Having performed in bands since high school, Hamada made her professional debut as a solo act in 1983.
[1][2][3] In 2019, Hamada become the first Japanese musician to top the vocalist category of heavy metal magazine Burrn!
[5] Mari Hamada started singing when she joined a choir at elementary school and participated in recording TV commercial jingles while in junior high.
During her tenure at Aoyama Gakuin University, Hamada was a backing vocalist for the band Hamachan and the lead vocalist of the all-female rock band Misty Cats; the latter having recorded the demo song "Misty Blue" for the various artists album Kichijōji Yamaha Studio Take-1 Presents: 7th One Way Contest in 1982.
The album made her the flag bearer for Japanese female rock vocalists, which was a small and unusual market at the time.
[5][6][8] Hamada said it was around the time she headlined the Music Wave 84 event, which also featured Earthshaker, 44Magnum, Ann Lewis and Make-Up, at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in July of that year that she was first dubbed the "Queen of Heavy Metal".
[8] In 1988, Hamada released the song "Heart and Soul", which was used by NHK on their coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
That year, she participated in the charity group "Used to Be a Child", concept similar to Band Aid where performers donate earnings from a single to charitable causes; in this case the money went to Imabari City's Islet Organization.
[10] She made her European debut in 1994 with a re-arranged version of the album and participated at that year's Midem in France.
The album features "Fixing a Broken Heart", a duet with Australian band Indecent Obsession.
She also resumed live touring that year when she performed at the Akasaka Blitz just before it was completely demolished and rebuilt.
Hamada kicked off her 30th anniversary celebration in 2013 with the compilation album Inclination III and an extensive national tour.
[12][13] At the same time, her former and current labels reissued her past albums in Super High Material CD (SHM-CD) format.
The concert was aired on Japanese television on July 20, 2014, including two interviews with Mari, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in January 2015.
The concert was released on DVD and Blu-ray as Mari Hamada 35th Anniversary Live "Gracia" at Budokan on December 18.