 , professionally known as , is a japanese folk singer. born in amami Åshima, japan, she began to sing traditional japanese music when she was four years old. later, at the age of 15, rikki was the youngest winner ever to win the "grand prix" of the japanese traditional folk music awards (known as all japan minyo awards). she first performed in tokyo, japan, at the prestigious festival konda lota in 1992. she released her first single "maten no hoshi" (which means "sky full of stars") in december 1993, originally released in the kyÅ«shÅ« region of japan. shortly thereafter, she produced debut album, kaze no koe. rikki is widely known by gamers as the singer of the final fantasy x main theme, "suteki da ne", released as a single on july 18, 2001. other songs on the single include the instrumental version of suteki da ne, "pure heart" (a vocal arrangement of aeris' theme from final fantasy vii), and a new song entitled "tsukisama" (which means "the moon"). one reason why nobuo uematsu and kazushige nojima chose her to perform "suteki da ne" (translated into english as "isn't it wonderful?") is that she is very famous in japan as a traditional folk singer and he believed that her voice is rather nice and gentle and that it has a higher pitch than the voices of mainstream japanese singers. rikki was 26 years old at the time of final fantasy x's release. many professional and amateur singers were inspired by her singing voice and ability to make combinations and mixtures of pop and rock music. in 1998, rikki was chosen to participate at the opening ceremony of the 1998 winter paralympics in nagano, japan, sing the paralympics theme song "tabidachi no toki". in 2001, she produced a picture album alongside joe hisaishi for the motion picture spirited away (directed by hayao miyazaki). in 2006, rikki joined the band sound horizon for the release of 5th story cd: roman. she was involved in sound horizon's releases until 2008, when she gave birth to twins and returned to amami Åshima, as she said in her blog. she returned to sound horizon in 2009 for their triumph iii live tour. ==discography== ===singles=== * "manten no sora" (1 december 1993) * "tsubasa o hiroge" (1 may 1994) * "suteki da ne" â featured in final fantasy x (18 july 2001), re-released by square enix on july 22, 2004 * "karatachi nomichi / toki" (19 march 2003) ===albums=== * mucha kana (21 may 1993) â re-released on august 21, 2002 * kaze no koe (16 december 1993) * taiyÅ no shita de (24 august 1994) * rikki
1975_births Japanese_folk_singers Living_people Musicians_from_Kagoshima_Prefecture People_from_Kagoshima_Prefecture Video_game_musicians