[1] She participated in the opening and ending theme songs of the TV anime Gu-Gu Ganmo under the name "Suzie Matsubara".

In addition, since around 2020, the song has become widely heard not only in Japan but also overseas thanks to the video sharing platform TikTok and the resurgence of city pop.

Matsubara was described as an excellent student and was expected by many around her to attend college, but at that time she had already made plans to pursue her dream of becoming a singer.

[4] Matsubara started her career in 1979 and is known from hit songs such as her debut and immediate breakthrough "Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me)" which has been covered by numerous artists,[5][6][7][8] including Akina Nakamori.

The song even gained a feature in a commercial of the famous Japanese multinational personal care company Shiseido, only less than two years after her debut.

[3] Matsubara also had some international work with Motown jazz fusion group Dr. Strut in Los Angeles (becoming a backing band in the album recordings for "Cupid" and "Myself"), Tokyo and Osaka (Hall concerts), later releasing a jazz cover album titled Blue Eyes.

[15] On 5 December 2024, Miki Matsubara's previously unreleased new song "Sky Restaurant", known as Hi-Fi Set's hit, was released for distribution.

"[18] In 2001, it was revealed that Matsubara's actions were prompted by a late-stage cancer diagnosis she had received at the time, after which she began treatment.

[18] After being told by her doctor that she only had three months left to live, Matsubara died on 7 October 2004, at age 44 due to complications from uterine cervix cancer.

[18] An increased interest in city pop during the 21st century,[21] particularly the 2010s,[22] contributed to Matsubara gaining global recognition and "Stay with Me" (真夜中のドア, "Mayonaka no door") becoming a resurgent hit in the West and throughout Asia in 2020.

[21] Billboard Japan credits Indonesian YouTuber Rainych for the song's initial surge in popularity, after she shared a cover version with her almost 1.3 million subscribers on the platform in October that year.

[23][21] The song became a well-known sound on the multimedia streaming app TikTok, most notably during December 2020—prior to this, it was already somewhat popular in the platform's anime community—where it sparked a trend among users of Japanese descent, who shared videos of themselves playing the song for their mothers and filming their reactions when they recognized the track.

As a result of this resurgence in popularity, Matsubara's debut album, Pocket Park, was repressed on vinyl in late 2020. sources: