With the aim of becoming an opera singer, she made an extensive study of classical music.

However, due to her family's poverty, she was forced to leave school for a year and worked as a nude model.

However, she soon began to sing popular songs because the salary of a classical music performer was very low.

[8] In 1996, Awaya gave Mikawa her song "Rainy Blues" at her final live performance.

[6] In 2007, Hideaki Tokunaga covered Awaya's song "Farewell Blues" at a concert.