Kana Nishino

Kana Nishino (西野 カナ Nishino Kana, born March 18, 1989 in Matsusaka, Mie) is a J-Pop singer and lyricist signed with SME Records’ Newcome Inc. She debuted on February 20, 2008, with the single «I». CNN said that she was the favorite singer of teenage girls in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Nishino studied English from an early age, and went to America twice. She became interested in various genres of music, including hip-hop, R&B and reggae, but she also enjoyed Japanese literature, and started singing Japanese folk songs. Her dream of becoming a singer started in junior high school. When she was 16, her mother secretly sent a demo tape of hers to the Miss Phoenix Audition, 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. Interestingly, the original version of the song «I Don’t Wanna Know» was available as a digital download on the American iTunes site from New Year’s Day onwards. The physical version was released two months later, on February 20, 2008.

Nishino’s second single was called «Glowly Days». Her third single «Style» was used as the second ending theme song for the anime series Soul Eater and her fourth single «Make Up» is used in the ONA Chocolate Underground from UK’s miniseries Bootleg with one of its b-sides, «Kirari», as an insert song.

After her first four singles, her music took a more R&B feel to it. Her fifth single «Tōkutemo feat. Wise» was released as a full-track digital song (Chaku Uta Full) on March 11, 2009. The physical CD was released on March 18, 2009. It is her first physical single to enter the top 50 in the Japanese Oricon single charts. Wise’s digital single «Aenakutemo feat. Kana Nishino» debuted at number 9 on the RIAJ Digital Track Chart.

Nishino released her sixth single «Kimi ni Aitaku Naru Kara» on June 3, 2009. The single hit number 14 on the Oricon weekly single charting, being her best single release of the six. The digital version of the single debuted at number 5 on the RIAJ Digital Track Chart.

Her album Love One. was released on June 24, 2009, and features all six singles, a b-side, «Celtic», a pro and epilogue (featuring «kirari»), along with five completely unreleased songs: «doll» (track 3), «Girlfriend» (track 4), «Kimi no Koe o feat. Verbal (M-Flo)» (track 5), «Life goes on…» (track 7), and «candy» (track 9). «Kimi no Koe o» reached number 5 on RIAJ’s digital track charts.

Nishino released her seventh single «Motto…». The full-track ringtone digital download of the song began on October 14 and the physical CD was released on October 21, 2009. The song debuted at the number 1 spot on the RIAJ Digital Track Chart. She released the double A-side single «Dear…/Maybe» on December 2, 2009. After releasing two more singles «Best Friend» and «Aitakute Aitakute», she released her second album To Love on June 23, 2010.

On August 4, 2010, Kana Nishino released her eleventh single, «If.» This song was used as the theme and ending song of the movie «Naruto Shippuuden 4: The Lost Tower».The single reached number 5 on the Oricon charts and sold over 85,000 copies. Her 12th single, «Kimi tte», was released on November 3, 2010.

Kana competed in the 61st Kohaku Uta Gassen, which took place on December 31, 2010, with «Best Friend.» On February 9, 2011, the single «Distance» was released. She also collaborated with Wise on the single «By your side» which was released on March 16, 2011.