Anri

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Anri, born Eiko Kawashima in 1961 in Yamato in Kanagawa Prefecture, is a Japanese pop singer. In a career of more than forty years she became popular in the 1980s in city pop, the smooth, urban Japanese pop music of those years. Her debut single was Oribia o Kikinagara from 1978, written by Amii Ozaki.

Music and breakthrough

Her breakthrough came in 1983 with the album Timely!!, with the hits Cat's Eye and Kanashimi ga Tomaranai. Cat's Eye was the first opening theme of the anime series of the same name from 1983 and entered at number one straight away. Summer Candles and Dolphin Ring also became well-known songs, even standards at Japanese weddings. In the 1980s and early 1990s her albums sold well and she gave successful tours, one of them with almost a hundred thousand visitors. In 2002 she worked with the jazz fusion guitarist Lee Ritenour, who produced her album Smooth Jam, Quiet Storm. In 2021 she made the single Watching Over You with Mariya Takeuchi, under the name Peach & Apricot.

Influence

City pop leans on supple rhythms, smooth synthesizers and soft vocals, with influences from American jazz fusion and soul. Many new artists from vaporwave and future funk have sampled her songs. As a result Anri has also found a new audience outside Japan and several albums were reissued in 2023. She now lives in Los Angeles.

Listening

• 
  Last Summer Whisper · Anri, 1982
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 2013All Noises Regenerates Interaction