(born March 9, 1958 in

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

, Japan) is a

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

singer and actress, better known by her stage name . She is a member of the popular 1970s idol group , known in the United States for their self-titled TV program. Mie is represented by her own management firm MHO Artist Co., Ltd.

Biography

Early life

Mitsuyo Nemoto met

Keiko Masuda (born on September 2, 1957, in Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan) is a Japanese pop singer and actress. She is better known by her nickname Kei, and is one half of Pink Lady (duo), Pink Lady, the top idol group in Japan in the 1970s. In the ...

at Suehiro Junior High School in 1972. A year later, they attended

Tokoha University is a private university in the Aoi ward of Shizuoka City, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1946, and it was chartered as a university in 1980. The university is operated by the foundation that also operates Tokoha Gakuen Junio ...

and the

Yamaha Music School The Yamaha Music Foundation is an organization established in 1966 by the authority of the Japanese Ministry of Education for the purpose of promoting music education and music popularization. It continued a program of music classes begun by Yamah ...

Hamamatsu is a city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. the city had an estimated population of 791,707 in 340,591 households, making it the prefecture's largest city, and a population density of . The total area of the site was . Overview ...

. In May 1974, the duo formed a folk group called and passed Yamaha's audition.

Pink Lady

After winning an audition on the talent show ''

Star Tanjō! is a Japanese talent show from Nippon Television that ran from 1971 to 1983. On October 24, 1982, the series was retitled to reflect its switch from monaural to stereo broadcasting. On April 3, 1983, it was again retitled to . The show was cre ...

'' in March 1976, Nemoto and Masuda signed with

Victor Entertainment , also known as in Japan, is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Ent ...

and became Pink Lady. Nemoto took the stage name while Masuda became . After their debut single "

Pepper Keibu is the debut single by the Japanese hit duo Pink Lady. The single was released on August 25, 1976, under the Victor label. "Pepper Keibu" reached a peak chart position of number four, with a total of 1,050,000 sales. The titular song won the duo ...

" peaked at No. 4 on

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 Nov ...

's singles charts in August 1976, Pink Lady's second single " S.O.S." reached No. 1, beginning a nine-song streak of No. 1 hits from November 1976 to December 1978. Their biggest single was "

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

" which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 and sold over 1.55 million copies. When their popularity took a downturn in 1979, Pink Lady turned their focus on the United States, with their first U.S. single " Kiss in the Dark" reaching No. 37 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and becoming the first Japanese recording act to chart in America since

Kyu Sakamoto was a Japanese singer and actor. He was best known outside Japan for his international hit song "Ue o Muite Arukō" (known as "Sukiyaki" in English-speaking markets), which was sung in Japanese and sold over 13 million copies. It reached number ...

in 1963. In 1980, the duo starred with comedian

Jeff Altman Jeff Altman (born August 13, 1951) is an American stand-up comedian and actor who has appeared as a guest on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' and ''Late Show with David Letterman'' a combined 45 times. Altman mesmerized contemporaries like Davi ...

in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

variety show ''

Pink Lady and Jeff ''Pink Lady'' is an American variety show that aired for five weeks on NBC in 1980, starring the Japanese musical duo of the same name. The show also is referred to by the title ''Pink Lady and Jeff'', referring to co-star Jeff Altman. The show w ...

''. Unfortunately, the show was plagued by the language barrier between the duo and the production crew. Poor ratings and scathing reviews resulted in ''Pink Lady and Jeff'' being cancelled after five episodes, with a sixth episode remaining unaired. Following the failure of ''Pink Lady and Jeff'', as well as the decline of disco music, Pink Lady held a press conference on September 1, 1980 to announce their disbandment within six months. During the press conference, Mie stated that her stage name would change from "ミー" to "MIE" to reflect her solo career. Pink Lady performed their final concert at

Korakuen Stadium was a stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Completed in 1937, it was originally used for baseball, and was home to the Yomiuri Giants for nearly 50 years. For various periods of time, it was also the home stadium of six other professional Japanese baseball ...

on March 31, 1981 before going their separate ways. Mie and Kei have since reunited several times to record new songs and perform special concerts.

Solo career

Following Pink Lady's disbandment, Mie released her first solo album '' "I MY MIE"'' on August 21, 1981. Her biggest single was a Japanese-language cover of Moving Pictures' " Never" in 1984, which peaked at No. 4 in Oricon's singles chart and sold 270,000 copies. "Never" was also used as the theme song for the TBS drama series . Her song won the Silver Award at the 1984

Tokyo Music Festival The Tokyo Music Festival was an international music contest that ran from 1972 to 1992. It was organized by the Tokyo Music Festival Association. The first edition of the Tokyo Music Festival took place on 13 May 1972 with 12 participating countri ...

. Majority of her singles from 1984 to 1995 were used as either TV drama themes or commercial jingles for companies such as

Shiseido is a Japanese multinational cosmetic company founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1872. Its product categories consist of: skin care, makeup, body care, hair care, and fragrances. The company is one of the oldest cosmetic companies in the world and ...

Sanden Corporation is a Japanese, Isesaki, Gunma-based automotive equipment and electrical equipment manufacturing company and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. History Kaihei Ushikubo founded the company, Sankyo Electric Company (Sankyo Denki Co), in July ...

, Satsuma Shuzo, and

Takefuji is a Japanese consumer finance company, or ''sarakin''. On September 28, 2010 it filed a petition for commencement of a corporate re-organisation under the Japanese Corporate Reorganisation Act. Services The Group's principal activity is the pro ...

. In 1982, Mie tried her hand in acting in the films and ; the latter being her first lead role. With these two films, she shed her wholesome family-friendly Pink Lady image for a sexier, more mature persona. A year later, she starred in her own gravure idol TV special titled ''Mie: Private Time'', which was shot in Hawaii. In 1985, Mie starred as the ''

kunoichi is a Japanese cant term for . In popular culture, it is often used for female shinobi or practitioner of ninjutsu (''ninpo''). The term was largely popularized by novelist Yamada Futaro in his novel ''Ninpō Hakkenden'' (忍法八犬伝) in 1964 ...

'' in seasons 4 and 5 of the ''

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—''Portrait of Hel ...

'' TV series '' Shadow Warriors''. In 1994, Mie starred in

Sanrio is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and produces products focusing on the ''kawaii'' ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and accessories which are sold ...

's direct-to-video children's special , which featured her songs and . In 1998, Mie joined the heavy metal novelty band

Animetal was a Japanese heavy metal band who specialized in metal covers of theme songs from classic and modern Japanese anime and tokusatsu television series. They were composed of several luminaries of the Japanese metal scene, most notably vocalist ...

as , a reference to Pink Lady. At the same time, she once again changed the style of her stage name; this time, as the

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

"未唯". On February 21, ''

Animetal Lady Marathon is the first album by Animetal unit Animetal Lady, featuring Mie of Pink Lady as the vocalist in place of Eizo Sakamoto. Released through Sony Records on February 21, 1998, the album consists of a non-stop marathon of metal covers of shōjo a ...

'' was released, featuring metal covers of popular female-oriented anime theme songs. ''

Animetal Lady Marathon II is the second and final studio album by Animetal Lady (Animetal with Mie (singer), Mie of Pink Lady (duo), Pink Lady as the vocalist). Released through Avex Inc., Cutting Edge Records on April 10, 2002, the album consists of a non-stop Medley (mus ...

'' was released on April 10, 2002, as Mie's final contribution to Animetal. In 2001, Mie starred as Ethel McCormack in the Japanese adaptation of the ''Footloose'' stage musical. The production also featured her Pink Lady partner Keiko Masuda as Vi Moore. She also collaborated with the heavy metal band X.Y.Z.→A to record the single "Nobody Knows Me (but Only Heaven)" that year. In 2002, at the age of 45, Mie published the gravure book ''Future Lady: Mothership''. In 2007, Mie produced '' me ing'', her first studio album in 15 years. Released on her own label MHO, the album features songs written by Mie herself. To coincide with the album's release, Victor Entertainment,

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

, and

Universal Music Japan , often referred to as just Universal Music Japan or UMJ, is a Japanese subsidiary of the Universal Music Group founded in 1990. It is the largest subsidiary for a foreign company in the country regarding music distribution. The company is resp ...

reissued Mie's previous albums with bonus tracks on each CD. A year later, Mie wrote the children's storybook as part of

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

's . In September 2018, Mie was selected by

Kao Corporation is a chemical and cosmetics company headquartered in Nihonbashi-Kayabacho, Chūō, Tokyo, Japan. History Kao was established in 1887 by Tomiro Nagase as a manufacturer of domestic toiletry soap. Until 1954, they were known as , and finally ...

to be the brand ambassador of the company's line. On March 11, 2022, Mie participated in the Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami tribute concert "One Last Live", performing "

" (with

Yo Hitoto is a Japanese-Taiwanese pop singer. Her mother is Japanese and her father is Taiwanese. She can speak three languages: Japanese, English, and Mandarin. Tae Hitoto is her older sister. Her name Hitoto is not her real surname, it is her mother's ...

), "

Wanted (Shimei Tehai) is the fifth single released by Pink Lady on September 5, 1977. The single topped the Japan charts at number one, having sold 1,650,000 copies, and spent twelve weeks at the top. Written by Yū Aku and Shunichi Tokura, "Wanted" is about a woman ...

" (with

Maki Ohguro is a Japanese pop singer and songwriter from Sapporo, Hokkaido under B-Gram Records label. Biography In 1989, she passed Being Inc.'s singers audition, the "3rd BAD". In 1992, she debuted with the single "Stop Motion" released under B-Gram ...

) and "

" (with

Chisato Moritaka (born 11 April 1969) is a Japanese pop singer who also is notable as a songwriter. She is affiliated with Up-Front Create, a subsidiary of the Up-Front Group.

). On December 26, Victor Entertainment announced it will release a new compilation album titled '' Mie to 未唯mie: 1981–2023 All Time Best'' on March 1, 2023. Mie currently performs with her band at Blues Alley Japan in Tokyo, often doing alternate renditions of Pink Lady songs.

Personal life

Mie married music producer in 1998, but they divorced in 2004. Mie's brother Katsuyoshi Nemoto runs a restaurant in Tokyo called .

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Singles

Promotional singles

Collaborations

* (collaboration with Naoko Amihama) (1987-03-21) * "Nobody Knows Me (but Only Heaven)" (collaboration with X.Y.Z.→A) (2001-11-29) * (''

Bad Friends is a 2009 tribute album, is kade from , which translates to "Bad friend" and is the origin of Yū Aku's name. The final track, "Kawahara no Ishikawa Goemon" was originally recorded by Eiichi Ohtaki (under the pseudonym "Niagara Fallin' Stars") o ...

'', as part of ) (2009-12-16)

Filmography

Film

* ( Toei Central Film, 1982) * (

Shochiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all ...

, 1982) * (Shochiku, 1983)

TV

* (

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network Sys ...

, 1985 April 2-October 1) * (Fuji TV, 1985 October 7-December 30) * - Episode 10 ( TXN, 2015 June 19)

Home video

* (

, 1994) * (

Takeshobo is a major publisher in Japan. Takeshobo was founded in 1972 by Kyōichirō Noguchi, starting Japan's first Mahjong magazine . Other magazines, such as a magazine dedicated to mahjong-themed manga, as well as a magazine dedicated to yonkoma ma ...

, 2002) * ''未唯mie with 3/7(seven) LIVE at Blues Alley Japan 2008.11.28'' (MHO, 2010) * ''未唯mie MONTHLY LIVE 2010.06.25 Pink Lady Night'' (MHO, 2010)

Bibliography

* (

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

, 1983) * (

, 2002) * (

Gakken is a Japanese publishing company founded in 1947 by Hideto Furuoka, which also produces educational toys. Their annual sales is reported at ¥ 90 billion ($789 million US). Gakken publishes educational books and magazines and produces other ...

, 2002-11-29) * (

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

, 2008-04-23) * (

Tokuma Shoten is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company’s product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, m ...

, 2012-02-21)

References

External links

* * - (Victor Entertainment) * (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) * (Universal Music Japan) *
Mie discography
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

English Pink Lady fansite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mie 1958 births Japanese idols Japanese women heavy metal singers Japanese women pop singers Japanese women rock singers Japanese musical theatre actresses Living people People from Shizuoka (city) Musicians from Shizuoka Prefecture 20th-century Japanese women singers 20th-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers 21st-century Japanese singers Animetal members English-language singers from Japan