, better known as , is a Japanese singer-songwriter from

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a Names of Japan, name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

. In a career spanning more than 40 years, she achieved commercial success and popularity in the

city pop is a loosely defined form of Japanese pop music that emerged in the late 1970s and peaked in popularity during the 1980s. It was originally termed as an offshoot of Japan's Western-influenced " new music", but came to include a wide range of st ...

music scene during the 1980s. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Biography

Her debut release was 1978's "Oribia o Kikinagara" ("While Listening to Olivia"), written by

Amii Ozaki , real name , is a Japanese singer songwriter born on 19 March 1957 in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Kita-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. She has written music such as ''Oribia o Kikinagara'' by Anri and ''Tenshi no Uinku'' by Seiko Matsuda, as well as many ...

. She achieved commercial success and popularity with her signature classic 1983 release, ''

Timely!! ''Timely!!'' is the sixth studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Anri, released in 1983. Overview The album was a collaborative effort with musician and producer Toshiki Kadomatsu. It is considered one of Anri's best releases. The single, ...

'', which spawned the hits " Cat's Eye" and "Kanashimi ga Tomaranai" ("I Can't Stop the Loneliness"). "Cat's Eye" was used as the first opening theme of the eponymous 1983 anime series of the same name and debuted as No. 1 on ''Countdown Japan''. It spent 4 weeks at No. 1 on the

Oricon chart , 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 N ...

. It was one of the first

J-pop J-pop (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...

songs used for an anime theme song. In 2017, she performed the song live at the opening of the touring ice show

Fantasy on Ice is an annual touring ice show in Japan produced by CIC Co., Ltd. The show emerged from the "Philippe Candeloro Japan Tour 2001", named after retired French figure skater Philippe Candeloro, and was held under the name "Fantasy on Ice" the followi ...

amongst others. She appeared at the Red and White New Year's Music Special at the end of that same year, performing "Cat's Eye". Other hit songs include: "Summer Candles" and "Dolphin Ring", both of which became standard songs played at Japanese weddings and receptions. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Anri's albums were bestsellers. She has had highly successful tours—one with an attendance of almost 100,000—and toured

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

for the first time in 1987. She sang Furusato, a folklore song, during the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

closing ceremonies . In 2002, she began collaborating with

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

guitarist

Lee Ritenour Lee Mack Ritenour ( ; born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s. Biography Ritenour was born in 1952, in Los Angeles, California. At the age of eight he started playing guitar and four years l ...

, who produced her 2002 LP ''Smooth Jam – Quiet Storm''. In 2021, Anri collaborated with

Mariya Takeuchi is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and record producer. With over 16 million records sold, Takeuchi is one of the List of best-selling music artists in Japan#10 million to 19 million records, best-selling music artists in Japan and is deemed th ...

on the single "Watching Over You" under the name "Peach & Apricot". With the renewed popularity of

, and her songs having been sampled by many new artists of the

vaporwave Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, a visual art style, and an Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s and became well-known in 2015. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, 1970 ...

and

future funk Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, a visual art style, and an Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s and became well-known in 2015. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, 1970 ...

genres, Anri has enjoyed new success and popularity outside of Japan. Following her rediscovery, several of her albums were reissued in 2023. Anri and Kamasami Kong at Cocolo

Discography

Studio albums

Cover albums

Self-cover albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Box sets

Singles

Digital singles

Collaboration singles

Videography

Live albums

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anri 1961 births Japanese women pop singers Japanese women singer-songwriters Living people People from Yamato, Kanagawa Singers from Kanagawa Prefecture Anime singers Fantasy on Ice guest artists 20th-century Japanese women singers 20th-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers 21st-century Japanese singer-songwriters