Koda Kumi

Koda Kumi (倖田來未) (born November 13, 1982), is a Japanese solo rhythm and blues singer. She was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan. She debuted in the professional singing career on December 6, 2000. Kumi's first single track is "Take Back", which was released in the United States in March 2001. Her follow-up single is "Trust Your Love", which held the 39th position in Billboard's Hot 100 singles sales chart and the first position in Billboard's Hot Dance Music and Maxi-Singles chart. Her first album was Affection, produced by Max Matsuura. It contains remixes by Hex Hector and Jonathan Peters. To honor the victims of the September 11 Terrorist Attack, Kumi collaborated with Korean singer Kwon Boa on the charity album The Meaning of Peace, produced by Tetsuya Komuro, one of the most prolific, famous, and successsful music producers in Japan. In an effort to gain popularity, she has been widely known as the singer for the Japanese version of Final Fantasy X-2, singing "1000 no Kotoba" (1000 Words) and the opening song "Real Emotion." Although she recorded an English version of the song, Square Enix believed that it sounded low-quality or lackluster. Consequently, Square Enix wisely opted to have Jade of Sweetbox to perform the English versions of the Final Fantasy X-2 vocal songs. Kumi is also a model for Christian Dior in Japan. Her favorite artists are Christina Aguilera and Ja Rule.

Her first concert in the United States took place at the Marriot at the Capital In Austin, TX, on January 30 2004 as a part of the Ushicon 3 anime convention.