Angela aki

Angela Aki, recognized for piano-centered pop and rock songcraft, is a Japanese vocalist and lyricist whose breakthrough arrived with the theme for Final Fantasy XII in 2006, though her path had already begun years earlier on the opposite side of the Pacific. That trajectory fits her parentage as the child of a prominent Japanese businessman and an American of Italian descent. Born Kiyomi Aki in Itama, Japan, in 1997, she began piano, violin, guitar, and drum lessons at age three. At fifteen her family relocated to Hawaii, where she finished high school and earned a scholarship to a Washington university; she studied politics and jazz until a Sarah McLachlan concert prompted her to pursue life as a singer-songwriter. Coffeehouse performances led to a meeting with Tony Alany, her first husband and the producer of her 2000 independent debut These Words, whose lyrics were in English. She gained moderate traction opening for Sixpence None the Richer and appearing at Al Gore’s Christmas party, yet she ultimately left the American market, returned to Japan, and ended that marriage shortly beforehand. Her first domestic release, the 2005 mini-album One, topped HMV’s annual indie chart and caught the ear of composer Nobuo Uematsu, who invited her to record his Final Fantasy XII track. Although she normally writes her own material, she supplied lyrics and vocals for “Kiss Me Good-Bye” in 2006; the single reached number six on the Oricon chart and later appeared in the United States through Tofu Records after a pair of modestly successful predecessors. Her fourth single, “This Love,” used in the anime series Blood+, climbed to number two ahead of her first full-length Japanese album. Issued by Sony Music in mid-2006, Home surpassed five hundred thousand copies and confirmed her status among top-tier performers. The fifth single, “Sakura Iro” (2007), sold more than one hundred thousand units; she also recorded a campaign song for the Japanese Football League, performed at the Budokan, and received a commission for the drama Kodoku No Kake: Itoshiki Hito Yo, resulting in the track “Kodoku No Kakera.” Between these projects she married a music-industry professional twelve years her senior, whose name has not been made public. Her second Japanese album, Today, arrived in autumn 2007, immediately topped the charts, and approached two hundred thousand units sold.