Crystal kay

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Crystal Kay (クリスタル・ケイ, sometimes known as Kuri or CK) is the daughter of an African-American father and Korean mother, born and raised in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. To date she has released eight albums, her "All Yours" album reaching #1 on the Oricon charts, and has collaborated with the likes of m-flo and CHEMISTRY. Crystal is part of the Sony Music Entertainment Japan records label.<ref>Template:cite web</ref><ref>Nippop | Crystal Kay | Profile</ref><ref>Crystal Kay@Oricon Style Online(2006)</ref>

Biography

Crystal Kay was born to an African American father (a bassist from New Jersey) and a third-generation Zainichi mother who was a professional singer. Growing up with musicians as parents she first sang some songs for TV CF, thanks in no small part to her mother's contacts, at the age of 6. This young start got her noticed early on and by 1998 she had signed to Epic Records at only 12 years old. The following year she debuted with the single "Eternal Memories".

Crystal Kay was born and raised in Japan but she attended Kinnick High School when her father was stationed in Yokosuka. She later attended Sophia University, which is the same college Beni Arashiro currently attends, the two are reported to be good friends. She is fluent in both English and Japanese, the former making a regular appearance in her songs which exhibit a distinctly western influenced R&B sound. She has also studied French. Template:cite web

Her best-selling single in her career so far is 2005's "Koi ni Ochitara" which was used in the drama Koi ni Ochitara: Boku no Seikō no Himitsu and peaked at #2 on the weekly charts, and became the 30th best selling single of 2005 with an estimated 288,629 copies sold. In 2006 Crystal released "Kirakuni" which was her second single with a lead song that is sung in full English, the first being "Shadows of Desire". Soon after that Crystal Kay released a new album called Call me Miss... that peaked at #2 on the Weekly Oricon Album Charts. <ref>Kay @ thePPN</ref>

"Kitto Eien ni" was released January 17, 2007. It was to be used as the theme song for the 2007 live-action movie of Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru. Another single called "Konna ni Chikaku de..." was released just a month later on February 28, 2007. It was used as the ending to the anime Nodame Cantabile. <ref>NEW SINGLE "Konna ni Chikaku de...</ref> This was later followed by a third single "Anata no Soba de" in May and Crystal's seventh studio album All Yours a month later. The album became her first ever release to reach #1, although the album had the lowest debut sales of a #1 album for 2007 selling 51,211 copies that week. <ref>2007 Oricon Number 1 Releases</ref>

About a month before Christmas 2007, Crystal released her first EP entitled "Shining". The mini album had a Christmas theme and featured two new tracks. <ref>Crystal Kay's first mini album "Shining"</ref>

"We had the impression that her voice was really clean and we would definitely want to work with her if we had an opportunity."

As expected a single was announced for a June 11, 2008 release. However to fan's surprise it was not the Pokémon theme song, but a completely different single entitled "Namida no Saki ni" which means 'Here-after the tears', but is constantly mis-translated as 'Before the tears' because of the word 'saki', which can mean 'before' or 'hereafter.' But by listening to the context of the song, it is clear that she's speaking of the future and not the past. <ref>25th single "Namida no Saki ni"</ref> The single produced a new pop-rock sound for Crystal, however the single failed to become a major success. 5 weeks later the Pokémon single, "One" was finally released in July. For her upcoming album "Color Change!" Crystal reportedly has some songs produced by Bloodshy & Avant and Jam & Lewis for the album, which is to be released on August 6th, 2008. <ref>Crystal Kay's 8th original album "Color Change!"</ref> The title "Color Change!" reflects from her graduation this year <ref>Chanto News: Thank you!</ref> and how much she's changed.