From when she was little, Nishino (西野カナ) learned English from English conversation 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. 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.
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