Miura Daichi was born in August 1987 and grew up in Okinawa. He attended the Okinawa Actors School, which is known to have educated many popular pop groups such as MAX and Da Pump. In 1997, at the age of nine, Daichi debuted as the lead vocalist of the group Folder, which consisted of seven members: five girls and two boys. In the following three years, he released two singles with the group and took part in TV shows. As the lead vocalist he got a lot of attention for both his vocals and dance moves. Back then, the resemblance with Michael Jackson was noticed and the group even performed a cover of the Jackson 5’s I want you back.
In 2000, when the boys’ voices began to change due to puberty, the group split up and the girls continued as Folder5. They had some success on the charts until they called it quits in 2003.
It seemed that would be the end of Daichi’s music career, but during those years, he worked hard on both his vocals and dance moves, and in 2004 he announced that he would be returning to the music scene. In 2005 he held his first concerts in about five years, and in March he debuted with the release of the single Keep it Goin’ On. His come-back proved to be successful as the single ranked 14th on the Oricon Charts. In the same year, two more singles followed.
The following year brought another single, No Limit, which featured rapper Utamaru from RHYMESTER. Seemingly unable to sit still after such a long break in activity, the young artist also released his first album, D-ROCK with U, which ranked 18th on the Oricon album charts. The album release was accompanied by a number of live concerts and in March, a DVD of his performance at Shibuya-AX was released.
In the following year, Daichi went to perform in New Jersey, United States for the 30th anniversary of the Rock Steady Crew, a b-boy crew and hip-hop group that also has a Japanese branch. On August 24th, the event SUMMER SEMINAR '07 ~Jump into the 20th~ was held, during which Daichi celebrated his 20th birthday.
The year 2008 brought many performances at events. In July, Daichi released the single Inside Your Head and showed his qualities as a choreographer as he was responsible for the dances in the PV of the song. In early 2009 Daichi collaborated with singer Chiharu for the single STOP!! Feat. Daichi Miura. In February, he released a ‘featured’ single by himself, namely Your Love featuring rapper KREVA. The release of his eighth single followed in May, and then his second album, Who’s The Man in September.
Daichi was able to partake in another interesting collaboration, this time with the Korean artist BoA as he joined her on her song Possibility duet with Miura Daichi in February 2010. The Answer, his ninth single, came out that summer and December will see the release of his first ballad, the single Lullaby.
In the last five years, Miura Daichi has worked incredibly hard on his solo career, slowly making a name for himself as a singer, but also as an extremely talented dancer. We are sure to hear much more from this talented young artist in the future.
