Sowelu

Sowelu, real name Harada Aki (原田亜希) is a J-Pop singer. Her name comes from the Irish word for Sun, and was given to her by her grandfather, who is Irish himself. This twenty-two year old beauty hails from Tokyo and has released her second album Sweet Bridge. With her sexy image, strong voice and positive outlook, Sowelu is becoming one of Japan’s top R&B artists.

It all began with her first single Beautiful Dreamer, a soft love ballad which did very well in the charts, and was later featured on the Relaxin’ with Japanese Lovers compilation album. But Sowelu didn’t really make her mark until the release of her first album Geofu in the summer of 2003. The album did exceptionally well in the charts, scoring a number 4 position with more than 300,000 copies sold. Her first single after Geofu, Rainbow was used as the theme song for the Japanese drama Netsuretsuteki Chukahanten, and the b-side song on that single, “breath ~Omoi no Youryou~” was used for the national promotion campaign of JFN Radio.

In 2004, Sowelu became the spokeswoman for Menard Cosmetics, and her single Glisten was used in their make-up commercial. However, American fans will probably know Sowelu best by her hit single I Will, which was the ending song for the popular TBS animated series Fullmetal Alchemist. In late 2004, her song Candy Rain was featured on the Soul Tree: a Musical Tribute to Toshinobu Kubota album and Pearlcolor ni Yurete was on the Momoe Yamaguchi tribute album Thank You For.... Likewise, her third single Fortune was selected for the American Jpop compilation album Neo Soul, and Across my Heart from the Geofu album was added to the Smooth Listening Compilation album.

In November 2004, Sowelu released her 8th single, Last Forever, which became the TV insert song for the new drama There goes Nurse-man, and her cover of The Rose was featured on a Nescafe commercial. Then finally, after one and a half years of waiting, Sowelu released her second album Sweet Bridge on January 7th 2005.

External link

• [1] (In Japanese)
• Nippop Profile | Sowelu