Influence
Crystal Kay is considered a pioneer for interracial acts in Japan. She debuted in 1999 when R&B began to take off in Japan thanks to local acts MISIA, Double and Hikaru Utada. Her success paved the way for the mainstream success of many interracial acts in the mid-00s such as Thelma Aoyama, Anna Tsuchiya, Angela Aki and African-American/Japanese enka singer Jero.
In 2009 Kay stated that "There is still some racial thing going on, people are getting used to it. You can see a lot more mixed people on TV, and even (among) models in magazines." At a summer festival that year half-Japanese half-Papua New Guinean singer Emi Maria left Kay a demo and a note saying "You're my idol, I'm sad I couldn't meet you in person."
Nevertheless Kay has commented, "I consider myself a Japanese artist because I was born and raised here, but nationality-wise I look, and am, foreign."
Read more about this topic: Crystal Kay
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“My administration is pledged to follow the policies of Mr. Roosevelt in this regard, and while that pledge does not involve me in any obligation to carry them out unless I have Congressional authority to do so, it does require that I take every step and exert every legislative influence upon Congress to enact the legislation which shall best subserve the purposes indicated.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The purifying, healing influence of literature, the dissipating of passions by knowledge and the written word, literature as the path to understanding, forgiveness and love, the redeeming might of the word, the literary spirit as the noblest manifestation of the spirit of man, the writer as perfected type, as saint.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“Somewhere along the line of development we discover who we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else’s life not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life and what you become yourself.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)