YUI

Name: Yui
* Birthdate: March 26, 1987
* Height: 5 ft 1 in (155 cm)
* Weight: 45 kg
* Blood Type: AB
* Zodiac: Aries
* Chinese Zodiac: Rabbit
* Hobbies: Movies, reading, acoustic guitar, and badminton
* Favorite place: Shinguu beach, Niimiya sea

Biography

YUI began writing poems in ninth grade. At the age of sixteen, by recommendation of her mother, she began studying song, songwriting, and guitar at a private music school in her native Fukuoka. Aspiring to become a professional, she carried her guitar around and sang at local places such as the seashore of Shingu, and in the middle of the rice fields of Kaminofu.

In March 2004, she sang three songs at an audition hosted by Sony Music Japan, as opposed to the audition rule that a participant could only sing two songs. All judges evaluated her with the highest score, which caused a fierce scramble among labels. She first sang "Why Me", which was later coupled with her debut single, followed by "It's happy line" and "I know", the latter of which was included on her indie single. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she strummed her guitar and sang. The judges and the others present claimed that "the performance created a tremendous aura from her heavenly voice, and captured the hearts of the whole audience".

Upon leaving her home of Fukuoka for Tokyo, YUI wrote the song "feel my soul". She was planning its release on an indie label as a tribute to her hometown, when the song caught the ears of Fuji TV producer Mr. Yamaguchi, who happened to see the demo video clip. He claimed YUI's voice haunted him so much that he went out of his way to visit the recording studio himself. He even made his channel's prime time drama an extraordinary tie-in with YUI's debut track.

Although she is uncomfortable talking to people, she enjoys communicating with her audience at street performances in the Tenjin district of Fukuoka.

YUI starred in a movie released on June 17, 2006, titled Midnight Sun (in Japanese Taiyou no Uta (song of the sun) , which was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Yui's 5th single, "Good-bye Days", was written for Taiyou No Uta ("Midnight Sun") and is by far her highest selling single, at 200,000 copies sold. "I Remember You", her next single, did fairly well, boosted by "Good-bye Days"' popularity. Soon after, Yui's 7th single "Rolling Star" was chosen by the anime series Bleach to be the 5th opening theme song; her third single, "Life", had previously been chosen as the 5th ending theme song. "Che.R.Ry", her 8th single, was used as a song for the KDDI au Listen Mobile Service CM. Her second album, Can't Buy My Love, fared well on the Oricon charts, staying for two weeks at #1 and shattering her entire previous album's record sales in one week. So far, Can't Buy My Love has manged to sell over 500,000 copies. Due to the success of Can't Buy My Love, Yui's previous album charted once again to add another 9k or so to the Oricon counting.

She released her 9th single, "My Generation / Understand", on 13 June 2007. This was the very first time that Yui released a double A-side single. My Generation is the theme song for the drama "Seito Shokun!", and Understand is the theme song for the movie "Sidecar ni Inu."

Her 10th single, "Love & Truth", released on September 26, is the theme song to Erika Sawajiri's film, Closed Note. Erika Sawajiri played YUI's role of Amane Kaoru in the TV series adaptation of Taiyou no Uta. It currently stands as #1 on the Oricon charts