Angela Aki

Angela Aki (アンジェラ・アキ Anjera Aki), born on 15 September 1977 in Itano, Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku, Japan, to a Japanese father and an Italian-American mother, is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Her former Japanese real name is 安芸 聖世美 (Aki Kiyomi)

Angela Aki is completely bilingual in English and Japanese as she was raised in Japan, but moved to Hawaii at the age of fifteen where she graduated from 'Iolani School. From there she moved on to George Washington University where she graduated with majors in politics and music.

She originally released an indie album in the United States in 2000, called These Words, which received much critical acclaim. In 2002 she composed two tracks for "Let It Fall" by Dianne Eclar, a teenage pop singer from the Philippines. In 2005 in Japan, she released an indie mini-album under Virgo Music entitled One, which alerted Nobuo Uematsu to her music. Angela Aki is now signed under Sony Japan. In 2005 she was announced as the singer of the Final Fantasy XII theme song, "Kiss Me Good-Bye."

On March 9, 2007, she revealed in her official blog that she is married to a music director who has been supporting her before her debut. She also revealed that while she was in Washington D.C., she had married once before but the marriage ended in a divorce.

She is good friends with JPOP star Yuna Ito. Both singers attended the same Japanese language school.

Angela Aki is the daughter of Kiyoshi Aki, the owner/co-founder of AEON Institute of Language Education. This is one of the "Big Four" Eikaiwa (English conversation) schools in Japan.

EARLY LIFE

Angela Aki was born in Tokushima, Japan. Her heritage is extremely mixed: her mother is half Italian and half American, and her father is Japanese. Her father, Aki Kiyoshi (安藝清), is the founder/president of Aeon, a large Eikaiwa (English conversation) company in Japan. She also has a sister, Kyla Aki, who is one year younger than her.

Aki was a very musical child. Apparently when she was small she shocked her mother when she was very young by humming a tune that her mother had just sung in perfect tune. She began by learning classical piano at three years old, but also learned how to play the violin, guitar later and drums later on. In late 1992 when Aki was 15, she moved away from Japan and set up residence in Hawaii, where she went to high school. She adopted the name Angela and relegated Kiyomi to be her middle-name. Aki won a $2,500US scholarship from her high school (Iolani School) in 1996.

Aki went on to study at George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and combined International Affairs and Jazz Studies as some of her subjects. After watching Sarah McLachlan in concert, Aki was inspired to become a singer-songwriter like her. While studying she was musically active, frequently performing at a coffee house called Jam'n Java. It was here that music producer Tony Alany worked, and collaborated with Aki by producing and recording an indies album entitled These Words that was released in January 2000. The album is comprised of all English songs, and features much more guitar than her later works. Alany and Aki eventually got married after his production work.

During her stay in Washington, Aki was the opening act for artists such as Ricky Martin, Judy Collins and Sixpence None the Richer. She even performed at Al Gore's Christmas party. Angela Aki graduated from George Washington in May 2000.

Aki held her showcase live at the Luna Park Grille in Arlington, Virginia, on 2001.11.29 and was officially credited as 'Angela Aki and her band'. Later on in 2001, she also held a live in Washington D.C., and happened to be overheard by a Japanese CM producer K, who asked her if she were able to sing for a commercial. She accepted, and in early 2002 released a cover of Jimmy Scott's song New Day for the Yakult 400 CM.