Yuna Ito was born in Los Angeles, California to a Japanese father and Korean mother in 1983. At the age of three months, her family moved to Hawaii where Ito recalls she sang Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson songs and entertained dreams of becoming a singer. Naturally, due to her birthplace, Ito's native language is in fact English, with Japanese being her second language.
It was in 2005 that Ito auditioned for the role of Serizawa Reira where her charisma and personal charm led her to be chosen for the role. Due to the significance of the role that Ito was to play in the movie, her identity was withheld to the public until the film's debut. When NANA was released to the public in September 2006, film goers were immediately attracted to the voice that portrayed Reira.
With the release of her debut single, ENDLESS STORY, a few days later, Yuna saw her single outsell that of co-star Mika Nakashima and sell around 480,000 copies, peaking at #2 on the Oricon Chart. Coupled with the release of the single, Ito won several awards for her efforts such as, Best New Artist from two separate ceremonies and the Special Award for NANA. ENDLESS STORY was also dubbed as the Best Love Song of 2005 by Oricon magazine and also holds the record for the most downloaded debut song for a female artist.
After this debut, a few months of silence from the artist followed. Her second single Faith/Pureyes was considered a disappointment following the success of her debut, but still managed to reach #4 on the Oricon Daily Chart. On the 9th of March, Ito won the award for Best New Artist from the acclaimed JAPAN GOLD DISC AWARDS 2006. With the release of her third single, Precious, which was used as the theme song for the movie LIMIT OF LOVE: Umizaru, Ito once again reached the #2 spot on the Oricion Daily Chart. The song became the third most downloaded ringtone, fifth most downloaded PV according to the half-year chart and the fifth highest downloaded song by the end of 2006.
Sony then announced that Yuna's following releases would be part of a two-month single project. stuck on you was described as a "hot" single for the summer, while losin' was dubbed as a "cool" single for the autumn. Coupled with these releases, to those who purchased both singles, they would receive a special invitation to Yuna's first tour: Yuna Ito's First Invitation. stuck on you featured a cover of Nancy Sinatra's hit song These Boots Are Made for Walkin' while losin' was used as the Japanese ending theme to "Lost", Season 2.
Just before the release of stuck on you, it was announced that Ito would be continuing her role of Serizawa Reira in the sequel of the smash hit film, NANA2. Ito's last single of 2006 was another REIRA starring YUNA ITO release, with the singer performing the ending theme for the movie. Truth sold considerably less copies than that of her debut, but showed a return to the ballad style that hadn’t been performed by Ito since the release of Precious.
Throughout the month of December, Ito was busy shooting the movie alongside her co-stars though January 2007 signalled the release of Yuna's first album, HEART. The album debuted at #1 on the Oricon Weekly Charts for Japan and achieved the same position on the International United World Chart. HEART was considered to be a great success for a debut album as it stayed in the Top 3 for four consecutive weeks.
Ito's seventh single I'm Here, despite it's catchy rhythm, debuted at #10 on the Oricon Daily Chart. This position disappointed many after the success of HEART, but two of the songs included on the single were used in the movie UNFAIR.
Yuna's eighth single Mahaloha featured her first collaboration with an artist, in this case Micro of Def Tech. The single was described by Yuna herself as very "Hawaiian". Mahaloha is a combination of the words Mahalo which means "thank you" and Aloha which translates to "love". This single was also the first since Precious to debut in the Top 10.
Ito's latest single Urban Mermaid, reached the #10 position on the Oricon Chart and featured the talent of well-known guitarist Oshio Kataro. As for 2008, Yuna collaborated with internationally famous artist, Celine Dion. The famous star stated that she was eager to perform a duet after hearing Ito's take on her infamous My Heart Will Go On. The song, Anata ga iru kagiri -a word to believe in- had previously been featured on Celine's album, Taking Chances.
After achieving considerable success with the single, Ito released her second album WISH in February. The song alone again was used as a promotional ploy for the album via radio and the release peaked at an impressive #3 on the Oricon chart. The following month Ito was given the role of spokesperson for Proactiv Japan and was featured in the commercial for the occasion.
It has recently been announced that Yuna's eleventh single miss you, will go on sale in July.
With Ito's off-the-mark success, her ability to blend Japanese and English together effortlessly and the co-operation of other popular artists' in her work, this young woman's future seems set to continue escalating to new heights.
