Official Website:
http://www.yui-net.com/index.htmlYUI grew up in a fatherless home and so she doesn't have any memory of her father. She does remember always being close to music, be it from her mother's car stereo or the radio, she would remember the tunes and sing along. By the time she was in elementary school she thought she'd like to become a singer.
During her third year in middle school, following the influence of her mother, YUI began keeping a journal of everyday feelings and poetry. Because of this, by the time she was in high school, she began writing songs. While in high school she worked a part-time job to help pay for tuition. Always busy, with her time steadily disappearing, she thought there was no longer a road to music. Eventually her body would breakdown and she found her self under hospitalization. While in the hospital, with the time to consider her life, she was overwhelmed with the desire to make music. She decided that school and music couldn't coexist. Upon leaving the hospital she encountered a live street performance and expressed her desire to pursue a musical career to the band at the end of the concert. The band recommended that she join a private music school and soon, she dropped out of high school and began studying songwriting and guitar at a juku in her hometown of Fukuoka.
Aspiring to become a professional, she carried her guitar around and sang at local places at the entrance of Tenjin station in Fukuoka. Even though she was shy, she still enjoyed doing street performances.
Yui began writing poems in ninth grade. At the age of sixteen on the recommendation of a friend she began studying songwriting and guitar at a private music school in her hometown of Fukuoka. Aspiring to become a professional, she carried her guitar around and sang at local places at the entrance of Tenjin station in Fukuoka. Even though she was shy she still enjoyed doing street performances in the Tenjin district of Fukuoka.
Her professional career began in March 2004 when she sang three songs at an audition hosted by Sony Music Japan. Despite the audition rule that a participant could only sing two songs, all of the judges gave her the highest score possible which caused a fierce scramble among record labels to sign her. She first sang "Why Me" (a song later included in her major label debut single), followed by "It's Happy Line" and "I Know". "It's Happy Line" was her debut indie single with "I Know" as the b-side.
Upon leaving her hometown in Fukuoka for Tokyo, Yui wrote the song "Feel My Soul". She was planning its release on an indie label as a tribute to her hometown, when the song caught the ears of Fuji TV producer Mr. Yamaguchi, who just happened to see the demo video clip. He claimed that Yui's voice haunted him so much that he went out of his way to visit the recording studio all by himself. He even made his channel's prime time drama Fukigen na Gene use Yui's debut track.
On February 23, Yui released her first major debut single, "Feel My Soul" The music in Fukigen na Gene was mainly based on her songs such as 'Feel My Soul' and 'It's Happy Line'. With the drama tie-in "Feel My Soul" managed to sell over 100,000 copies. her next three singles, "Tomorrow's Way" (Theme song for a japanese movie, "Hinokio"), "Life", and "Tokyo" did not chart as high as Feel My Soul did and were only moderately successful in comparison. After the release of four singles Yui released her debut album From Me to You, which is another moderate success with sales of more than 200,000 copies.
Midnight SunMany months later, Yui starred in a movie released on June 17, 2006, titled Taiyou No Uta-Midnight Sun, which was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Yui attended Japan Academy Prize (film) and received Best Newcomer Award for Taiyou no uta. Yui's 5th single, "Good-bye Days", was written for this film and is by far her highest selling single at 200,000 copies sold. "I Remember You" her next single, did fairly well boosted by "Good-bye Days"' popularity. Soon after, Yui's 7th single "Rolling Star" was chosen by the anime series Bleach to be the 5th opening theme song; her third single, "Life", had previously been chosen as the 5th ending theme song. "Che.R.Ry", her 8th single, was used as a song for the KDDI au Listen Mobile Service CM. Her second album, Can't Buy My Love, fared well on the Oricon charts, staying for two weeks at #1 and shattering her entire previous album's record sales in one week. So far, Can't Buy My Love has managed to sell over 660,000 copies. Due to the success of Can't Buy My Love, Yui's previous album, From Me to You charted once again to add another 9k or so to the Oricon counting.
She released her 9th single, "My Generation / Understand", on 13 June 2007. This was the very first time that Yui released a double A-side single. My Generation is the theme song for the drama "Seito Shokun!", and Understand is the theme song for the movie "Sidecar ni Inu."
Her 10th single, "Love & Truth", released on September 26, is the theme song to Erika Sawajiri's film, Closed Note. Erika Sawajiri played Yui's role of Amane Kaoru in the TV series adaptation of Taiyou no Uta.
Her first Live DVD "Thank you My teens DVD" was released on November 14, 2007, which is a Live show video of Yui's 2nd Live show trip around Japan during the Spring of 2007.
On November 19, 2007, Yui opened her first Live show at Nippon Budokan. The tickets for the concert were sold out.
Her first single in 2008, Namidairo (English: Tear-Coloured), which is a theme song for a japanese drama, 4 Shimai Tantei Dan, was released for sale on February 27, 2008.[5] Another song, "Laugh Away", was leaked in a Glico "Watering KissMint" candy CM in early March. A PV of the new song was subsequently released. This song is the first track on Yui's 3rd upcoming studio album, "I Loved Yesterday," was released on April 9th.
Yui's third tour, named "Oui" ~I Loved Yesterday~ (Oui means 'Yes' in French) is expected to start in May and end in July.
Yui is expected to release a new single, entitled "Summer Song" on 2 July 2008. This single charted at #1 on Oricon Weekly Chart. SUMMER SONG is YUI's 1st #1 hit single since "I Remember You" that wasn't tied to a drama (My Generation / Understand, Namidairo), commercial (Laugh Away, CHE.R.RY) or anime (Rolling Star). Summer Song sold 83,440 copies in a week, making Summer Song 2nd highest in 1st week sales after Love & Truth single.
Her new album, "My Short Stories" to be released on November 12, 2008, will featuring all of her Coupling Song (B-SIDE) from Feel My Soul to SUMMER SONG and a new song titled "I'll be". In her August 29, 2008 YUI DIARY entry, YUI mentioned that she will take a break for a while from all public appearances after releasing this new album to re-energize herself. With this break, she will be able to fully concentrate on next year's song production.
During this break, she contributed a song, "I Do It" to an Okinawan girl band Stereopony. It will be released as their third single and a theme song of a popular anime, Bleach on April 22, 2009 and as chaku uta on March 18, 2009.
YUI has announced her return from her 5-month hiatus with a new single just one day before her 22nd birthday, on March 25 on her diary entry in her offical website. YUI's new song is an up-tempo tune titled "Again". It has been chosen as the opening theme song of the new Fullmetal Alchemist anime series, which starts on April 5. Ringtone distribution (chaku uta) for the song begins on April 22, followed by a CD release on June 3. "Again" debuted atop the Oricon chart selling over 110,000 copies in its first week and currently has the highest opening week sales for a female act in 2009.
On July 27, 2009, Yui's official website, YUI-net has announced that Yui will be releasing her second double-A side single named, "It's all too much/Never say die". These two songs are chosen for a movie version of an anime, Kaiji as a theme song and an insert song. The single will be released on 7 October, 2009 and the movie will be released on 10 October, 2009.
