Jpopmusic.com

Name: Fukuhara Miho (福原美穂)
Birthday: June 19, 1987
Birth Place: Sapporo, Hokkaido
Height: 165cm
Blood Type: O
Favorite Movies: Blade, The Blues Brothers, The Fast and the Furious, Hhardball, The Shawshank, Redemption, Star Wars
Favorite Musicians: 2pac, The Beatles, Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Alicia Keys, B.B. King, Wilson Pickett, Santana, Angie Stone, Joss Stone, The Temptations, Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder

Official Websites:
Official Website (Sony Music Japan)
Official Blog (Livedoor)

BIOGRAPHY
Her parents enjoyed music so from a young age she was always surrounded by a wide array of styles of music (especially Western music). On December 2002, by chance she was featured on a Hokkaido-based TV karaoke competition and sung a cover of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and was recognized by the show's judges for her talent.

On May 2006, after finishing high-school, she debuted as an indie artist on the Hokkaido-based Yumechika Records label with the cover single "The Roots" (the lead song from the single was a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke"). The single charted at #3 on the Sapporo HMV store's internal charts. When holding in-store lives, she would regularly sell over 100 copies per live. Following this up in October, she released a mini-album, "Step☆Out EP", featuring original songs as well as some covers here and there. Totaled together, these two releases sold over 6,000 copies.

Fukuhara was signed to Sony Music Records Japan in 2007 and prior to her debut she released a cover of Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me" on the compilation album "TRIBUTE TO CELINE DION". Her debut single, "CHANGE", was released in April 2008 followed by "Himawari" on July, "Yasashii Aka" in November, "LOVE ~winter song~" in December and her debut album "RAINBOW", released on January 2009.

Latest releases include the single "HANABI SKY", "LET IT OUT", ending theme song for FULL METAL ALCHEMIST anime series, and "Nande Nakitaku Nacchau n Darou"

NEW SINGLE - Nande Nakitaku Nacchau n Darou 2009.12.02


New single "Nande Nakitaku Nacchau n Darou" features b-side "Cry No More", which was composed by Miho after watching movie "Shizumanu Taiyo", a story which was originally from a bestselling novel written by Yamasaki Takako. Single comes out on December 2nd.

01 なんで泣きたくなっちゃうんだろう (Nande Nakitaku Nacchau n Darou)
02 Cry No More
- TBA -

DISCOGRAPHY
(2007.09.26 A) TRIBUTE TO CELINE DION (featured on "BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME")
(2008.04.16 S) CHANGE
(2008.07.16 S) ひまわり (Himawari)
(2008.11.05 S) 優しい赤 (Yasashii Aka)
(2008.12.10 S) LOVE ～winter song～
(2009.01.06 S) 雪の光 (Yuki no Hikari) (Digital Single)
(2009.01.28 A) RAINBOW
(2009.06.17 S) HANABI SKY
(2009.09.09 S) LET IT OUT

She has a strong voice, but I wouldn't say it's better than Mariah's.

"CHANGE" sounds promising. Her voice has a lot of character

If I'm reading her site correctly, she was born in Hokkaido and she's only 20 years old.

OMG, "Change" is amazing! I'll look at this new singer!
Thanks!

Oh great. I heard her mini-album before and it sounded pretty lack lustre compared to her Celine cover, but this sounds great.

Oh, she already released a mini ?

Yeah, it was called the Step Out EP, and she's also done this single called The Roots (both indies releases).

Ok, I'll look for it, thanks!

woah, this bitch can SANG. Her english is pretty good too.

lol there's a video of her when she was 15 singing AIWFCIY by Mariah.

Is she mixed?

Change sounds really good and she has a great voice.

I don't know but this song reminds me a little bit of Leona Lewis Bleeding.

There's already a thread for her in the J-Urban section.

Her voice is good but as much as I HATE Mariah, her voice is not as good as her. But she's definetely one of the best voices when it comes to newbies in the Japanese music world (very powerful voice, which I love)

Deff, but it's so weird she constantly mixes up "L" and "R" sounds, it sounds like perfected Engrish O_o

I've been loving her for so long now, so happy for her major label debut :]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlJxWX3Jumc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0a_S3BG6fg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqfSRE-wYFc

Here's a recording of an episode of Skip from the 15th that featured solely on Miho. Part 1 features some interview, plus it follows her to New York for the recording of Change. Part 2 is her singing at a black gospel church; she sings Oh Happy Day and Amazing Grace. Part 3 is her performing Change, plus some more interview.

Another Sony debut which really attract my attention. I like CHANGE a lot and I'm very interested not only for her talent but her style, since there's no much of this in the jmusic industry. She has an amazing voice; thanks Martzb for the links, her cover of All I want for Christmas is you is pretty good, also AMAZING GRACE which made me cry (until now only Mika Nakashima's version did that effect on me). I'm looking forward to her work.