Yukiko Okada
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Yukiko Okada |
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Yukiko Okada (岡田 有希子, Okada Yukiko, August 22, 1967 - April 8, 1986) was a Japanese idol singer.
On a program aired on NTV called "ニッポン人が好きな100人の美人" (100 People Loved by the Japanese: Beauty Edition), the people of Japan ranked Okada No.17 out of 100 women/girls on the most important and historical figures in Female History.
Biography
Early life
Okada was born on August 22, 1967 as the second daughter of the Satō family in Ichinomiya-shi Hospital in Nagoya. In the days of her elementary school life, Okada loved to read books, especially comic books and she had talent to draw pictures. In the days of her junior high school life, Okada began to yearn for becoming a singer and applied for every possible audition out there. Okada went to anything from a big major audition to an audition of the slightest talent recruitment, as she thought it was her chance for becoming a star. Audition after audition she was rejected. However, she was finally accepted to a TV program much like American Idol is nowadays. That program was Star Tanjō! on Nippon Television. In March 1983, she won "Star Tanjō!".
Professional career
On April 21, 1984, Okada debuted with a single, "First Date". She was known as "Yukko" in the beginning of her career as a result of her mispronouncing her stage name, Yukiko, due to her nervousness on her first television appearance on "The Best Ten", which aired on TBS.
Okada won the Rookie of the Year-title on that same year, and was awarded honors of "the 26th Japan Record Awards, Grand Prix Best New Artist Award" for her 3rd single, "Dreaming Girl: Koi, Hajimemashite", at the end of her debuting year.
Okada also played the leading role on her first television drama Kinjirareta Mariko, which means in English The Forbidden Mariko, in 1985. Her 1986 song "Lip Network" was written by Seiko Matsuda and was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto. The single reached number one spot on the Oricon weekly single charts of February 10, 1986.
Death
Around 10 o'clock April 8, 1986, the 18-year-old Okada was found with a slashed wrist in her gas-filled Tokyo apartment, crouching in a closet and sobbing. Two hours later, Okada jumped to her death from the seven-storey Sun Music Agency building.[1] The reason for the suicide is still unknown. Her untimely death resulted in many copycat suicides and the christening of the neologism "Yukko Syndrome" in reference to copycat suicides in Japan.[2]
Discography
Singles
- First Date (4/21/1984) [Glico's Cafe Jelly advertisement song]
- Little Princess (7/18/1984)
- -Dreaming Girl- Koi, hajimemashite (9/21/1984) [Glico's Special Chocolate advertisement song]
- Futari Dake no Ceremony (1/16/1985) [Toshiba's Let's Chat advertisement song]
- Summer Beach (4/17/1985) [Glico's Cafe Jelly advertisement song]
- Kanashii Yokan (7/17/1985)
- Love Fair (10/5/1985) [Glico's Cecil Chocolate advertisement song]
- Kuchibiru Network (1/29/1986) [Kanebo's Lipstick commercial]
- Hana no Image (5/14/1986) [Released posthumously]
- Believe in You (2002 strings version) (12/4/2002) [Released posthumously]
Albums
- Cinderella (シンデレラ)
- Okurimono (贈りもの, Gift)
- Fairy
- Jyūgatsu no Ningyo (十月の人魚, October Mermaid)
- Okurimono II (贈りものII, Gift II)
- Venus Tanjō (ヴィーナス誕生, Birth of Venus)
- Okurimono III (贈りものIII, Gift III) (heritage, Released posthumously)
- All Songs Request (posthumous singles collection)