Hitomi

Hitomi Furuya, born on January 26, 1976, in Tochigi, Japan, is a Japanese singer-songwriter who began her career as a teen model before making her singing debut in 1994 under the guidance of Tetsuya Komuro, who produced her early pop music works. Although her first two singles, "Let's Play Winter" and "We Are "Lonely Girl" were not commercially successful, her third single, "Candy Girl," used as the theme for a Kodak commercial, broke into the top 10. Subsequent singles "By Myself" and "Busy Now" solidified Hitomi's reputation. Her second album, By Myself, released in 1996, debuted at Number 1 on the Oricon charts and sold over 800,000 copies. Her third album, Déjà-vu, reached number 2. After three studio albums and twelve singles, Hitomi and Komuro parted ways in 1998. In 1999, she released her first greatest hits album, H, which peaked at Number 1 on the Japanese charts and sold over 500,000 copies. In 2000, Hitomi gained widespread attention when her top 5 single "Love 2000" was used as the theme song for gold-medalist Naoko Takahashi. The album Love Life, featuring the hit song reached number 2. In 2001, her song "I Am" from her chart-topping sixth album Huma-rhythm was used as the second opening for the TV anime series InuYasha and reached number 7. After a year-and-a-half hiatus, Hitomi released a new studio album, Traveler, in May 2004, which reached number 2. In 2005, celebrating the 10th anniversary of her debut, she launched her own record label, Love Life Records. The first single released under this label was "Japanese Girl," marking a shift to a more modern dance-oriented style. Following another hiatus, she released the single "World! Wide! Love!" on May 20, 2009, and her ninth studio album, Love Life 2, which entered the top 30, a month later. Hitomi's last single with Avex, "Umarete Kurete Arigato/Smile World," was released on February 16, 2011, which was followed with indie album Spirit, in April, and mini album, Special, in November, and Möbius (stylized as ∞), in October, 2012. In December 2013, she released the theme song for the movie Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle. The song, "Teppen Star," was released as her 35th single on December 18, 2013. In 2017, Hitomi was chosen to sing the new theme song for NHK's Minna no Uta. The song, "Yume Hakonda Randoseru," was released as a digital single on February 2. In November 2017, she launched a new radio program called Hitomi Radio on Inter FM.

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