Mizrock

Mizrock is a Japanese pop/rock singer under Universal Music. She originally debuted in 1999 under Universal under her real name, Watanabe Mizuki (渡辺みづき) and released two singles. In 2003 she begun to work with Swedish producer Tord Backstrom, and debuted under Victor Entertainment with the pseudonym Miz in 2004. In the same year she released an English album that was released in Sweden, with the lead single Waiting reaching #8 on the Hitlistan Swedish singles chart. In 2007 Mizrock returned to Universal, releasing the mini-album Good bye, yesterday. Her biggest hits in Japan are New Day (#20 on Oricon charts) and the theme song for the Squaresoft game Grandia III, In The Sky.

Mizrock first started to like music through the soundtracks of Miyazaki Hayao films. She first wanted to become a singer after watching Lauryn Hill perform in the movie Sister Act 2. In mid-1999 Mizrock entered the nation-wide beauty contest "'99 Princess Audition", and was the grand winner out of the 3,200 entrants. Due to this, in mid-1999 she debuted under Universal using her real name Watanabe Mizuki with the single I WILL (TX TV show Ren'ai Slot Kurukuru TV's ending theme song). Five months she released a second single Ambition (Playstation game Kukuro Sea Toro: Eternal Eyes' theme song), though neither single charted in the top 100 singles. Mizrock wrote the lyrics to all four of the songs featured on these singles. Nothing would be heard from her until August 2001 when a song of hers, Aoi Kioku (青い記憶; Blue Memory) was used as the image song in the PC game Hello, world. This song would not surface until October the following year, when it was released on the soundtrack for the game.

From 2003, she worked in cooperation with Swedish producer Tord Backstrom and his staff, and in February of 2004, she debuted through Victor Entertainment with the single New Day under the pseudonym Miz. New Day was used in commercials promoting the Victor record label, which featured herself. The single debuted at #20, and is currently her biggest single. Five months later, Miz's second single, Waiting for.

At the same time, Miz was busy with a separate career in Sweden, making an English album. In September Miz released the English version of Waiting for, simply titled Waiting (and featuring a different arrangement). This single reached #8 on the Swedish singles charts, although it dropped out the week later. Later in the month in Japan, Miz's debut album Say It's Forever was released. Much like her debut, the album reached #20 in Japan (however went to #1 for two weeks in Taiwan)). Half of the album featured Miz's own lyrics. Shortly after in November, Miz released a separate, English language in Sweden called Story Untold (however it did not chart in the top 60 albums). A special version was released featuring the entire Say Its Forever album on a bonus disc.

To start off 2005, Miz released her third album in a row, Dreams, in Japan. The album featured the bulk of Miz's Swedish release album, however had a few omissions and new songs. In August Miz released two items: a photobook called An Ordinary Day featuring Miz in Sweden and the In The Sky single (the game Grandia III's theme song). In the Sky was the Japanese version of a song from Story Untold called "Amazing" (interestingly, for the English language release of the game a separate English version was recorded with different lyrics)

Two new singles were quickly released in the following months: a Japanese version of Backseat Baby from her Swedish album in late 2005 and a completely new song, Bittersweet, in 2006. These were followed by her second album, Mizrock.

Mizrock

In 2006 Miz left her record label Victor Interactive, changed her stage name to Mizrock, and dyed her hair a platinum blond. Through-out that year Mizrock was in the studio on her new label Nayutawave Records, a subsidiary label of Universal Music, recording new tracks for her 1st mini-album Good bye, yesterday. The title track "Good bye, yesterday" was featured as the second ending theme song to the popular anime Romeo X Juliet. Good bye, yesterday also reached a #100 position on the Oricon ranking charts.

Stylistically Mizrock's music recently changed from a more rock/pop influenced sound to an R&B/pop/rock combination. During the 1 year production period of Good bye, yesterday, Mizrock's state of mind changed. In an explanation of her name change to "Mizrock", Watanabe felt like it was a return to her natural self. She now approaches music differently than when she was "Miz", and thought that the name "Mizrock" sounded best. She kept the "Miz" infront of her name for her former fans and added the "rock" part for more of a symbolic meaning than the actual musical meaning. Mizrock stated she wants to be a Japanese artist recognized globally. In the future she wants to release more music in Sweden and of course Japan.

In early 2007 it was announced on Mizrock's official website that she got the opportunity to play a role in the Japanese version of the musical Rent. She is scheduled to play the character "Maureen" from May 7, 2008 to December 30, 2008. Sequentially she released her first single under her new name titled Best Friend. Best Friend ranked #110 on Oricon and charted for 1 week. After Best Friend Mizrock released her 2nd single titled Thank You xxx which ranked #134 and also charted for 1 week.

Mizrock's next single Pepper Keibu was released on July 2nd, 2008. The single is a cover song originally sung by 80's J-pop Idol duo Pink Lady. Pepper Keibu ranked #136 on Oricon and charted for 1 week. It was also included in the GA-KI Aku Yu Tribute compilation album.

Categories: Artists | J-Pop | J-Rock | 1981 Births | Blood Type B