Women of Japan

Mika Nakashima is a Japanese singer who generally tends towards somewhat gothic or punk looks, although recently she has (unfortunately) been trying to pull off some sort of gospel/soul singer albums, which haven’t been very impressive. She’s also one of the two stars of the movie Nana, which is based off of the manga series Nana.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

Mika Nakashima (中島 美嘉, Nakashima Mika?, born February 19, 1983 in Hioki, Kagoshima Prefecture) is a Japanese singer, model, and actress.

Mika Nakashima was the youngest of three children. She dreamed of pursuing a singing career from a young age. She decided not to attend high school or college in order to pursue a music career.

She was chosen from among 3000 girls to be the heroine of the 2001 fall Fuji TV drama, Kizudarake no Love Song (Tainted Love Song). In November, she made her debut with Sony Music Associated Records, with the song “Stars”, which was also the theme song of the drama.

Her first album True released in August 2002 was a #1 hit in the Oricon charts.

In 2005, Nakashima co-starred alongside Aoi Miyazaki in the live-action movie Nana, based on the manga of the same name, which was released September 10, 2005. She also sang one of the theme songs for the movie, which was released as a single under the name “Nana starring Mika Nakashima”. The single, titled “Glamorous Sky” was written by the manga’s author, Ai Yazawa and composed by L’Arc~en~Ciel frontman Hyde. It was Mika’s first #1 single on Oricon charts. The single has sold over 423,000 copies making it the best-selling female single of the year and the tenth highest selling overall..