Ken Hirai | Profile Ken Hirai stands out from the rest of the J-pop pack - literally, since he’s 183 cm tall. He stands out in a musical sense, too, since talented male vocalists like Hirai are almost an endangered species on the Japanese music scene. But what really makes Hirai special is his utterly unique falsetto, which is ethereal without being wimpy. Middle-aged housewives love him. Hirai was born in Osaka on Jan. 17, 1972, and began his musical career in 1993 when he signed with Sony following an audition held by that record label in Yokohama in 1992. For a long time he’d been captivated by the sound of American soul music; he says his favorite artist is the late American soul singer Danny Hathaway, which shows he’s got good taste. Hirai made his debut with the single "Precious Junk" in 1995. Like several other mainstream J-pop artists, Hirai has attracted a loyal following in Asia outside of Japan. In the summer of 2000 he performed in Taipei before a crowd of 30,000 and sold more than 60,000 copies of his album Gaining Through Losing in Taiwan. In 2002 Hirai scored a massive hit with "Okina Furudokei", a Japanese version of the old American song, "My Grandfather’s Clock". Hirai’s U.S. appearances have been confined to getting up on stage during amateur night at New York’s Apollo Theatre and to recording an MTV Unplugged show in New York in 2003. The same year saw Hirai record a fine version of "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" for a Stevie Wonder tribute album. Hirai had the top-selling single in Japan in 2004, "Hitomi wo Tojite (With My Eyes Closed)", which was the theme song of the movie Sekai no Chushin de Ai wo Sakebu. |
