Koda Kumi

A Japanese pop singer from Osaka on the avex rhythm zone label, she has been contending with Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro since the year 2000 as one of the top J-Pop singers. She first gained traction with a role in Final Fantasy X-2 as the voice actor and singing voice of Lenne, producing "real Emotion" and "1000 Words". Covering the 1970s anime theme song "CUTIE HONEY" and releasing a special "12 Singles of Christmas" series of singles through 2005-2006 kept the momentum going, and she became a household name. She is known for her husky voice, variety of genres/style of songs (cute & fun, sexy, r&b, rap, rock, reggae, ballad), and being the "Queen of Live" - having memorable live performances with creative theatrics. She comes from a family of singers: her mother was a lounge singer and played the koto, and her younger sister is another J-Pop star, misono. She has been married to KENJI03 from BACK-ON since 2011, and they have one son born the following year. Over the years she has collaborated with many artists, ranging from Fergie to Katori Shingo of SMAP to Tohoshinki / DBSK, to T-Pain and of course her own sister, misono. As she surpassed her 15th anniversary, she started to go in a more western-style direction of music with more trap and hip-hop, which has created some dissonance in the fanbase but overall, Kuu is still Kuu.