SPEED SNAP - hiro + eriko + takako + hitoe

Imai was born in Okinawa. She was the second youngest member and one of the main vocals in the female J-pop group SPEED. After SPEED’s popularity spread widely in Japan, they were asked to act in a movie Andromedia in 1998, which kicked off Eriko’s acting career. Eriko also appeared in a drama LxIxVxE in 1999 with fellow SPEED member HITOE. When Eriko began her real solo debut career in early 2000, she merged with the dance group Crunch and were named Eriko with Crunch. Their first two maxi singles, “Red Beat of My Life” and “Luv is Magic” were released the same year. Eriko’s style of music is rockish pop, which suits her voice, but she also sang ballads and slow numbers as well, not forgetting her attempt at rapping in “Don’t Stop the Music” in 2002.

Eriko with Crunch did not last long, and she went on without them and pursued her solo career starting from the single in the Name of Love using the artist name Eriko Imai. From then until her marriage in 2004, she released 6 singles, 1 album & 1 single collection album under the Eriko Imai name. Also during this year, Eriko did her first Musical challenge, NINAGAWA Hino tori, which earned her a Best New Comer in Theater award at Golden Arrow Awards 2001.

Her fourth single, “Identity”, was viewed as a changing point in Eriko’s career. Many viewed the music as hard-core rock. Her fifth single, “Set Me Free”, its music video was shot in Australia and she performed it in Kuala Lumpur during the 2001 Asia Music Festival. Afterwards, she released her first album, “My Place”. Including her self-composed songs “Himawari” (Sunflower) and “Dawn”, it sold 93,700 copies and was ranked in the top 5 but ultimately placed at #7 for the weekly sales. During this year, Eriko performed her second drama Rouge(6 Episodes), in which she transformed from a commercial creator to a popular model & acted in a hit movie Onmyoji as a magic spirit character.

Eriko’s 6th solo single “Don’t Stop the Music” was aired in Eriko’s weekly Monday night radio talk show by TBS 954, “Eriko Imai Hotlink” more than a month before its release in January 2002. “Don’t Stop the Music” was seen as a change of Genre in Eriko’s music. At around this time, Eriko considered changing her hairstyle to an Afro-style. She said that she wanted something new, but was willing to return to a more Japanese-typical hairstyle if the Afro hairstyle reduced her appeal. In July, Eriko released her 7th single “Our Relation” which was an upbeat fast tempo ballad. “Our Relation” was the 2nd single to be fully produced by Hiroaki Hayama. During that year, Eriko was in her 2nd musical Footloose with V6 member Sakamoto Masayuki, which was an extremely well-received musical based on the hit movie.

From the end of 2002 to mid 2003, Eriko did not have any solo releases mainly due to the temporary re-forming of SPEED for a fundraising charity Save The Children. SPEED became the ambassador of Save the Children from early mid to end of 2003 during which they performed nation-wide tours & releasing of singles & an album to raise funds for the charity. It was not until July of that year that Eriko released her 8th and last single Butterfly before her marriage. Butterfly was a slight mid tempo ballad and the lyrics was written by Eriko under the name of elly. This was also the first time she officially used elly on her works. Butterfly was also the theme song for the anime movie Boku no Songoku, which was Eriko’s first part as a voice actor for one of the characters. Also in October, Onmyoji 2 was released in cinemas in Japan, with Eriko reprising her role as the magic spirit Mitsumushi.

In Feb to March 2004, Eriko perform in the musical Star Tanjou with Hitomi Shimatani & Yukie Nakama. This musical was to celebrate the 40 years anniversary establishment of Japan’s Music Scene.

On 9 June 2005, Eriko announced on her new website that she will return to the music industry as ‘elly’. A change in her stage name also significantly changes her genre of music type. Eriko’s previous works were more on rockish and up-tempo range. However, after returning to the music scene, Eriko started to write all of her songs’ lyrics & composed almost every song which differ greatly from her rockish style. 22 September 2005 marked Eriko’s 22nd Birthday and her new start as ‘elly’ when she performed her ‘elly live 2005 ~Rebirth~’ concert. This was the first performance & meeting with fans since her marriage & pregnancy break. She also released her 1st indie single under star under “elly” that was exclusively limited & was only sold in the concert venue. On 18th Oct 2005, the 1st birthday of her son, Raimu, elly released her 1st photo-essay book, Egao de ikou, which includes autobiographical thoughts about the periods of her life and career, including her time with SPEED, as a solo artist, pregnancy period and so on. She also held an autograph session at Shibuya HMV on Nov 6th.

elly released her 2nd independent single, journey on May 13, 2006, following up the release with a concert ‘elly live 2006 ~journey~’on the same day. In June 2006 elly held a secret marriage party in Guam. Only her close friends such as hiro and team-F were invited. elly was last seen in public on July 16 where she attended Vision Festival Vol.2. She appeared in a yukata and performed her new song journey with Vanilla Mood. At the festival, elly also announced to her fans that her new album “Neverland” was to be released on September 27, 2006. “Neverland”, given a lack of promotion and elly’s declining popularity, Neverland debuted at #149 on the Oricon charts, ultimately being placed at #165 on the Oricon Weekly Charts. She performed ‘elly LIVE 2006 ~Neverland~’ concert tour from October to November, which one of the live were attended by 3 other SPEED members & SPEED long-term producer Hiromasa Ijichi. During that particular live, elly sang SPEED’s last single Walking in the rain & White Love with Ijichi.

In Feb 2007, elly released a live DVD captured from ‘elly LIVE 2006 ~Neverland~’ and a new live concert ‘elly LIVE 2007 ~Soar~’ following in April.

In July 2007, it was reported from various sources that Eriko had separated from her husband, Shogo. Reports from TokyoGraph and J!-Ent news sources indicated the separation was due to Eriko’s focus on her career and social calendar, with Shongo wanting to raise Raimu. However, this matter was not clarified by either of their management. After these media reports, Eriko posted some unclear thoughts “only believe what was seen and heard from one self” in which she didn’t specify what was the post for. Many fans took it as an indirect reply for the separation reports and that Eriko was trying to indicate the reports were untrue.

Also in August 2007, elly mentioned she will be releasing her her new single 腕枕’ (Ude Makura) at a date to be announced. It is still unknown whether this will be a wide release or indie single, but apparently the song ended up on the album, Utagoe in 2009.

On 24 September 2007, Eriko and SHOGO officially announced on her website’s diary about their divorce. According to the message posted, the divorce was mainly due to their divergent views and concepts about the future, and therefore leading to the inability to live together like before. The son’s custody was given to Eriko, but both agreed to take care of the child together. elly resumed to carry out her mini live concert ‘elly LIVE ~instinct~’ on 25th Dec 2007. A DVD of this concert was released on 14th Feb 2008. elly started her 1st live in 2008 with ‘elly secret live in 砂漠の薔薇’ on 2008/02/09. This secret live was limited to an audience of only 100 people.

In August 2008, elly decided to regroup with SPEED for NTV’s 24-hour telethon. At the same period she announced that her son has a hearing disability and she wanted to take this opportunity to perform for her son for the first time. She wants to take this chance to give hope to others who are also suffering from the same disability. She began activities as a member of SPEED again starting 31 August 2008. elly will also begin a ‘LIVE and TALK’ event on 30 September. Eriko has also been given her first film appearance in almost five years. The movie is “Yuzuriha ~Kimi mo Mata Tsugi no Kimi e~,” directed by Kentaro Hayase. The picture is a 60th-anniversary project of the Japanese Federation of the Deaf.”Yuzuriha” is being released June next year. Eriko has also started a web programme called elly ch: ‘…& Smile’ on 18th Oct, in which she invites her friends as guests on her web show or feature clips from her concerts.