Mai Kuraki

Mai Kuraki, born on October 28, 1982, is a celebrated Japanese pop and R&B singer whose career took off with her US debut single 'Baby I Like' in 1999. Shortly after, she signed with Giza Studio and released her Japanese debut single 'Love, Day After Tomorrow' the same year. Her first album, 'Delicious Way', released in 2000, made an impressive debut at number one, selling over two million copies in its first week. This album produced four top-three singles, including 'Stay by My Side' and 'Secret of My Heart', and ultimately became the best-selling album in Japan for the year 2000, with total sales exceeding three million copies.

Following the success of her debut, Kuraki's second album, 'Perfect Crime', released in 2001, also debuted at the top of the charts, selling over one million copies. She attempted to break into the American market with her English-language album 'Secret of My Heart' in 2002, but it did not achieve chart success in the United States. However, her third Japanese album, 'Fairy Tale', released the same year, topped the Oricon albums chart and featured the number-one hit 'Winter Bells'.

Kuraki's career saw a resurgence in 2009, marked by increased television appearances and promotional efforts. Her eighth studio album, 'Touch Me!', became her first number-one album in five years. The following year, her compilation album 'All My Best' also topped the charts, solidifying her status as a leading artist in Japan. Subsequent albums, including 'Future Kiss' and 'Over the Rainbow', continued to perform well, reaching the top three in Japan.

In 2017, Kuraki released the single 'Togetsukyo (Kimi Omou)', which peaked at number two and became the best-selling single for a solo female artist that year. She has recorded twenty-three theme songs for the popular anime series 'Case Closed', earning a Guinness World Record for this achievement. As of October 2020, she is recognized as the thirty-eighth best-selling Japanese music artist of all time, with seven number-one albums and two number-one singles to her name.