Iri (musician)

Iri had the ambition to become a musician since she was in high school. She took voice trainings without going into any other club activities.[5] When she was a college student, she played her mother's acoustic guitar at home on her own. Eventually iri started full-fledged music activities with live performances at a jazz bar where she took a part-time job and had sessions with jazz bands.

In 2014, iri won the Grand Prix in the Music Performance Category at the audition "JAM" held by The Magazine Nylon Japan and Sony Music.

After studying in New York, in February 2015, she was featured in Shingo Sekiguchi, "Connected Future feat. iri" in writing and singing. The song is the theme song of the popular TV program Terrace House.

In 2016, iri was selected as the opening act for Donavon Frankenreiter's performance in Japan. Starting with this, she appeared at summer festivals such as "RISING SUN ROCK FESTIVAL 2016 in EZO", "OCEAN PEOPLES 2016" and "SUMMER SONIC 2016" and attracted media attentions.[6] In October, iri made a major label debut from Victor Entertainment's Colorful Records with the release of her 1st album " "Groove it". It entered the top 10 in the iTunes Store and won the 1st place in the hip-hop / rap chart.

On March 22, 2017, the 1st single "Watashi" was released. She was featured in Nike Women's "Surprised Me" campaign song. She was featured in Apple Music's spring campaign ad alongside Suchmos and KANDYTOWN.

In April 2017, she acted as the opening act for Corinne Bailey Ray's first performance in Japan in six years. In addition, although she was a newcomer, she performed at numerous summer festivals and events such as "SPACE SHOWER SWEET LOVE SHOWER 2017" and "Corona SUNSETS FESTIVAL". She held the first one-man live "iri One Man Live 2017" on November 17 at Shibuya WWW X, she celebrated the first anniversary of her debut with her fans. The EP "life ep" released on the 22nd again won the number 1 position on the iTunes Store hip-hop / rap chart.

On February 28, 2018, she released her 2nd album "Juice". In March, she held her first national tour "iri 1st Tour 2018". In August, she released her 2nd single "Only One". The title song "Only One" was appointed as a CM tie-up for an international fashion college. In December, she held her first self-planned event, "iri presents Night Dream 2018," at three venues in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka.

On March 6, 2019, she released her 3rd full album "Shade". "Wonderland" was appointed as a campaign song for Sony WALKMAN, and the entire music video was released on YouTube. In April, her biggest national tour "iri Spring Tour 2019" Shade "" was held in Tokyo on the 5th, also at 9 venues in Sapporo, Takamatsu, Umeda, Nagoya, Sendai, Hamamatsu, Hiroshima and Fukuoka. In May, she held her first China tour (Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an). After appearing in various summer festivals, she held a solo tour of Higashi-Meihan "iri presents" Wonderland "" in October. On September 4, the digital single "SUMMER END" was released. The song was used as the theme song for "Kiss to survive" (AbemaTV). Participated in "Inoue Yosui Tribute" released on November 27 with the cover of "East to West".

On January 22, 2020, the single "24-25" was released. The title song "24-25" was appointed as a CM tie-up for Seiko. On March 25, she released her 4th album "Sparkle". The title song "Sparkle" was appointed as a Sony campaign song following the previous year. "Clear color" was the theme song of the original movie of Zoff, in which she appeared as a visual model. Due to the state of emergency for the spread of the new coronavirus infection, all the performances of the live tours "iri Spring Tour 2020" and "iri Spring Tour 2020" extra "" scheduled from April were cancelled. On September 9, she held a one-man live "iri Presents" ONLINE SHOW "" that was delivered live to the audience. On November 25th, she released her distribution single "I can't say". On December 2, she opened her official fan club "Wavy Club". On December 11, "iri Presents" Five Zepp Tour 2020 "" was held at 5 venues in Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka and Tokyo, starting with the performance in Yokohama.

"Hajimarinohi" was pre-delivered from the songs included in the 5th album "Hajimarinohi" released on February 24 and March 24, 2021. On February 28th, an online distribution live "iri Wavy Club Special Live # 01" was held exclusively for Wavy Club members. On April 28, the live tour "iri Spring Tour 2021" was held at 8 venues and 8 performances, starting with the Kawasaki performance, and the new song "Uzu(渦)" before the release will be released for the first time at the tour final (May 29, Tokyo). The song "Uzu" was released as a distribution single on June 16. On July 13, an online live "iri Special Live Show" Vortex "" was held. From October 7, "iri 5th Anniversary Live" 2016-2021 "" was held at 4 venues and 5 performances, starting with Nagoya to Osaka, Fukuoka and 2 stages at Tokyo.

She has also been invited to perform at parties for high fashion brands, Chloe and VALENTINO, proving her versatility and appeal across genres and styles.

iri has developed genre-less songs that follow the flow of hip-hop, jazz, bossa nova with lyrics that are hip-hop and poetic but have strong messages.[1][3][7] She has soulful and reverberant singing voice. In her music production, she collaborates with multiple producers, which is not common in Japanese music industry.

In her childhood, iri mainly listened to J-POP with a black music background such as PUSHIM and Toshinobu Kubota,[8] but the most influential music for iri was Alicia Keys's "If I Ain't Got You" that she listened to when she was in junior high school and said "I became confident when I started listening to and singing Alicia's songs" because it was a time when she had a complex for her voice.[9] Because of that influence, she originally longed for a "singing type singer", but nowadays, due to the influence of hip-hop that she began to hear later, iri incorporates hip-hop-like wordplay and R & B-like soul into a full singing style.[8]

The reason she started singing with her own accompaniment was that she admired Tavito Nanao and Shutoku Mukai's "style of singing with a guitar in one hand", and she became also interested in wordplay in their songs.[8]

She cites her respect for her mother, who was her supportive in becoming a singer.[9]

• Official website
• iri - The artist homepage created by JVC Kenwood Victor Entertainment
• iri - The homepage created by Sony Music
• iri on Twitter
  • iri staff(@iri_staff) - Twitter
• iri on Instagram
• iri on Facebook
• iri's channel on YouTube
• Wavy Club - Official Fan Club