is a male

Japanese 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 signed to the

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

sub-label

Ki/oon Music is a Japanese record label, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Artists Their artists include L'Arc-en-Ciel, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Home Made Kazoku, Puffy AmiYumi, Polysics, Supercar, Pushim, Chatmonchy, Denki Groove, Tomoe ...

. He became popular on the Internet through the video sharing network Nico Nico Douga. His fans call him , a

fan-made Fan labor, also called fan works, are the creative activities engaged in by fans, primarily those of various media properties or musical groups. These activities can include creation of written works (fiction, fan fiction and review literature), ...

word to describe his wide

vocal range Vocal range is the range of pitches that a human voice can phonate. A common application is within the context of singing, where it is used as a defining characteristic for classifying singing voices into voice types. It is also a topic of stud ...

that includes notes typical of both male and female voice types. His

kaomoji An emoticon (, , rarely , ), short for "emotion icon", also known simply as an emote, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers, and letters—to express a person's feelings, m ...

is "ﾋﾟωﾟｺ". As a

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

producer, he uses the name Chuutoro-P.

Biography

Piko began music as the vocalist of a band during his second year of high school, and continued activities in the music department of his college. In 2007, while browsing the

music cover In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

section of popular internet video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga, Piko's mother encouraged him to upload his own covers and he became widely popular on this site. His Nico Nico username and stage name comes from the name of a pet dog he has. He is good friends with another Ryouseirui on Nico Nico Douga called Sekihan. They formed a group called Akapiko Hammer (赤ピコ飯まー☆) and often make songs comedic. Piko was also friends with Vocaloid producer

samfree , more commonly known as samfree or SAM, was a Japanese music producer heavily involved in composing and arranging songs using Vocaloid software. He was also notably involved in producing theme songs for various anime television series. Biography ...

. His kaomoji is also his logo and the design for his hand puppet, a mouse which has been affectionately called "Pikochu". However, many people misunderstand it as a cat. On July 22, 2009, he released his first physical single, "Thanatos" feat. Tissue Hime and later made his major debut with Ki/oon Records at a concert at Shibuya AX on March 27, 2010. Piko's major debut single "Story" was released October 13, 2010. Then, he concentrated on performing many songs of anime. His second major single, "Wasurenagusa", was released in December 2010 and was used as the Ending theme for the anime Tegami Bachi REVERSE. On March 9, 2011, his 4th major single, "Sakurane" was chosen as an ending theme for the anime

Gin Tama is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 2003 to September 2018, later in ''Jump Giga'' from December 2 ...

. On August 15, 2012, his 7th major single "Make My Day" which was used as the opening track for the anime

Binbougami ga! ''Good Luck Girl!'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshiaki Sukeno. The manga was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine '' Jump Square'' from June 2008 to July 2013, with its chapters c ...

. On June 5, 2013, his 8th major single "Kotonoha , produced by samfree was used as the ending theme for the anime

Katanagatari is a Japanese light novel series written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Take. The series is published by Kodansha under the ''Kodansha Box'' imprint. The story revolves around a ''katanagari'', or " sword hunt" for 12 weapons that were creat ...

(Noitamina version). Piko's first album after debut, "1PIKO", was released on May 11, 2011, and his second album, "2PIKO", was released on May 30, 2012. His cover album, "Hitokoe −42701340-", an album of vocaloid songs, was released on February 20, 2013. His first Best Collection Album, "PIKOllection Best+4" was released on February 20, 2013. His third album, Pathfinder, was released on May 1, 2019. His fourth album, 柩 -HITSUGI-, was released on March 8, 2023. Piko provided the voice for "

Utatane Piko is a Japanese speaking Vocaloid by Sony Entertainment for Vocaloid 2. His voice is taken from the Japanese singer Piko. He was used in Samfree's "Night Series", singing the song "Piko Piko Legend of the Night." Later, Utatane Piko would be illus ...

", a

library from Sony Music Distribution which uses the Vocaloid2 engine. It was released on December 8, 2010.

Discography

Singles

Albums

DVD

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Piko 1988 births Anime musicians Japanese male pop singers Japanese rhythm and blues singers Ki/oon Music artists Living people Singers_from_Kobe Vocaloid musicians 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese male singers Vocaloid voice providers Utaite