Yaida Hitomi

Hitomi Yaida is a pop/folk rock singer/songwriter and guitarist. She was born 28 July 1978 in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan. She refers to her music as “heart rock” and can play most of the instruments she writes for.

Yaida first became well known in 2000 with her first EP Howling. Airplay on Osaka's local radio stations led to both Yaida and Aozora records being involved in a bidding war between the larger record companies. Eventually, Toshiba EMI gained distribution rights with Aozora retaining artist control and independent label status.

B'coz I Love You went straight into the charts and was followed by live appearances in the UK. This led to the release of the UK single I Like 2 under the name of Yaiko. Her second single, My Sweet Darlin' also went straight into the charts and was followed by the album daiya-monde, which went straight to number one.

Yaida was still at university at this time and took a short sabbatical from her musical career to prepare her thesis. After this, the UK Single Darling Darling was released at a live appearance in London.

Further relaeses followed and Yaida graduated from Kansai University with a degree in French language and literature, after which she embarked on her first official Japanese tour. This was followed by a number of appearances in the UK.

More successful releases followed and Yaida continued to perform regularly in the UK. Her second album, Candlize, entered the charts at number one and became platinum.

In 2003, Yaida began a gruelling tour schedule and continued to make successful releases over the next two years. Two years later, Yaida became the third Japanese artist to record an MTV Unplugged episode. She continues to tour extensively.

Discography

Singles

• Howling (2000)
• B'coz I Love You (2000)
• I Like 2 (2000)
• My Sweet Darlin' (2000)
• Darling Darling (2001)
• I'm Here Saying Nothing (2001)
• Look Back Again/Over The Distance (2001)
• Buzzstyle (2001)
• Ring My Bell (2002)
• ANDANTE (2002)
• Mikansei no Melody (2002)
• Koduku na Cowboy (2003)
• Hitori Jenga (2003)
• Chapter01/Marble-iro no Hi (2004)
• Monochrome Letter (2004)
• Mawaru Sora (2005)
• Go my way (2006)
• STARTLiNE (2006)
• Hatsukoi (2006)

Albums

• daiya-monde (2000)
• Candlize (2001)
• i/flancy (2002)
• Air/Cook/Sky (2003)
• Here today - gone tomorrow (2005)
• IT'S A NEW DAY (2006)

Videos and DVDs

• The First Reflection (2001)
• HITOMI YAIDA 2001 SUMMER LIVE SOUND OF CLOVER (2001)
• Candle in the lives (2002)
• Candle in the eyes (2002)
• Casket of Candleyes (2002)
• Sparkles of light (2003)
• Live Completion ’03 i can fly,can you? (2004)
• HITOMI YAIDA Music in the Air dome live2004 (2005)
• Hitomi Yaida MTV Unplugged (2005)

External links

• Official Website (Japanese)