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Emi Maria
Emi Maria performing at the Hibiki Music Festival 2009.
Background information
Born	(1987-06-09) 9 June 1987 (age 37) Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea
Origin	Kobe, Japan
Genres	Pop, R&B
Occupation	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Freest Inc. (2007) K.S.R. (2008) Victor Entertainment (2009–present)

Emi Maria (stylized as EMI MARIA; born 9 June 1987) is a Japanese and Papua New Guinean R&B singer-songwriter who debuted in 2007 with the EP Between the Music.

Biography

Emi Maria was born in 1987 in Papua New Guinea. Her mother is Japanese-New Guinean, while her father is Papua New Guinean. She spent the first five years of her life in Papua New Guinea, before moving to Kobe in Japan.

She first started listening to R&B at 6 due to her sister, listening to such artists as Janet and Michael Jackson, and K-Ci & JoJo. She began writing lyrics in junior high school. By high school, she had started writing music and producing her own tracks. She participated in the MTV Star Tour, and started performing lives in the Kansai area from 2006 onwards. In 2007, she started appearing on many different Japanese urban artists' albums as a guest artist, such as Seeda and MC Moggy.

In 2007, Emi Maria released her first EP, Between the Music on Freest Inc., a label she had created for herself. Her debut single "I Gotta (Summer Kiss)" was picked as the iTunes Japan single of the week in August 2008.

She debuted as a major label artist in 2009, with the release of a digital single "One Way Love" under Victor Entertainment. During this time, she had some of her highest profile collaborations. "Luv Is..." was a song Emi Maria performed with R&B singer Jay'ed, which features on his top 10 album Musication. In December, she had her first top 10 hit, as a featured artist on Seeda's single "Wisdom", which reached number 8 on the Oricon singles charts. After the release of her first physical single in 2010, "Show Me Your Love", Emi Maria released her first major label album, Contrast.

Discography

Albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Other appearances

References

1. ^ "EMI MARIA / エミ マリア" (in Japanese). EmiMaria.com. Archived from the original on 4 October 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
2. "EMI MARIA インタビュー" (in Japanese). Hotxpress. Archived from the original on 9 January 2010. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
3. "EMI MARIA – アーティスト情報" (in Japanese). Yahoo! Music. Archived from the original on 19 March 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
4. "JBOOK：商品検索 EMI MARIA" (in Japanese). JBook. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
5. "iTunes presents LIVE from Tokyo EMI MARIA" (in Japanese). iTunes. 1 September 2008. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
6. ^ "オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」". Oricon. Retrieved 27 February 2010. (subscription only)

External links

• Official Victor Label Site (in Japanese)
• Official Blog (in Japanese)
• Official MySpace on Myspace (in Japanese)
• Emi Maria on Twitter
• Emi Maria on Instagram
• Emi Maria's channel on YouTube

• 1987 births
• Japanese-language singers
• Japanese women singer-songwriters
• Japanese people of Papua New Guinean descent
• Japanese women pop singers
• Living people
• Singers from Kobe
• Papua New Guinean singers
• Papua New Guinean people of Japanese descent
• Papua New Guinean emigrants to Japan
• 21st-century Japanese singer-songwriters
• 21st-century Japanese women singers