小柳由紀

Koyanagi Yuki is a J-pop artist known for her deep voice and her constantly changing appearance. Her music can be characterized as disco revival, and her style and stage presence are very remniscient of disco divas from the seventies, complete with microskirts and feather boas. Yum.

She was born on January 26, 1982, and released her first single, "Anata no kisu o kazoemashô / You Were Mine," on September 15, 1999. This first song, which literally means "Let's Count Your Kisses," was a huge slow jam hit in Japan and made the 17-year-old a sensation overnight, with her lithe, sequinny halter topped goodness appearing in every record store in the country. The single was followed by an album, Freedom, on November 25.

For her next big single, "Aijô" ("Love"), she changed her look considerably. When the CD came out on April 12, 2000, she was suddenly blonde, incredibly hot, and backed up by brass and orchestral sections along with a drum machine. Oh yeah, that was a funky time, and if you happened to turn on Utaban or Music Station during that time, you couldn't help but see Koyanagi on stage with a microphone being sexy as hell. But I digress.

Well, she stayed blonde for most of the rest of the year, although she switched to an Olivia Newton-John-lookin' wig for her next single, "Be Alive," which now that I think about it bears a very striking resemblance to Ginuwine's "Differences."

Anyway, late in 2000, she suddenly had a beehive of dreadlocks on top of her head. The first time I saw this, in a video my Japanese teacher brought back, my jaw dropped for a few seconds, and then I began to laugh. Ever since then, she's gotten progressively blacker and blacker. For a while, she was emulating Mariah Carey's looks pretty well, and then she started trying to look more like Lauryn Hill, but recently she seems to be getting back into the disco diva cliche, and that makes my heart's cockles warm and happy.

discography
(all entries are sic)

Singles:
あなたのキスを数えましょう - You were mine -
fairyland
あなたのキスを数えましょう Opus II
愛情
be alive
Koyanagi the Christmas
beautiful world
DEEP DEEP
my all
remain ~ 心の鍵
HIT ON
Endless
Lovin' you
ON THE RADIO

Albums:
FREEDOM
Koyanagi the Covers PRODUCT 1
EXPANSION
Koyanagi the Live in Japan 2000
my all...
KOYANAGI THE BALLADS 1999-2001
intimacy
buddy
KOYANAGI THE LIVE IN JAPAN 2001-2002
KOYANAGI the DISCO

http://www.koyanagi-yuki.net/