Music Career
When aiko studied popular music vocals at the Osaka College of Music, she won the grand prix of "Teens Music Festival" in 1995 at the age of 19. She got acquainted with Ringo Shiina then.
In April, 1996, aiko became a radio host of FM Osaka after graduating from the college. She released CD which she produced independently with her friends of the college in August. She participated in "The 5th Music Quest Japan Final", and was awarded the Excellence Award shared with Ringo Shiina in October. Then, the music producer of pony canyon made contact with aiko. Thanks to the producer, she released EP from indies label in 1997 and one single and one mini-album in 1998.
In July, 1998, aiko made her debut from major label with 1st single "Ashita" adopted for the theme song of the movie Shinsei toire no Hanako-san. Only this song was composed by someone other than aiko currently.
In 1999, her 3rd single "Hanabi" made a smashing hit and continued remaining in Oricon charts for a long time and she gained nationwide fame.
In 2000, her 2nd album "Sakura no Ki no Shita" got the first place in the Oricon weekly charts and the total CD sales also amounted to 1.4 million copies, and her 6th single "boyfriend" sold over 0.5 million copies and became her best-selling CD single. She achieved the first appearance in NHK's 2000 Kohaku Uta Gassen. Incidentally, since the song's lyrics contain the word "tetrapot", similar to "tetrapod", a registered trademark, Aiko encountered controversy and brief legal problems since NHK is a public broadcasting station. However, the episode was resolved without any restriction being placed on the lyrics.
Read more about this topic: Aiko (singer)
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