30 Facts About Yumi Matsutoya

Yumi Matsutoya, nicknamed Yuming, is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and pianist.

Yumi Matsutoya's recording career has been commercially successful with more than 42 million records sold.

Yumi Matsutoya is the only artist to have at least one number-one album every year on the Oricon charts for 18 consecutive years.

Yumi Matsutoya gained popularity as a vocalist in the same year through the success of "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai", which became her first number-one hit on Japan's Oricon Charts.

Yumi Matsutoya began her music career when she was still young.

Yumi Matsutoya recorded her first full album, Hiko-ki Gumo, with the band Caramel Mama, better known as Tin Pan Alley, which consisted of Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, Tateo Hayashi and Masataka Matsutoya, and it was released by Toshiba EMI under its Express sublabel in November 1973; the title track was later used as the theme song for the movie The Wind Rises.

Yumi Matsutoya achieved moderate success with her fifth single, Rouge no Dengon, an up-tempo song considered to be a proto J-Pop classic.

Yumi Matsutoya gained a television appearance singing this song with the top Japanese girl group of the time, Candies, and the song has been covered by a number of artists over the years.

The 14th Moon, her final album as Yumi Matsutoya Arai, featured Leland Sklar on bass and Mike Baird on drums.

Since this album, Masataka Yumi Matsutoya has produced all her albums himself.

Yumi Matsutoya considers her nickname "Yuming" to mean the name of the union with her husband.

In 1978, her memorable first album as Yumi Matsutoya, entitled Benisuzume was released.

Yumi Matsutoya's husband wrote the score for the movie Nerawareta Gakuen, which was directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi and distributed by Kadokawa Pictures.

Yumi Matsutoya wrote "Mamotte Agetai" as the theme song for the movie.

Yumi Matsutoya contemplated doing the artwork on her own albums.

Yumi Matsutoya used elaborate visual technology on the stage and it is said that they cost over a hundred million yen.

Yumi Matsutoya has released two live albums and several videos.

Yumi Matsutoya was often called "Charisma of Youth" or "The Enthusiastic Leader of Love" in those days.

Yumi Matsutoya was interested in the spiritual world for many years, and this preference was often represented in her songs, a tendency that became deeper in the 1990s.

Yumi Matsutoya was decorated with the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in the 2013 spring honors list, released on April 29.

Yumi Matsutoya has collaborated with many songwriters and lyricists, among them Yosui Inoue, Takashi Matsumoto, Koki Mitani, Kunihiko Kase, Shizuka Ijuin.

Yumi Matsutoya co-wrote the Japanese lyrics to the Lynsey de Paul and Barry Blue penned song Sugar Shuffle with Asami Kobayashi, which appeared on Kobayashi's Cryptograph album in 1984.

Yumi Matsutoya has recorded several collaboration singles with other musicians.

In 1986, Yumi Matsutoya co-wrote "Kissin' Christmas", a theme song for a TV program, with Keisuke Kuwata, the leader of Southern All Stars.

Yumi Matsutoya wrote it and the B-Side "Roman no Dengon" with him.

Yumi Matsutoya wrote the song "Smile Again" for the new group, and it was released on iTMS only.

When Yumi Matsutoya appeared at the Expo 2005 concert in September of the same year, they appeared as guests and sang this song.

The next year, Yumi Matsutoya re-recorded the song and released it on her album A Girl in Summer.

In 2012 Yumi Matsutoya came to London to record "A Whiter Shade of Pale" with Procol Harum, a band she considered an inspiration for her work.

Yumi Matsutoya sang a duet with Gary Brooker on this new version of the 1967 classic, which featured three verses and a guitar solo by Geoff Whitehorn.