Nishino Kana (西野カナ), born March 18, 1989, is a Japanese pop singer from Mie Prefecture, Japan. She was chosen the top entrant out of approximately 40,000 applicants in the Miss Phoenix audition in 2005, and a year later was signed to SME Records. A growing popular singer among Japan’s youth, Kana debuted in 2007 with the single, “I Don’t Wanna Know”.
From when she was little, Nishino learnt English from eikaiwa schools, and went to America twice. She then was interested in various genres of music, including hip-hop, R&B and reggae. On the other hand, she also enjoyed traditional Japanese literature, and started singing Japanese folk songs. Her dream of becoming a singer started from junior high school. When she was 16 her mother secretly sent a demo tape of hers to the Miss Phoenix Audition (ミス・フェニックスオーディション), and she was rated the top singer entrant out of approximately 40,000 applicants. A year later in 2006, she was signed to SME Records.
In 2007 while preparing to be a singer, she was also studying English literature at university. At the time she met Australian duo Nervo, who offered Nishino a song called I Don’t Wanna Know for use in her music project. Nishino rewrote the song’s lyrics into Japanese herself, and re-titled it I.
In December 2007 her official site opened, and from that time onwards *I* ~Merry Christmas ver.~ was available as a digital download from several Japanese sites, including mora.jp. Interestingly, the original version of the song I Don’t Wanna Know was available as a digital download on the American iTunes from New Years’ Day onwards. The physical version was released two months later, on the 20th of February.| |
