Super fan Sayuri - biography of her pop idol

Yumi Matsutoya, “Yuming”, is a top Japanese singer-songwriter, who has brought a new sensitivity to the Japanese pop music scene.  She was born in Hachioji on 19 January 1954, the daughter of a draper, and she has a lengthy backstory.  

As student at Tama Art University, she released her first single "Henjiha Iranai" on 5 July 1972, and her first album "Hikokigumo" in November that year, working with many famous musicians who considered her to be a brilliant artist. 

Yumi Matsutoya

On 29 November 1976 Yuming married Masataka Matsutoya, a member of a popular band who had produced and arranged her work.  Since " Delight Slight Light Kiss" in 1989, she made eight consecutive million-selling albums, and became the first female artist to sell over thirty million CDs.  

Yuming’s tour concerts are always very distinctive, creative and outstanding so it is always very difficult to get tickets.  She has appeared on a real elephant, performed with a Russian circus and sung with synchronized swimmers in a swimming pool on stage, as if in a miraculous dream.  She has also held an annual concert at Naeba ski resort since 1981; 2021 will be the forty-first edition.

'Shinkainomachi' , released on 1 December 2020, is her thirty-ninth album, featuring the notable songs '1920' (about the year of Antwerp Olympics, after the first world war and the Spanish flu epidemic) and 'Notre Dame' (related to the tragedy of the unforgettable blaze in Paris).  Even though they are serious and deep themes, her lyrics are simple and philosophical, but weaving artistry and pop as well.  Her music will be listened to for another hundred years.

Posted for Sayuri - who bought an iPhone just so she could get a digital ticket to join a TV Special tonight (15/1/2021)!