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Koda Kumi was the first girl born into her family in a number of generations. She dreamed of becoming a singer since she was
in elementary school. She auditioned alongside Goto Maki for the 3rd generation of Morning Musume when she was seventeen,
but didn't make it. She was noticed by Avex Trax, however, and was signed and began releasing pop music with an urban feel.
Her debut single, TAKE BACK, was released in December 2000. After a few more unsuccessful singles, she released her debut
album, affection in 2002. But with the 2003 release of real Emotion / 1000 no Kotoba a year later, Koda's career finally found
success.
She released three more albums: grow into one, feel my mind, and secret. Her fan base grew with the release of each album.
BEST ~first things~ is her first single collection, which sold nearly 2 million copies, and remained on the charts for
less than four months. It became the highest selling female album of 2005 and reached #17 on the top albums of 2006.
Cherry Girl / Unmei and the follow up fifth studio album, Black Cherry, were both released in December 2006. Oricon reports
that Black Cherry is the first female studio album to stay at number one for four weeks in four years, selling 802,000 copies.
The last female studio album to have done that was Hamasaki Ayumi's 2000 album, Duty.
She released a third compilation album, BEST ~BOUNCE & LOVERS~. It charted at #2 on both the Oricon daily and weekly
charts with first week sales of 161,458 copies.
On July 7th, 2007, Koda played at Makuhari Messe, Tokyo, one of Japan's Live Earth concert venues.
On September 12th, 2007, Ai no Uta, Koda's 37th single was released.
Koda Kumi released her 38th single on November 7th, 2007, LAST ANGEL, which is a collaboration with Korean/Japanese boyband
TOHOSHINKI
On December 1st, 2007, she began her first arena tour Koda Kumi Live Tour 2007 ~Black Cherry~ at the Tokyo Dome. She is
the fourth Japanese female singer to give a solo concert at Tokyo Dome.
On the 22nd of November, Koda Kumi's 6th full length studio album Kingdom was announced. With 15 tracks, it will feature
6 a-sides (new single anytime released on the 2008.01.23 included), and 9 new tracks. One of these is titled "Black Cherry"
and is a full length song based around the INTRODUCTION from her previous studio album, Black Cherry. The album will follow
in Kumi's latest trend of releasing 3 editions (not including BEST ~BOUNCE & LOVERS~), a [CD]only, [CD+DVD] which features
PVs for all 15 tracks plus Run For Your Life PV which is featured on the FREAKY single, and the limited [CD+2DVD] which features
her 2007.06.20 FEVER LIVE IN HALL concert in full on
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