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:
“What do women want with votes, when they hold the sceptre of influence with which they can control even votes, if they wield it aright?”
—Mrs. H. O. Ward (1824–1899)
“They tell us that women can bring better things to pass by indirect influence. Try to persuade any man that he will have more weight, more influence, if he gives up his vote, allies himself with no party and relies on influence to achieve his ends! By all means let us use to the utmost whatever influence we have, but in all justice do not ask us to be content with this.”
—Mrs. William C. Gannett, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 5, ch. 8, by Ida Husted Harper (1922)
“It behooves every man to see that his influence is on the side of justice, and let the courts make their own characters.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)