It has been announced that singer & songwriter Yanagi Nagi, who is famous for her expressive singing voice and who has charmed people worldwide for the depth of her lyrics, will release a new album titled “Follow My Tracks” this year on April 20th, almost one and a half years since her previous album, “Polyomino”. Let’s go back to the beginning and run through the history of how Nagi made it to where she is today.
The Dawn of a Star: Beginning from Video Sharing
Yanagi Nagi began her musical activities in 2006. At that time, she was mostly active in live houses and online. One of the websites she was active on back then was Niconico, at that time Nico Nico Douga, which had just been established.
Videos titled “My cover of…” (Japanese: 歌ってみた) are seen everywhere now, where people cover anime and Vocaloid songs; it’s an established genre. But back then it was a genre that had only just started. Without doubt it can be said that Yanagi Nagi was the dawning leading figure in this genre; singing purely with her own voice, not knowing her name, title or background, people were completely enchanted by her.
The Craze of “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari”
Her online success is what sparked her interest to join the group supercell, who have created some of the most well-known Hatsune Miku songs including “Melt” and “World is Mine”, as a guest vocalist under the name “nagi”. Their first single together, “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari”, was used as the ending theme for the hit anime “Bakemonogatari”. Together with the lyrics, which sing of vibrant and lively youth, and a sound which makes you feel as if you’re sprinting, the song received enormous praise, and has and continues to resonate immensely with fans. The song ranked in the top 20 of the Oricon Singles Daily Chart and stayed there for over 2 months. Even now, the song continues to be found in the most recent karaoke rankings (February 2016) amongst the top 30, displaying the huge popularity of the track.
After that, Yanagi Nagi also provided vocals in the single “Utakata Hanabi/Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni” and the album “Today Is A Beautiful Day”.
Becoming Known as “Yanagi Nagi”
In December 2012, she released her major debut single “Vidro Moyou” under the name “Yanagi Nagi”.
Nagi was involved with the song writing from the beginning of her work together with supercell, but she was also in charge of writing song lyrics to most of her songs since her major debut. She is responsible for composing a lot of songs, such as the song “Wasurenai Tame ni”, which is used as the ending theme for the anime series “Black Bullet”.
The aforementioned song “Vidro Moyou” was also written for the anime series “Ano Natsu de Matteru”. Its fresh and clear lyrics feel like they are part of the story, almost as if they melt straight into it. It’s because the song was written for an anime that it proved as a challenge, according to Nagi.
Nagi was very shy when she made her major debut and hadn’t really appeared publicly in any kind of videos. But in 2014, she performed at a festival in Ueno Park, and gradually became more active and known in the live scene.
Nagi has already released 12 singles as of February 2016. She has also been involved with a number of tie-ups not only with anime and games, but even opening songs for TV programs, for a total of 30 songs – and this number is growing.
I think the reason for such high demand of Nagi is because of the charm in her voice which can be likened to the stillness of a limpid stream of water.
supercell’s composer ryo is also an incredible singer, with a beautiful soprano voice that has a feeling of transparency. At times, his voice can express the vitality of youth; at others, it can envision a fantasy world filled with gloom. His individuality continues to be apparent, and the softness of his voice that can adjust to a song is for certain one of his strengths. Nagi’s original style is the latter, as evident in her second single “Ambivalentidea”, but the former is also evident, and can be said to have influenced her work with supercell and her online video work.
Yanagi Nagi is a key and important new figure in the music scene. Starting from April 24th, she will tour 8 cities around Japan. Do not miss your chance to see Nagi’s brilliance with your own eyes.
Text: Kakoi (SHUTTER)
Yanagi Nagi Official Website