For over two decades, Minmi has been a uniquely luminous presence in Japan's constellation of pop stars. Born Michiko Evwana, she played piano as a child, and by 1996 was a fixture of the reggae and hip-hop club scenes as Minmi, performing at rub-a-dub showcases and hip hop events in the clubs of Osaka. Infusing her music with world influences, notably broadening into Soca, and with a penchant for writing and producing her own material, Minmi has delivered a steady stream of chart-topping releases since the turn of the century.
After many guest appearances on the albums of established artist such as Red Spider, her personal string of success began in 2002, with the reggae-infused debut single on JVC Records, “The Perfect Vision,” which went on to sell 500,000 copies, and foreshadowed a career of album sales that have landed each record she has issued in the upper echelon of the Oricon charts. Minmi's long-awaited album debut, Miracle, was an instant hit with a legion of teenage fans. Spending two consecutive months in the Top 5, exceeding 600,000 copies sold, the album established Minmi as a bona fide nationwide sensation.
In 2003, Minmi undertook her first national tour, instantly selling out a slate of summer shows. Blending the latest world music with popular Japanese music trends, and not beholden to any specific musical genre, she drew wide-ranging audiences from both her pop success and her underground club credibility. Among her peers, she was a rarity; with self-contained songwriting (including lyrics), arrangement, and production, Minmi's work became so highly regarded, she was often collaborating with leading musicians and engineers from Jamaica and the United States.
She contributed the song “Shiki no Uta” to the anime Samurai Champloo, where it appears as the end credits theme, and launched her highly anticipated second album, Imagine, in 2004. The crossover appeal of the single “Are yu ready” led to the formation of the production team, ZA-REC, that consisted of Minmi and Junior (Red Spider), to work with Jamaican artists. By the summer of '05, Minmi released her sixth single “Summertime!!,” based largely on the Soca rhythm that originated in Trinidad Tobago, leading to an appearance in front of 30,000, including the Fugees' Wyclef Jean, at the Trinidad Tobago Festival.
A third LP, Natural, came next, with a subsequent tour featuring a stunning performance at SUMMER SONIC ‘06 as the first and only Japanese artist to headline the major rock fest, and a nomination as the Best New Artist of the Soca Awards- the only Japanese artist ever to earn such an honor. Her success as a Soca artist continued, becoming the first Japanese artist ever to win in the preliminary round and advance into the final round of the famed Soca Monarc competition, performing at the National Stage, as one of three female finalists. Her month-long stay at the festival in Trinidad Tobago totaled audiences for her appearances at over 100,000.
After her Minmi Best 2002-2008 ranked #1, a deal with Universal Music Japan, and marriage and motherhood, her pace of releases and appearances has remained consistently successful. She established the Freedom festival in '08, becoming one of the most recognized events in Japan, and over the next ten years released a series of albums starting with 2013's I Love and through to her ninth and most recent, 2018's Identity; all charting in the Top 5. On July 19, 2019 an updated version of “Shiki no Uta,” recorded in English and Japanese in a Los Angeles studio in June, will be released to online stores worldwide through Domo Records.