J-pop solo artist: Ito Yuna

Ito Yuna is a Hawaii-raised Japanese-Korean singer and actress who debuted under Sony Music Records in September 2005 with the single ENDLESS STORY, which was featured in a crucial scene in the hit movie NANA. In this same film she played the character Serizawa Reira, the vocalist of the rival band, TRAPNEST. This single would debut at #2 on the charts and eventually sell 475,000 copies. To date she has released two albums. Her WISH album debuted at #3 on the Oricon charts.

Name: Ito Yuna (伊藤由奈)
Birthday: September 20, 1983
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California USA
Citizenship: American



Information
Yuna got her break acting as Reira in the movie NANA, and released her debut single from the movie "ENDLESS STORY" under the name REIRA starring YUNA ITO, which reached #2 on the Oricon, just below Nakashima Mika's GLAMOROUS SKY single from the movie. However, Yuna's single went on to outsell Mika's. This feat put her at #20 on the top 50 singles of 2005 on the Oricon charts.

In 2005 she was voted "Best New Artist" in the Best Hit Kayousai 2005.

Pureyes, one of the A-side tracks on Yuna's 2nd single, Faith / Pureyes was featured in a Bioclen Zero CM. Her third single, Precious, is the theme song to the movie LIMIT OF LOVE Umizaru.

Yuna graduated from McKinley High School in Honolulu. Her parents own a Japanese restaurant in Kaimuki. Yuna is half-Japanese, half-Korean as her father is Japanese and her mother is Korean. She speaks English as her native language, and Japanese as a second language. She can also write fluently in kana.

An interesting bit of trivia is that her name, when written in Western form ("Yuna Ito" as opposed to "Ito Yuna") becomes the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "unite".

Recently, it was revealed that her latest single, miss you, would be released on September 3rd, 2008. Also mentioned were two new songs - GATE, a ballad theme for a movie that has been performed live but has not officially been named for any sort of single release; and LOVE MACHINE GUN, a recently-mentioned song whose current status is unknown regarding release or any tie-ins but for which a preview has been given.





Albums
[2007.01.24] HEART #1
[2008.02.20] WISH #3

Filmography
[2005] NANA as Serizawa Reira
[2006] NANA 2 as Serizawa Reira