Ado (born October 24, 2002) is a Japanese singer and YouTuber. In 2020, at the age of 17, she made her debut with the digital single titled "

Usseewa is a song by Japanese singer Ado, released as her debut single on October 23, 2020. It was released as a digital single through Virgin Music. The song's lyrics criticize society's so called "common sense", with Ado speaking on behalf of members ...

", which peaked at number 1 on ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100,

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 ...

Digital Singles Chart, and the Oricon Streaming Chart. The song reached 100 million plays on ''

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 ...

'' after 17 weeks from charting-in, which was the sixth fastest in history and the youngest for a solo singer. In 2022, her song, "

New Genesis New Genesis is a fictional planet appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. A part of Jack Kirby's Fourth World mythos, the planet is home to the heroic New Gods led by the sage Highfather. New Genesis is the positive counterpart o ...

", was used as the theme song for the anime film '' One Piece Film: Red'', and topped

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

's Global Top 100 charts. She currently belongs to the artist management company Cloud Nine.

Life and music career

Early life and musical beginnings: 2014–2020

Ado was born on October 24, 2002, in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. In 2014, Ado took an interest in music after the video-sharing website Niconico was released on

Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...

. She began watching videos on the small screen of Nintendo 3DS, and was impressed by the cover singers on Niconico who sang without showing their faces. Years later in 2017, Ado began singing as an ''utaite'' (an internet cover singer) on Niconico, after uploading a video of herself singing a cover of "Kimi no taion" on January 10, 2017. On

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

she said that during the time she was an ''utaite'' singer, she covered her closet in soundproofing material that she bought online and recorded in it. In 2019, she featured in Kujira's digital single "Kinmokusei", which was released on December 23, 2019. A couple months later, she featured as a vocalist in a digital single "Shikabanēze" by jon-YAKITORY, which was released on March 29, 2020. In May 2020, she participated in

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

's compilation album PALETTE4. She released two songs, "Call boy" by syudou and "Taema naku ai-iro" by Shishi Shishi, as digital releases.

Debut with "Usseewa": 2020–present

On October 15, 2020, Ado announced that she would make her debut with

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 ...

. On October 23, the day before her 18th birthday, she released the digital single "

" written by

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 syudou. The music video, released on her own YouTube channel, reached 5 million views by November 14. On December 10, 2020, "Usseewa" ranked number 1 on Spotify Viral 50 Japan. On December 24, she released her second single "Readymade" written by Vocaloid producer Surii, as a digital release. By January 23, 2021, "Usseewa" had reached 40 million views on YouTube, and on February 3, 2021, it ranked number 1 on both

Digital Singles Chart and Oricon Streaming Chart. On February 14, she released her third single, "Gira Gira", written by Vocaloid producer teniwoha, as a digital release. Four days later on February 18, the number of subscribers on her YouTube channel exceeded 1 million. On March 15, 2021, "Usseewa" reached number one on the

Billboard Japan Hot 100 The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and '' Hanshin Contents Link'' since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thur ...

, and on March 20, the music video on YouTube reached 100 million views, 148 days after its release. On March 29, "Usseewa" reached 100 million plays on the Billboard JAPAN chart "Streaming Songs" after 17 weeks from charting-in, which was the sixth fastest in history and the youngest for a solo singer. On April 27, 2021, Ado released her fifth Single "Odo" which is used by NHK's Show about

producers. On June 11, 2021, she was chosen as the second Japanese female Artist for "YouTube's Artist on the Rise". And on June 14, 2021, she released her sixth Single "Yoru no Pierrot". On December 11, 2021, she won "Best New Asian Artist Japan" for Mnet "

MAMA Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to: Roles *Mother, a female parent * Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority *Mamas, a name for female associates of the Hells Angels Places *Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlement ...

". Ado provided the singing voice for the character Uta in the 2022 anime film '' One Piece Film: Red''; the album '' Uta's Songs: One Piece Film Red'', containing the vocal songs from the film was released on August 10, 2022. The film's theme song "

" topped

's Global Top 100 charts. From December 2022 to January 2023, Ado's first nationwide live tour "Shinkiro" will be held for 10 performances in six different locations throughout Japan. In October 2022, Ado signed with

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

to release music in the United States alongside her current record deal with Virgin Music.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

Soundtrack albums

Singles

As lead artist

Featured songs

Promotional singles

Other charted songs

Music videos

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* –

{{Authority control 2002 births 21st-century Japanese women singers Japanese women pop singers Singers from Tokyo Living people Utaite Virgin Records artists Geffen Records artists