Azu (born 8 December 1981, stylized as AZU) is a Japanese R&B singer. She is well-known for her collaborations with rapper Seamo, such as her first major release, the leading track from Seamo's second album Live Goes On, "Kokoro no Koe."
Biography
Azu first began working in the Tokyo club scene, at the age of 16.[1] She explains the meaning behind her stage name as "Putting memories to all the words from A to Z and conveying them to you (U)."[1]
She began work with rapper Seamo in 2005, and worked as a background vocalist for a few of his tracks. In 2006, she featured as a fully fledged billed artist in the lead radio single from his second album, Live Goes On. The song, "Kokoro no Koe," was certified by the RIAJ for 100,000 cellphone downloads.[2]
She debuted as an artist in her own right in 2007, with the single "Cherish." She continued to work with Seamo (for example, her first top 30 hit, "Jikan yo Tomare", featured him). To date, the pair have worked together on six songs together.
Her songs generally do better in the digital market (her biggest single in physical sales only sold 11,000 copies[3]). Since November 2009, five of her songs have been certified gold by the RIAJ for cellphone downloads.[4]
Azu released her second album in March 2010, Two of Us.[5]
{[Born 8 December 1981 (1981-12-08) (age 29) Mie Prefecture, Japan Genres J-Pop, R&B Occupations Singer Years active 1997–present Labels BMG Japan (2006-2009) Ariola Japan (2009-present) Associated acts Karutetto, Kuro (Home Made Kazoku), Limelight, Love Love Love, Makai, Seamo, Shuriken Jet, Spontania Website Azu's Official Site]}
