Hi ARAMA! JAPAN readers! The featured artist this time around is a little different from the previous ones. We’re turning back the clocks to shine the spotlight on one of the 90s biggest j-pop divas, Tomomi Kahara!
Who is Tomomi Kahara?
Kahara started her career as a visual idol and popular model for non-no, similarly to fellow 90s divas Ayumi Hamasaki and hitomi. She was soon introduced to Tetsuya Komuro, who made her his latest muse and lover. At the time she was known by her birth name Shimogawara Tomomi, but Komuro decided on giving her a new stage name “Kahala Tomomi”, so that their romaji name initials would be the same. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/eSsH7aa.gif[/IMG]
Kahara made her musical debut in September 1995 with the single “keep yourself alive”, it was met with instant success reaching the top 10 on oricon and selling over 350k copies. The following year her debut album “LOVE BRACE” was released cementing her status in the Japanese industry. The album shot straight to #1 and sold over 2.4 million copies. A string of hit #1 singles followed but soon Kahara’s personal life started to overshadow her musical success. She was constantly in the tabloids for her alleged drug use and hard partying, her increasingly erratic behavior only dampened the public’s perception of her. Still, her second album “storytelling” was met with acclaim and topped the oricon charts selling over 1.3 million copies.