Melodious Voice That Touched From Heaven

Name: Ayaka (絢香)
Real name: Lida Ayaka 飯田 絢香
Born: December 18, 1987
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Height: 157cm (5' 2")
Blood type: O
Favourite artisits: Carole King, Dreams Come True, Gavin DeGraw, Hirai Ken, Sheryl Crow, The Beatles, Toby Lightman
Website http://www.ayaka.tv/

Ayaka was first introduced to public singing in her early years and throughout high school where she would sing song covers at school concerts. Her first solo concert was held in her second year of high school; it was a small high school concert in where she sang only covers of famous musicians. After speaking with an audience member, Ayaka was referred to the voice music center in Fukuoka. Ayaka began practicing original song composition as well as learning about the various recording methods used in mass media recording.

Ayaka performed at various music venues and as the opening act to various other groups during much of 2005. Though she had not officially debuted yet, in December 2005, Ayaka was contracted to perform the ending theme "Mikazuki" for a television Japanese Drama known as @Human. Even though a music video had been produced, the actual single would not be released for almost a year.

Ayaka performed three songs, Mikazuki, I Believe, and a Japanese rendition of the popular German Christmas carol, Silent Night.

On November 10, 2005, Lyor Cohen, the North American Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group described her in public: "After Mariah Carey, Hikaru Utada, now it's the third encounter with an amazing talent over my life". After Ayaka's performance, he stood up clapping and praised "World class to be!".

On February 22, 2009, Ayaka married actor Hiro Mizushima. On April 2, Ayaka's diagnosis of Graves' disease was made public. She plans to continue singing until the end of 2009, and will then put her career on hold.

On April 22, 2009, Ayaka released her second double A-side single "Yume wo Mikata ni / Koikogarete Mita Yume". Featuring two songs, "Yume wo Mikata ni" and "Koi Kogarete Mita Yume", the single also include a live version of "Kimi ga Iru Kara" that was recorded from her live performance in February at Shibuya-AX. She released another single, "Minna Sora no Shita" on July 8 of the same year.

In September, a best of Ayaka album called Ayaka's History 2006-2009 was released and contains two discs: the first disc comprising all her single tracks and the second disc comprising songs selected by fans. It sold almost 350,000 copies in its first week, the highest for a female artist of 2009, and ranked number one on the charts for two consecutive weeks. About a month and a half after its release, the album reached a million copies shipped, making it the only album by a solo artist to do so in 2009.

Ayaka's song, "Mikazuki" has also been slated to be turned into a drama by TBS. Its focus on long distance relationships is to be the inspiration for the drama. The main actors are Narumi Riko and Tanimura Mitsuki, and the drama is scheduled to air in September.