Kamiki Aya

Kamiki Aya was born on September 10th 1985 in Sapporo, Hokkaido and began learning the piano from the tender age of four. However, her first venture into music came in middle school when she started her own band. Kamiki‘s main influences surrounding the band came from the genres of punk and rock and the aspiring performer also began to learn to play the guitar at this time. It was around 2002 that talent scouts from the production agency Box Corporation first discovered Kamiki‘s talent.

Throughout her high school years, Kamiki juggled her schoolwork with a budding modeling and music career. Around that time Kamiki met her classmates Aibu Saki, Ishikawa Kana and Ueno Natsuhi, who had all been discovered by the same production agency as her.

In 2003, Kamiki made her debut under For Life Records under the pseudonym KLIM with the single Breath, which was used as the ending theme for Fuji Television’s "Moshi mo taikan variety if." This release was followed up in March 2004 with the album W.H.Y?. On November 4th, Kamiki made a guest appearance at hills pan koujou, which signified her first official performance to the public. A few weeks later, Kamiki featured as backing vocals on ZARD‘s single Kyou wa yukkuri hanasou. After 2004, Kamiki opted to move her musical career to Osaka and start afresh.

2005 signaled Kamiki’s Indies debut with the release of her second mini-album CONSTELLATION in May and in September, she featured on ZARD‘s eleventh album Kimi to no Distance as backing vocals.

Kamiki made her major debut in 2006 with the single Communication Break, which peaked at number 39 on the Oricon. With the release of her second single Pierrot in April 2006, Kamiki scored the number nine position on the Oricon. The single’s popularity can possibly be attributed to the fact that it was a cover of B’z’s song of the same name, which was released on the single Yuruginai mono hitotsu. Perhaps most interestingly, both singles were in fact released on the same day and Kamiki‘s version of the song featured slight variations to that of the original.

On May 15th, Kamiki‘s official fanclub “Kaming” was established.

In July, Kamiki unveiled her debut album Secret Code, which peaked at number five. To commemorate the release of the album, she held two mini-lives titled BLACK KAMIKI and WHITE AYA at Tower Records and HMV Shibuya respectively. For fans who had purchased the album at the corresponding store, the event was free.

At the 21st Japan Gold Disc Awards held in March 2007, Kamiki was one of ten artists to receive an award for being one the best new artists of the year alongside performers such as Aqua Timez, MONKEY MAJIK and Teshima Aoi.

A couple of months later, Kamiki released her first concert DVD AYA KAMIKI FIRST LIVE, which featured exclusive footage from her one-man live in 2006. In fact, the event was met with such success that all tickets were sold on the same day of the live’s announcement. As if to further illustrate Kamiki‘s popularity, the DVD peaked at number three on the chart.

In October, she released her second album Ashita no tame ni ~Forever More~ which peaked at number seven on the Oricon. The album release was quickly followed by Kamiki‘s second live tour AYA KAMIKI LIVE 2007 -Ashita no tame ni hashiri dasou-, which began at Osaka’s Namba Hatch on November 10th.

On April 9th 2008, Kamiki was a guest vocalist on the single Tsubasa wo hirogete/Ai wa kurayami no naka de, which commemorated the death of ZARD vocalist Sakai Izumi who had tragically passed away on May 27th 2007. September saw the release of Kamiki‘s third album Are you happy now?, which peaked at number ten on the Oricon. As a tribute to ZARD, the album featured a cover of Ai wa kurayami no nake de, on which Kamiki had previously performed guest vocals.

From October 15th, Kamiki commenced on her AYA KAMIKI LIVE 2008 ~Are you happy now?~ tour, which began at Nagoya E.L.L and concluded on October 23rd following three separate performances at Akasaka BLITZ in Tokyo.

Kamiki concluded the year with the single release Sekai wa sore demo kawari wa shinai, which peaked at number 42 on the Oricon.

As of 2009, Kamiki‘s career has seemingly been put on hold with no word on upcoming activities being offered. However, as a young artist who has gained respectable fame in her short musical career, we can only assume that Kamiki Aya is creating something new and exciting for her fans to enjoy in the new future