Toshinobu Kubota

Toshinobu Kubota is a soul singer from Shizuoka. He has used a number of different styles from pop through to reggae and soul. Kubota has released a total of eleven albums, four mini-albums, nine videos and twnety five singles since his debut and his albums have consistently sold over a million copies each in Japan.

Kubota sang from very young, winning contests from the time he was in pre-school. He played in several bands throughout junior high and high school, but their attempts to recreate the sound and feeling of American soul were unsuccessful. Kubota moved to Tokyo to study and spent much of his time performing and checking out music in Tokyo's numerous.

A label representative caught his act and set him up as a vocalist for a record by Naoya Matsuoka. This served as Kubota's demo. He made his debut in 1986 with the album Shake It Paradise, which went platinum soon after its release. The following three albums followed suit.

His popularity peaked with his award-winning 1990 Bonga Wanga. His biggest hit single was a duet with Naomi Campbell entitled La La La Love song, which was used as a theme song of the television drama Long Vacation and sold two million copies in Japan.

Kubota began traveling to the US frequently in the 90s, sometimes collaborating with American artists. In 1995, Sony released his first English language album Sunshine, Moonlight.

Nothing But Your Love, appeared in 2000 and featured guest appearances by Ahmir Thompson, Angie Stone, Raphael Saadiq and rapper Pras. Kubota continues to release and perform in Japan but has now made New York his home.

Kubota does a weekly late night radio show for Tokyo FM called Planet Flava. His singles are frequently picked for TV drama opening/closing credit songs, TV commercials and feature films.

Discography

Singles

• THE BADDEST (1989)
• Cry On Your Smile(1989)
• TIME (1989)
• Keep On Dancing (1990)
• SUPER DUPER Vol.2 (1991)
• BONGA WANGAS TOUR'91 (1991)
• KUBOJAH (1991)
• Neptune (1993)
• WITH YOU (1993)
• THE BADDEST II (1994)
• A Night in Afro Blue (1994)
• BUMPIN' VOYAGE (1995)
• LA LA LA LOVE SONG (1996)
• Funk It Up Nice & EZ (1996)
• Just The Two Of Us Butcher Bros. LP Remix (1996)
• LA LA LA LOVE THANG (1997)
• TOSHINOBU KOBOTA CONCERT TOUR '96 "Oyees!" (1998)
• the Sound of Carnival (1999)
• AHHHHH! (1999)
• SOUL BANGIN' (1999)
• Nothing But Your Love (2001)
• Candy Rain (2002)
• GODDESS (2005)
• CRY ON YOUR SMILE (2005)
• You were mine (2005)
• GIVE YOU MY LOVE (2005)
• Be wanabee(2005)
• FOREVER YOURS(2005)
• Honey B(2005)
• With You(2005)
• A Night in Afro Blue (2005)
• ZA-KU-ZA-KU Digame/SUNshine.MOONlight (2005)
• LA LA LA LOVE SONG (2005)
• Just The Two Of Us (2005)
• BODY-CATION (2005)
• Cymbals(2005)
• AHHHHH!(2005)
• the Sound of Carnival (2005)
• a Love Story (2005)
• Time To Share (2005)
• Club Happiness (2005)

Albums

• Shake It Paradise (1986)
• Groovin' (1987)
• Such A Funky Thang (1988)
• You were Mine (1989)
• The Baddest (1989)
• Bonga Wanga (1990)
• Give You My Love (1990)
• Honey Bee (1991)
• Kubojah - Parallel World 1 (1991)
• Neptune (1992)
• SUPER DUPER VOL.3 (1992)
• The Baddest II (1993)
• Bumpin' Voyage (1995)
• Sunshine, Moonlight (1995)
• SUPER DUPER VOL.4 (1995)
• SUPER DUPER Vol.5 from New York (1996)
• La La La Love Song (1996)
• As One (2000)
• SUPER DUPER Vol.6 (2000)
• Nothing But Your Love (2000)
• Messengers' Rhyme / No Lights... Candle Light (2000)
• Respect (this and that) (2002)
• United Flow (2002)
• The Baddest Only For Lovers In The Mood (2002)
• The Baddest III (2002)
• SUPER DUPER Vol.7 THE BADDEST III on FILMS (2003)
• Time To Share (2004)
• Sould Tree (2004)
• Our Christmas (2004)
• For Real? (2006)

Videos and DVDs

• Such A Funky Thang! (1990)
• BE wanabee (1990)
• FOREVER YOURS (1991)
• ZA-KU-ZA-KU Digame SUNshine, MOONlight (1995)
• Cymbals (1997)
• BODY-CATION (1996)
• Always Remain (2000)
• SUPER DUPER Vol.6 (2000)
• As One (2000)

External Links

• Official Website (Japanese)

• J!-ENT 2004 Interview