''Riri'' (stylized as RIRI) is the eponymous debut studio album by Japanese singer Riri, released February 14, 2018, by Sony Music Associated Records. The album served as her major label debut following a record deal with

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 ...

. Three promotional singles were released prior to the release of the album. The first, a remix of "Rush" was released in November 2017. A second promotional single, "Keep Up" was released in December and a third, "Crush on You" was released in January 2018. Upon its release, the album peaked at number 34 on the

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon Albu ...

and number 18 on the ''

Billboard Japan ''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine ''Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway), holding an exclusive licence from ''Bi ...

'' Hot Albums chart.

Background

In 2016, Riri was discovered by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Ai and her recently launched talent agency, The Mic-a-holics, after winning a talent contest. Later that year, Riri released her debut extended play ''I Love to Sing'' under the agency. In 2017, her second EP ''Rush'' was released by The Mic-a-holics. Unlike her previous EP, ''Rush'' charted in Japan, debuting and peaking at number 70 on the ''

'' Hot Albums chart.* Riri ultimately was scouted by

Sony Music 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, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

and eventually was signed to Sony Music Associated Records.

Development and production

Wanting to appeal overseas and Japanese listeners, Riri worked with both western and far eastern producers. Five previously released tracks from ''I Love to Sing'' and ''Rush'' were included and recorded in Japan while five new tracks were recorded in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She worked with various songwriters and producers such as

Nikki Flores Nikki Flores (born Brandi Nichole Flores; October 17, 1988) is an American independent pop singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. Career Recording artist Nikki Flores began writing songs and performing at eight years old. Her pare ...

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, Uta, Ai, and

Mayu Wakisaka is a singer-songwriter, composer, and lyricist based in Tokyo, Japan. Mayu grew up in Osaka, Japan, and studied law at Kyoto University. In 2007, she quit law school to pursue her career as a singer-songwriter and moved to Los Angeles. While st ...

Music and lyrics

''Riri'' has been described as an R&B and

EDM EDM or E-DM may refer to: Music * Electronic dance music * Early Day Miners, American band Science and technology * Electric dipole moment * Electrical discharge machining * Electronic distance measurement *Entry, Descent, and landing demonstrat ...

album. Riri was influenced by artists such as

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

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and

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston in ...

. Riri's western appeal for the album was heavily influenced by Ai, who Riri has described as someone she "cherishes". In an interview with

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 ...

, Riri described "Promised Road" as a song about eventually having dreams come true.

Track listing

Notes

* Certain digital stores display "2018 remastered" within the title of tracks 1–2, 4, 6 and 10 * Tracks 1 and 9 are stylized in

all capitals In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in l ...

* Track 10 is stylized in

sentence case Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

Charts

Release history

References

{{Reflist 2018 debut albums Onenation albums Sony Music Entertainment Japan albums