Nakamori Akina

One of THE idol singers in Japanese pop music. This most respected singer/actress usually debuted a single at the number one spot. With her unique, sensuous, sultry, low-pitched style, Akina built a formidable arsenal of hits unequaled by anybody except maybe her rival, Seiko. Starting with "Slow Motion" and "Shojo A", she went on to dominate the charts with hits including "Tattoo", "Tango Noir", "I Missed 'The Shock'" and probably one of her most popular hit "Nan Passen", which came at the unfortunate time of her mother's death and was evident in her heart-tearing performance of the song in concert.

While most of the other idols of her time were projecting a cutesy image, Akina went for a more mature style (she took her cue from Yamaguchi Momoe, who in turn took the mature bit from Misora Hibari), both in her look and her music. She specialized in torch songs, mostly sad ballads of lost love. Nobody sang a tearjerker like Akina. And she did it from life experience. But she could also tear it up with a hot number like "Tattoo". This song could only be fully appreciated when Akina performed it live. She takes you back to the forties in her Rita Hayworth style outfit and retro microphone. Definitely one of my fave Akina songs.

Like many before her, including Seiko Matsuda, Akina tried to break the American pop market with an all english album "Cross My Palm" which was ignored by the ignorant Americans. Their loss. But Akina did enjoy some popularity in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Extremely beautiful and sexy, Akina also made numerous movies and appeared in many TV shows. And since her singles always topped the charts, she performed on lots of music shows on TV like "Uta no Top Ten" and "Music Station". Any self-respecting miha out there must have at least one Akina single or album in their collection!