She's starred in Nana with Yuna Ito. & she's released some albums too. I'll be back with more. (:
Early life and debut
Born in Kagoshima Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu, Japan, Mika Nakashima was the youngest of three children. She dreamed of pursuing a singing career from a young age. She decided not to attend high school or college in order to pursue a music career.
She was chosen from among 3000 girls to be the heroine of the 2001 fall Fuji TV drama, Kizudarake no Love Song (Tainted Love Song). In November, she made her debut with Sony Music Associated Records, with the song "Stars", which was also the theme song of the drama. Her second single "Crescent Moon", an 80's themed song, was limited to 100,000 copies. It sold out the first day of its release. In March of 2002 she released her third single "One Survive" and her first video collection, "Film Lotus". This was followed in May by her 4th single "Helpless Rain", and in August, by her 5th single "Will", which went on to rack up sales of over 140,000. Both were top ten hits and sold over or near the key 100k mark, proving Nakashima's rising star appeal.
Rise to fame
Her first album True released in August 2002 was a #1 hit in the Oricon charts. In 3 weeks, True sold a million copies. Then as commemoration of one year since her debut, Mika released a Premium EP Resistance, which hit the charts #1 spot two weeks in a row. On December 18, a documentary video Kiseki: the document of a start was released. In 2002, Mika received the "New Artist of the Year" award at the Japan Gold Disc Awards, and "Best New Artist of the Year" at the All Japan Request Awards 2002. She also won the "New Artist of the Year" award from the 44th Japan Record Awards.
Nakashima has become one of the most popular female vocalists in Japan. Her most popular songs include Gundam Seed's ending song "Find the Way", "Sakurairo Maukoro", and "Yuki no Hana" which was covered by Korean male singer Hyo-Shin Park and this covered song is inserted in popular Korean drama Mianhada Saranghanda (Sorry, I Love You). It was also one of the most popular karaoke songs in Japan in 2004. In 2004 she sang the ending theme of the anime series based on the manga Hi no tori as aired on NHK.
Debut in the silver screen
Nana starring Mika NakashimaIn 2005, Nakashima co-starred alongside Aoi Miyazaki in the live-action movie Nana, based on the manga of the same name, which was released September 10, 2005. She also sang one of the theme songs for the movie, which was released as a single under the name "Nana starring Mika Nakashima". The single, titled "Glamorous Sky" was written by the manga's author, Ai Yazawa and composed by L'Arc~en~Ciel frontman Hyde. It was Mika's first #1 single on Oricon charts. The single has sold over 423,000 copies making it the best-selling female single of the year and the tenth highest selling overall. The single continued selling well into the next year and sold 442,000 copies, which was about 25,000 copies less than her Nana co-star, Yuna Ito's "Endless Story". The single will be featured in Konami's guitar/drum simulation game GuitarFreaks and Drummania V3.
Nakashima was nominated at the MTV Video Music Japan as "Best BuzzAsia from Japan" for "Amazing Grace '05", and the "Glamorous Sky" video was nominated as "Best Female Video" and "Best Video from a Film". She won the "Best Video from a Film" award.
Due to the success of Nana, a sequel was released in December, 2006, as well as new songs by Nakashima under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima. The theme song to Nana 2 movie is "Hitoiro" (One Color), which is also written by Yazawa, while the music is composed by Glay's leader Takuro, who is also the author of the coupling song "Eyes For The Moon". Besides the single, Mika released the mini-album The End, featuring all her songs under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima.
On December 18, 2006 Nakashima and Yui Ichikawa came to New York City for the International Premier of NANA 2 at the IFC Center.
credits to ; wikipedia.
