Nana Mizuki (水樹 奈々, Mizuki Nana) born Nana Kondo (近藤 奈々, Kondō Nana) is a successful Japanese singer, songwriter, lyricist, voice actress (seiyu), performer, stage actress and model.
Biography
Early Life (1980-1998)
Nana Mizuki was born on January 21st 1980 in Niihama, Japan as Nana Kondo. Starting at age 5 she began training to sing enka and continued doing so for a long time, and still performs in this style at times. In 1993, at age 13, she released an enka cassette single called Tsugazakura (つがざくら, lit. "Phyllodoce Nipponica") under her real name, Nana Kondo. She later auditioned for a role in the game Noël: La Neige which started her voice acting career.
Beginnings (1998-2000)
In 1998 she sang an image song called "Girl's Age" as Chisato Kadokura. When performing a concert at the age of 20 the record label King Records started paying attention to her. She got signed the same year and released her debut single as Nana Mizuki, Omoi (想い, lit. "Thought" or "Feeling"), in December, 2000.
First albums (2001-2003)
In December 2001, after having released 3 singles, Nana released her debut studio album supersonic girl. It sold little, but enough to keep her contract and enable her to release more singles and albums. Her sophomore album, MAGIC ATTRACTION, released November 2002, sold better than her previous album and started a trend of her albums selling more and more with her 2003 album DREAM SKIPPER being her first to chart in the top30, peaking at position 25 and selling nearly 20,000 copies.
Growing fanbase (2004-2007)
Her 10th single innocent starter was her first to chart in the top10, reaching #9 and could be seen as her first little commercial success. Since then, none of her singles had a peak position below #13(WILD EYES) with only one not reaching the top10. These singles and her 4th album Alive & Kicking led up to her first concert in Budokan, one of Japan's most famous concert venues in which only 1 seiyu performed before her, called Live Rainbow. Her 5th album HYBRID UNIVERSE reached #3 in 2006, selling more than 50,000 copies. This era concluded with the releases of Nana's first best-of album The Museum and her 6th album GREAT ACTIVITY, reaching #5 and #2 respectively while both selling over 60,000 copies. Her singles ETERNAL BLAZE and Secret Ambition both peaked at #2 as well.
Commercial Success (2008-now)
Nana spent most time in 2008 releasing two new singles, voice acting and touring. She held two consecutive concerts at Saitama Super Arena, Live Fighter Blue and Red Side, a big venue she had previously used to performed the final of her Live Formula 2007-2008 tour. With the release of her 7th album ULTIMATE DIAMOND she reached the #1 position on the Oricon album charts, and was the first seiyu to ever do so. The album sold a total of more than 100,000 copies, figures only topped by her following album IMPACT EXCITER, which failed to reach #1 (peaking at #2), but sold more records in the end. One of IMPACT EXCITER's singles entitled PHANTOM MINDS reached the #1 position on the Oricon single chart, again making her the only seiyuu to do so. To promote ULTIMATE DIAMOND Nana performed a concert called LIVE DIAMOND at Seibu Dome, one of Japan's biggest stadiums with seats for around 34,000 people. The next year to promote IMPACT EXCITER, similarily to Live Fighter, two consecutive concerts were held at Seibu Dome, called LIVE GAMES: RED STAGE and BLUE STAGE. This makes her one of the highest charting artists of Japan and one of the few females to sell out big domes.