Her parents enjoyed music, so from a young age she was always surrounded by a wide array of styles of music (especially Western music). In December 2002, by chance she was featured on a Hokkaido-based TV karaoke competition and sung a cover of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, and was recognised by the show’s judges for her talent. In May 2006, after finishing high-school, she debuted as an indies artist on the Hokkaido-based Yumechika Records label with the cover single, The Roots (the leading song from the single was a cover of Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke). The single charted in at #3 on the Sapporo HMV store’s internal charts. When holding in-store lives, she would regularly sell over 100 copies per live. Following this up in October, she released a mini-album, Step☆Out EP, featuring original songs as well as covers. Totalled together, these two releases sold over 6,000 copies. Fukuhara in 2007 was signed to Sony records, and prior to her debut released a cover of Céline Dion’s Because You Loved Me on the compilation album TRIBUTE TO CELINE DION. Her debut single, CHANGE, is planned to be released in April 2008. Fukuhara has been praised by such artists as Corinne Bailey Rae and GEO from Sweetbox.| |
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