Kato Miliyah

Kato Miliyah (加藤ミリヤ) is a Japanese pop / urban singer-songwriter. She debuted back in 2003 as a featuring artist and debuted solo with, "Never let go / Yozora" in 2004. Her debut album, "Rose" was a big success reaching #2 on the Oricon charts and making it into the top 100 albums of the year. She is under the Mastersix Foundation sub-label of Sony Music Entertainment.

[edit] Beginnings to Rose

Miliyah promoting "Never let go / Yozora" (2004)

Miliyah started writing lyrics and composing music at the age of fourteen. She made her debut onto the music scene with the track, "Cherry, Oh Baby". The song was featured on an album released by Reggae Disco Rockers. In 2004 she reappeared again as a featuring artist on Dozhi-T's "Shouri no Megami" single. She also starred in the commercial the song was used for.

In September of 2004 Miliyah made her solo debut with the single, "Never let go / Yozora". The single sold well, reaching the #15 position on the Oricon charts. The track "Yozora", even sampled the hit song "Ningen-hatudenjyo" by Buddah Brand. The pre-release LP of the single is now rare to find as it sold out on the day of it's release. Two months later came the release of her second single, "Beautiful". The song was about Miliyah wanting to stay strong and beautiful, and was used as Lotte's Pure White Gum CM song. Much like her debut LP it also sold out the day it released.

In March of 2005 Miliyah came back with the single, "Dear Lonely Girl". The single ended up being a big hit, and currently her best selling single. Soon she released a limited line of clothing named, Miliyahhood which was only avaiable in Shibuya's Marui JAM department store. Miliyah's love for fashion runs strong with her just like her love for music and she hopes to release more clothing again soon. Her next single, "Jounetsu" was released in Sepember. The song used a sample from UA's hit song of the same name. This fact on its own attracted many listeners and the single end up reaching #11 on the Oricon charts.

Only a month had passed before the Miliyah's nest release. Her debut album, "Rose" was released on October 26th 2005. The album ranked in at the #2 position on the Oricon charts. The album was very sucessful and sold a total of 189,293 copies that year, making the #79 album of the year. On November 29th Miliyah held her very first one-man live concert to promote her album.

Miliyah promoting "Eyes on you" (2007)

[edit] Diamond Princess era

Only four months after the release of her debut album, Miliyah started releasing singles again. The first of these singles was "Sotsugyou". The single showcased a more mature sound for Miliyah. The single was less sucessful then any of her previous releases ranking in at #23 on the Oricon.

Miliyah's next release came after a five month silence. "Last Summer" was released in June, and did worst than her previous release. It ranked in at #30 on the Oricon charts. Her next release held up with the sucess of her "Rose"-era singles. "I WILL" was used as the subject song for the movie, "Otoshimono". The single ended up ranking at #17 on the Oricon charts becoming her most sucessful single since "Jounetsu".

Miliyah kicked of 2007 with the February release of "Eyes on you." The single charted at #24 on the Oricon. Her second album, "Diamond Princess" was released exactly a month later on March 7th. The album reached #5 on the Oricon charts. Though the album didn't rank much less then "Rose" its sales were significantly less. After being on the Oricon for three weeks it had only sold a total of 68,029 copies.

Miliyah promoting "Love is..." (2007)

[edit] Tokyo Star to Present

Not even a month off the heals of the release of "Diamond Princess" Kato Miliyah annouced the release dates for two singles. The first of which being being a cover of the 1965 #1 hit by The Temptations, "My Girl". The song also features the Japanese R&B group COLOR. The second of the two is titled "Love is..." and faired much better one the Oricon than the first.

Miliyah's single, "LALALA / FUTURECHECKA" was very "collaboration heavy". The song "LALALA" features the reggae styling of Wakadanna of the band Shonannokaze and production by MINMI. The second a-side track, "FUTURECHECKA" features collaborations with SIMON, COMA-CHI (Who recently appear on Miliyah's "Kono Mama Zutto Asa Made Remix") & TARO SOUL. The song was produced by ZEEBRA & DJ KEN-BO. The single was highly successful, and has become her third best selling.

Just over four months since the release of her previous single, Miliyah released her 12th single "19 Memories". The title track was used for Dwango CMs song and it was also the theme song for the TX dorama, Ryuuha-R. The song samples and is inspired by Amuro Namie's song, "SWEET 19 BLUES".

"19 Memories" was followed six weeks later with the release of Miliyah's third studio album, entitled "Tokyo Star". The only single that wasn't featured on the album was "My Girl". The album was also Miliyah's very first release to be available in both CD only and CD+DVD formats. The album debuted at #5 on it's first week, the same position as Miliyah's previous album. However "Tokyo Star" sold 82,169 copies - double the amount of what "Diamond Princess" sold in it's first week, continuing the success of her more recent releases. In it's 2nd week, "Tokyo Star" reached a new peak of #4.

Categories: Artists | J-Urban | J-R&B | J-Pop | English Fluent | 1988 Births