At the end of 1981 after the release of her fifth album Portrait ( PORTRAIT), She announced she was going to take a break for a while and paused doing concerts and releases, and got married six months later. It was recorded by the Carpenters, released in 1983, and was the last recording by the late Karen Carpenter. One of her songs from the 1980 album Miss M ( Miss M), "Heart to Heart" (music by Roger Nichols), was given English lyrics and a new title, "Now". Those recordings featured dozens of prominent Japanese and North American songwriters, instrumentalists and producers, including Kazuhiko Katō, Tetsuji Hayashi, Shigeru Suzuki, Masamichi Sugi, Shigeru Suzuki, Takashi Matsumoto, Al Capps, Peter Allen, David Lasley, Alan O'Day, David Foster, Jim Keltner, Jay Graydon, Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, David Hungate, and a fellow RCA artist and her future partner and husband, Tatsuro Yamashita. Takeuchi has had one song "Apple Papple Princess" ( アップル・パップル・プリンセス) (1981) appear on the NHK program Minna no Uta.įrom the late 1970s to the early 1980s, she recorded five albums and several singles.
The 1980 single "Fushigi na Peach Pie" ( 不思議なピーチパイ, Mysterious Peach Pie) was also a hit. The 1979 singles "Dream of You: Lemon Lime no Aoi Kaze" ( ドリーム・オブ・ユー〜レモンライムの青い風〜, Dream of You: Blue Breeze of Lemon Lime), "September" were hits, and she won the 1979 Japan Record Awards, Tokyo Music Festival, Japan Music Awards, Shinjuku Music Festival and Ginza Music Festival best new artist awards as a singer. In August that year she signed up with the RCA recording label, and in November her debut single "Modotte oide, Watashi no Jikan" ( 戻っておいで・私の時間, Please come back, my time), and the debut album Beginning were released.
Takeuchi joined the music club of the university and there she was invited to participate in Masamichi Sugi ( 杉真理)'s recordings and in March 1978 so-called the omnibus album Loft Sessions ( ロフト・セッションズ) recordings. She married fellow musician Tatsuro Yamashita in April 1982. She entered the Japanese Keio University in 1974 majoring in English literature and won a nationwide English recitation contest by The Japan Times in the spring of that year. Her nickname was Mako, as one of the AFS yearbooks has a caption that reads Mariya "Mako" Takeuchi. In 1972, for her third year of high school, she studied in Rock Falls, Illinois, United States, as an international exchange student through the AFS Intercultural Programs. She had already learned to play piano and guitar by third grade, but the Beatles left an impression that inspired her to travel. Her family always played records from all over the world. She grew up in the family Shinise Ryokan (Japanese long-established inn) business by the name of Takenoya, that her paternal great grandfather Shigezo Takeuchi ( 竹内繁蔵) founded in 1877. Takeuchi was born in Taisha in the Hikawa district of Shimane Prefecture in Japan. 1 on Oricon Charts, making her the oldest singer to achieve a No. She has stayed with the Moon record label, working with the different branches since signing in 1984 and since 1998 has been signed with Warner Music Japan, with whom she released the single "Inochi no Uta" ( いのちの歌, Song of Life) in 2012, for which she re-recorded in 2020 the latter of which charted at No. Since 1981, every single she has released has charted on the Oricon Charts. įollowing the success of her ventures throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Takeuchi began releasing albums less frequently, her latest release being in 2014 as she shifted her focus to work and release standalone singles.
The song has since attained a cult following and is seen as the staple in a revival of interest in city pop in the late 2010s.
The track " Plastic Love", which was released in 1985 as a single, became a surprise hit outside of Japan in 2017 after a YouTube upload of the song went viral. Three years later, Takeuchi and her husband Tatsuro Yamashita signed with Moon Records, and she made her comeback with her sixth studio album Variety in 1984, which was released internationally and shot her to mainstream success, and peaked at No. Takeuchi then announced she would go on a temporary hiatus in 1981, terminating her contract with RCA records. She then released four albums between 19, all of which obtained commercial success, including the 1980 album Love Songs, which became her first work to peak at No. She made her singing debut after signing with the RCA record label in 1978, with whom she released her debut album Beginning, which peaked at No. Takeuchi was born in Taisha, Hikawa district, now the city of Izumo, Shimane, and attended Keio University. Regarded as an influential figure in the city pop genre, she is one of the best-selling music artists in Japan, having sold over 16 million records, and has received several accolades. Mariya Takeuchi ( 竹内 まりや, Takeuchi Mariya, born 20 March 1955) is a Japanese singer and songwriter.