[3] She credits her parents, especially her father who owned a large record collection, and her elder sister for having introduced her to soul and blues music at a young age.

[4] Fukuhara was initially signed to the independent, local Sapporo-based Yumechika Records label and released her debut single and mini-album, titled "The Roots" and Step Out respectively.

She quickly announced her next single, "Let It Out", second ending theme to popular anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in early July.

While it was a much bigger hit than "Hanabi Sky", it still fared relatively poorly in terms of both physical and digital sales in comparison to her previous singles "Love (Winter Song)", "Change" and "Yasashii Aka".

[5] Fukuhara's third album The Best of Soul Extreme was released in June 2012, led by the single "Dream On" featuring Daichi Miura.

In early 2013, it was announced that Fukuhara signed on to be the newest frontwoman of the worldwide pop music project Sweetbox along with male singer/rapper LogiQ Pryce.

[6] In a music industry wide poll taken from the popular TV program Wednesday's Downtown, Fukuhara was ranked as the seventh most talented singer in Japan.

On March 11, 2022, Fukuhara participated in the Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami tribute concert "One Last Live", performing "Respect" (with Maki Ohguro).

[9] In 2012, Fukuhara debuted as an actress on the musical comedy Kaeru no Ojōsama as Minami Haneda, a member of a singing group called Chansons.

[13][14] Fukuhara has named Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Mariah Carey, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, The Beatles, Roberta Flack, Prince, Otis Redding, Sly and the Family Stone, The Rolling Stones, Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, Sade, TLC, Bill Withers, Curtis Mayfield and Whitney Houston among her musical influences.

[16][3] Among newer artists, she named D'Angelo, Solange and Michael Kiwanuka as having released albums that influenced her.