Junko Yagami

Yagami was the only one who was nominated for two songs in the same tournament and won a prize at the same time after the final round was held at Tsumagoi.

"[5] On December 10, 1974, she made her pre-debut on the AARD-VARK label of Canyon Records with the single "Rainy Day Hitotsugoto".

On January 5, 1978, on her 20th birthday, she made her full-scale debut as a professional singer with the single "Memories are too beautiful" from Discomate Records.

On June 25 of the same year, the debut album "Memories are too beautiful" was released and became a hit at the 5th place on the Oricon chart.

Also, from the beginning of her debut, it was epoch-making at that time that she led the exclusive backing band "Melting Pot" composed of selected members from Nem Conservatory.

When she was at a loss to make the next song, she suddenly got an idea at the pedestrian bridge in Harajuku, Tokyo, and composed "Mizuiro no Ame" (lyrics by Yoshiko Miura).

Yagami said, "'Mizuiro no Ame' was written with the voice of Hiromi Iwasaki in mind, and the previous single didn't sell as expected, so I was thinking of retiring as a singer and becoming a writer."

By appearing in the "Spotlight of the Week" corner, which introduces the hot songs of the music program "The Best Ten," she gained popularity throughout the country.

In December of the same year, she won the "Lion Listeners Grand Prix FM Tokyo Best Newcomer Award" for this song.

On October 1, 1978, Junko Yagami's official fan club was formed and the newsletter "Hello Ando Gubbai" was published.

Participation in the Chilean music festival had a great influence, and many of the early hits were minor chord songs with bossa nova and samba rhythms and Latin melancholy and passion.

After returning to Japan, the single "Purple Town ~ You Oughta Know By Now ~" released on July 21 of the same year became the second highest on the Oricon chart and became a big hit with sales of 600,000 copies.

[6] In addition, the single "Mr. Blue ~ My Earth ~" on November 5 of the same year was used as the theme song for NHK's comprehensive "Panorama Solar System".

Steadily tie-up songs with companies such as Yamaha Audio ("I'm A Woman") in 1981 and JAL Okinawa Campaign '82 ("Summer in Summer-Memory is Burned on Bare Skin") in 1982 were also big hits.

Due to such a change of mind, she left the Yamaha Music Foundation, which she had belonged to since her debut, at the end of the album "FULL MOON" released on 5 December of the same year.

On February 7, 1986, Yagami married John Stanley, a British music producer two years older than her, in Hawaii.

[6] In addition, one week before the terrorist attack, three friends' families were shot dead by an acquaintance at home in California, where she lived at that time, and she was unable to leave her children from fear and cancelled the concert schedule.