Ayaka (絢香, Ayaka? born December 18, 1987 in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese female singer signed to Warner Music Japan.

[edit] Pre-Debut
Ayaka was first introduced to public singing in her early years and throughout high school 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. It was there that Ayaka met music producer Nishio Yoshihiko who signed her directly to Warner Music Japan's main artists label.

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 of 2005, Ayaka was contracted to perform the ending theme "Mikazuki" for a television Japanese Drama known as @Human. Even though a music video was produced, the actual single would not be released for almost a year.

Later in the same month, Ayaka was asked to perform at a Christmas music festival featuring names from all over the world. Ayaka performed three songs, Mikauzki, I Believe and a Japanese rendition of the popular German Christmas carol, Silent Night.

Official Career
In January 2006, Ayaka recorded "I Believe" as the ending theme for the Japanese Drama, Rondo. At the time of its premiere, Rondo was one of Japan's highest rated dramas and is credited with exposing "I Believe" to wide audiences. The full single was first released as a downloadable only single and would go on to become the fastest downloadable song to reach 1,000,000 sales as well as becoming the 2nd highest selling downloadable debut single for a female artist.

"I Believe" was officially released on February 2nd, 2006 and debuted as the 3rd highest single of the week. The single would go on to stay in the top ten for six more weeks as well as selling a total of 220,000 copies in its entire chart run. An English cover of the song was used by Miki Ando in the 2006 Winter Olympics and the 2006 edition of Skate America which Ando would go on to win.

Ayaka's second single "melody ~SOUNDS REAL~" would go on to have only moderate success on the Oricon charts. The single was limited to 50,000 copies, of which only approximately 10,000 were sold in its first week. "melody ~SOUNDS REAL~" peaked at number 14 on the Oricon charts and then steadily declined in both sales and chart position. When compared to her earlier songs, Melody was a much more rock oriented song, a factor that earned her praise from various Japanese critics for her versatility. To date this is Ayaka's lowest selling single, but it was gone on to stay a while in the charts, slowing gaining sales, and has gotten past the 20,000 mark.

"Real Voice" was Ayaka's third single and was used as the ending theme to the Japanese Drama, Suppli. A B-Side single from "melody ~SOUNDS REAL~" known as "Blue Days" was also used as an insert song for the same show. "Real Voice" was released on July 17th, 2006, selling 15,387 copies within its first week and charting as the 11th highest selling single of the week. To date the single has sold over 50,000 copies.

Weeks before the scheduled release of Ayaka's first album, "First Message", the album was canceled. In its place, the single "Mikazuki" was released as a rerecorded version of the same song from 2005. It was later revealed that the release of her first album was delayed so that "Mikazuki" may be released fist. "Mikazuki" has become Ayaka's highest charting single, selling 40,091 copies within its first week and taking the highest spot on the Oricon weekly charts. The single would then go on to sale over 200,000 copies, making it one of the highest selling singles of the third quarter of 2006.

On November 1st, 2006, Ayaka's first album "First Message" was finally released after months of push backs. It sold 350,580 copies within its first week, making it the highest selling album of the week as well as the highest selling debut album for a female artist in 7 years. The album has gone on to sell 711,299 copies and has stayed within the top two positions on the Oricon charts for four weeks straight.

On December 31, 2006, she appeared in NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen, powerfully singing "Mikazuki."

Singles
[2006.02.01] I believe - #3 - 231,085 copies sold
[2006.05.10] melody ~Sounds Real~ - #14 - 24,466 copies sold (Limited to 50,000 copies)
[2006.07.19] Real Voice - #11 - 51,121 copies sold
[2006.09.27] Mikazuki (MTV) #1 - 210,485 copies (still charting)

Albums
[2006.11.01] First Message - #1 - 845,780 copies sold (still charting)