Aiko

Aiko's cheerful love songs made her one of the prime forces of J-pop of the early and mid-2000s, when she wooed teenage fans all over East Asia and topped the Oricon favorite singer poll twice in a row in 2005 and 2006. Born in 1975, she graduated from Osaka College of Music and began DJing at a local FM station, working on her own material in her spare time. She debuted in 1997 with the EP Astral Box. Although her first charting single, "Ashita," out in 1998, entered the Oricon ratings at a modest number 89, its follow-up, "Hanabi" (1999), boosted by TV coverage, grabbed the ...