Catherine St. Onge (born July 20, 1981), better known by her stage name (stylized as HIMEKA), is a French Canadian descent anime song singer no longer active in Japan. While fluent in English and her native French, she is moderately proficient in Japanese. Her stage name, Himeka, comes from a character she created in a story she wrote when she was 13 years old.

Career

Born in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, St-Onge was very interested in theater and music. At the age of 12, St-Onge taught herself English by singing Disney songs. Soon after at 13, she began writing her own stories in which Himeka was the main character. Her interest in Japanese culture started at the age of 15 when she saw an episode of the

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series '' Sailor Moon''. In 2008, St-Onge moved to Japan to pursue her singing career. She was the winner of the Second Annual

Animax Anison Grand Prix The is a Japanese anime song music competition, organized by Animax, in association with Jupiter Telecommunications. Outline The annual competition is first held across a series of preliminaries in several Japanese cities, with the chosen finali ...

, which gathers aspiring singers from all over Japan for the chance to make a professional debut and sing a

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

in an anime television show. Her debut single " Asu e no Kizuna", released on May 27, 2009, was the opening theme to the anime adaptation of the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

video game ''

Valkyria Chronicles ''Valkyria Chronicles'' is a series of military-themed tactical role-playing video games created by Ryutaro Nonaka and Shuntaro Tanaka, and developed by Sega. The series began with '' Valkyria Chronicles'', which was released for the PlayStat ...

''. The single debuted at number 28 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

single charts. Her second single was titled " Hatenaki Michi", and was released on November 25, 2009. It was the featured ending song for a new anime named '' Tegamibachi''. The singled peaked at number 33 on the weekly Oricon chart. Himeka's first cover album, '' Anison: Utattemita'', was released on March 3, 2010. Her third single, " Mirai e...", was released on May 26, 2010. It was featured as the ending theme in the anime '' Senkō no Night Raid''. Himeka's first digital single, "La la la, Sekai o Hitotsuni", was released in July 2010. The song was an official support song for the World Cosplay Summit 2010 in Nagoya, Japan. Himeka's first original album titled " Himekanvas" has been released on November 31, 2011, and includes all her released singles, seven original songs and two cover songs. On February 12, 2012, Himeka gave her first solo live concert in the Shibuya Boxx hall. The concert sold out. On July 1, 2012, Himeka confirmed that, in April 2012, she had moved to a new label named Mages./amuleto. Later, it was confirmed that she would release a new single named ''" Where I Belong"'' scheduled to be released on October 24, 2012. The song would be the ending theme for a series named ''Audrey no Kami Appli Shin Seiki Up Date''. It was announced not long after, that she was releasing a song under the name "''AG7''" with 7 other

winners. The song is named ''Endless Nova'' and is going to be released on July 23, 2014. It will be included on a single released by the latest Anison Grand Prix winner named Tatsuyuki Kobayashi. On April 1, 2014, it was announced that she was no longer signed to a label. On her Twitter, she did express that she will continue to pursue a career in music.

Discography

Albums

* '' Himekanvas'' (2011)

Cover albums

* '' Love Anison: Utattemita'' (2010)

Singles

* " Asu e no Kizuna" (2009) * " Hatenaki Michi" (2009) * " Mirai e..." (2010) * " Where I Belong" (2012) * "Kagiriaru Yume" (2013) * "Stay Diamond / Because Of You x KANA" (2015)

Digital singles

*2010: "La La La (Sekai o Hitotsu ni)" (2010)

References

* {{Authority control French Quebecers Japanese women pop singers Living people Japanese-language singers of Canada Canadian expatriates in Japan 1981 births Anime musicians Himeka 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Japanese women musicians