Follow Friday: BENI

Hi everyone! We're really happy that we received a lot of positive feedback on the previous Follow Friday's featuring AZU. At first I was a little nervous because I thought it wouldn't be received well. But it did and we're really happy about it! There are lots of amazing artists out there and we really hope that this will help you guys discover them and appreciate their works too!

Now that I am done with my little babble let's get started!

This week's pick up artist is beautiful singer with an amazing voice—BENI

Background

Beni was born in Japan to an American father and a Japanese mother, but was raised California, where she spent her childhood. Around the age of 12 she moved from California back to Japan where she attended high school and later university. From a young age, Beni had wanted to become a singer. Due to her parents living overseas Beni travelled back and forth between Japan and America which exposed her to both Japanese and American music. Her main musical influences are Namie Amuro, Alicia Keys and Janet Jackson.

In 2002 Beni competed in the 8^th National beauty pageant and made it as one of the finalists. She was later chosen to be part of a TV personality group called Bishoujo 31. Out of the group, she was the first to pursue a solo career while still being active in the group.

Harmony was her first solo single released in 2004, and it was also a theme song from the drama Reikan Bus Guide Jikenbo. At the same time Beni also participated in musicals and around 2006 she began modelling for CECIL MCBEE—one of the most popular clothing lines in Japan. She also hosted on a NHK fashion programme called Tokyo Kawaii TV, a program discussing the latest fashion trends in Japan.

In late 2008 Beni switched over from Avex to Universal Music and she switched her name from Arashino Beni to BENI. At this point, she decided to focus her music career from that point on. Her single “Mou ni do to...” was a response to the popular collaboration with Dozhi-T's “Mou Ichido…”.

The single was released in December and reached #20 on the Oricon charts which was the highest since her debut and was also an extremely popular download.
Beni's second studio album Lovebox (released in June 2010) debuted at number 1 on the Oricon weekly charts and this became her first album to reach the number 1 spot on the Oricon.

Recently Beni just released her third studio album, Jewel on December 8th, 2010.

Song's worth checking out



トキヲトメテ





2Face


BENI INFORMATION

Official Home Page

Ameblo Blog

Interested in buying BENI's Cds? Check them out here.

My Thoughts

After discovering singers like AZU, I started looking up other female artists and I stumbled across BENI. I didn't really like her old songs when she was signed with Avex. I didn't find it appealing and it was sort of plain. However I tried listening to the albums she released after she signed with Universal Music and honestly, it was after listening to Lovebox that I really started to like her.

Just like AZU, I find that BENI's voice is clear and easy to listen to. I really like her style after she signed with Universal Music, it's definitely much more mature her tunes are stronger and much way catchier—I even find myself dancing to it as I'm listening (ﾉ∀｀)

I highly highly recommend Jewel, it's my favourite album from her as of now. Lovebox was good, but I think Jewel is even better. I've listened to Jewel for roughly over a week and I'm still not sick of it yet. The only songs I think that are mediocre in Jewel are “Heaven's Door” and “First time”. Otherwise I loop everything else.

Top picks from her latest album are included above so please check those out!

What do you guys think? Do you like Beni? If yes tell us why. If not, well, we'd still like to know why. Please let us know in the comment section.

P.S. Ooh and yay for being Friday! Hope you D=OUT fans are excited about the next installment of the HEVN vol 51 interview!

Posted in: 2011,Beni,Follow Fridays,pop