompanying album, December’s Fixer, also hit the Top Ten, but not before another covers album — Utahime 4: My Eggs Benedict — achieved the same feat. With the promotional might of Universal able to consolidate this successful return, four further Top Ten albums followed in the next two years — 2015′s Fixer, 2016′s covers album, Belie, and the simultaneously released 2017 efforts, Cage and Akina, after which Nakamori went on hiatus. Although she contributed an orchestral re-recording of 1984′s “Kita Wing” to 2023′s 50th Anniversary Special A Tribute of Hayashi Tetsuji: Saudade, Nakamori was rarely seen or heard in subsequent years due to continuing ill health. ~ Alexey Eremenko & TiVo Staff