Seiko Matsuda

Biographie

Regarded as Japan's answer to Madonna, Seiko Matsuda is a singer-songwriter who achieved legendary status in her homeland in the 1980s and '90s with a record-breaking number of hit singles and albums. Dubbed "the eternal idol", her pristine image overcame personal strife to make her the idol of young Japanese women for more than two decades. Her attempts to break into western markets met with less success but in Japan she remains a superstar busy on television and in movies as well as on the dinner-show circuit.

Born to an upper class family, she won a regional talent show when she was 16 and, following vocal training, she broke into recording in 1980 with the singles 'Hadashi No Kisetsu' and 'Aoi Sangosho'. When her third release 'Kaze Wa Aki Iro' topped the Japanese charts, it kicked off an unprecedented string of 24 number one singles. From her first album 'Squall' in 1980, she maintained a busy release schedule with dozens of albums, many of which topped the Japanese hit parade.

In 1990, a track titled 'The Right Combination', which she recorded with Donnie Wahlberg, went to number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 in America but her subsequent releases 'Was It the Future' and 'Area 69' failed to connect. Stormy relationships with Japanese pop stars Hiromi Go and Masahiko Kondo and actor Masaki Kanda kept Seiko in the headlines along with appearances in films such as 'Armageddon' (1998).

Artist biography compiled by BDS/West 10. All rights reserved