Miz

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Miz
Birth name	Watanabe Mizuki (渡辺みづき)
Born	March 6, 1981 (1981-03-06) (age 27)
Origin	Kitami, Hokkaidō, Japan
Genre(s)	J-Rock J-Pop
Years active	2003–present
Label(s)	Victor Entertainment Reactive Songs Int. Scandinavian Songs

Miz (Watanabe Mizuki, 渡辺みづき) is a Japanese pop/rock singer born in Kitami, Hokkaidō, Japan. She was born on March 6, 1981, and currently juggles music careers in Sweden and in Japan. Though most of her music is released in Japan, she chose her central location for recording as Sweden, a little island called Gotland. She mainly does promotional videos, photo shoots, and recording there.

Contents 1 Profile 2 Biography 3 Discography 3.1 渡辺みづき (Watanabe Mizuki) 3.2 Miz 3.3 Mizrock 4 External links

[edit] Profile

• Artist Name: Miz
• Real Name: 渡辺みづき (Watanabe Mizuki) (Rumored to actually be Tsukiko Katayama)^{[citation needed]}
• Birthdate: March 6, 1981 (Rumored to be April 21)^{[citation needed]}
• Birthplace: Hokkaidō, Japan
• Blood Type: B
• Favorite Artists: Blondie, Lauryn Hill, The Cranberries, Anastacia, Sarah Brightman, The Corrs, Natalie Imbruglia, The Cardigans, Fiona Apple, The Rasmus, U2, Garbage, LeAnn Rimes, Toni Braxton

[edit] Biography

At a very young age, Miz has expressed a great interest and talent in music. She always wanted to become one of the singers she hears on the radio, but living in such a rural area as Hokkaidō, there were very few opportunities for her. One of Miz's biggest hobbies during her high school years was going to a local beauty salon. And since she was a regular customer, she had become very good friends with the salon manager.

It was at that time when there was an idol audition being held, and posters were being put up in over 20,000 beauty salons all over Japan. Miz had kept looking over the poster, and the salon manager realized this. So she decided to suggest that Miz enter the contest. Hundreds of people competed, but in the end, Miz was the winner.

Immediately postponing her other plans in life, she decided to chase after her musical dreams. After graduating high school, she moved to Tokyo and soon after that, she was signed under Universal Victor. Under a stage name, Mizuki Watanabe, she released I WILL, her debut single. Following that, she also released another single called Ambition, but she wasn't asked to release anything else after that. Both singles are now out of print in most Japanese CD stores.

After the release of Ambition, her brief career ended. However, she would not give up. She kept taking singing lessons at a studio, and eventually made a demo tape with the help of a writer. Soon, she was introduced to a producer named Tord Backstrom.

Tord Backstrom was looking for someone to perform a song written by a Swedish writer and upon searching, he found Miz. Immediately, he knew Miz had what it took to become a star. In the year 2003, Miz was on her way to Sweden to meet her creative team. They were very surprised once they met her, and they weren't even sure whether she was Japanese or not. This was because she spoke English very well, better than most common Japanese people, and she liked to give hugs (normally, Japanese women like to keep to their own space)!

First, they had planned to release some music in Sweden. Her Swedish debut single, Waiting, hit charts soon after and debuted at #8. Soon enough, an album was also released. Story Untold emerged on the scene on September 22, 2004 and contains 10 all-English songs.

By that time, she had also released some other music. Her Japanese re-debut single New Day came out that same year. At that time, most of the biggest names in J-Pop were high-pitched, nasally singers. This was not the case for Miz. She was a fresh new face re-appearing in Japan, and people fell in love with her rich, strong voice. New Day debuted at #20 on Oricon charts. To promote her first Japanese album, Say It's Forever, Miz was invited to a Channel V-hosted concert in Taiwan along with other local and foreign artists, she performed 3 songs, New Day, Waiting for, and Say It's Forever. Also, she attended a show AIUEO to gain more publicity in her short visit, the host was apparently her friend before she made her major debut in Japan. She became one of the most popular Japanese artists in Taiwan that year.

Since that day, Miz has been steadily releasing her music up to today. She writes most of her original Japanese lyrics, and is becoming quite fluent in English, that pretty soon she could be writing her own English songs also.

After releasing her second album Mizrock in February 2006, Miz disappeared for a long while. In May 2007, however, her official website was updated with news of a new release coming in July. Other websites such as ORICON and Tower Records confirmed this news, listing a mini-album titled Good bye, yesterday to be released under the name "Mizrock." It is also with this album that Miz moved from Victor Interactive to Nayutawave Records.

In June 2007, "Good bye, yesterday" from her "Good bye, yesterday" album was used as the second ending song for the popular anime, Romeo X Juliet.

October 2007 she released a new single, "Best Friend" and in February 2008 she will release another single titled, "Thank You".

[edit] Discography

[edit] 渡辺みづき (Watanabe Mizuki)

Singles

1. I WILL (June 18, 1999)
   • TV Tokyo's Show 『恋愛スロット クルくるV』 Ending Theme Song
2. Ambition (November 24, 1999)
   • Playstation Game 『ククロセアトロ～悠久の瞳～』 Theme Song
   • First Pressing Trading Card Included
3. 青い記憶 (August 2001)
   • PC Game 『"Hello, world."』 Opening Theme Song

Compilation / Other Works

1. 『"Hello, world." Original Sound Track』 (October 25, 2002)
2. 「青い記憶 Image version」

[edit] Miz

Singles (Japan)

1. New Day (February 18, 2004)
   • JVC Liquid Crystal Television 『EXE』『Lip Lap』Commercial Song
2. Waiting for (July 21, 2004)
   • JVC Enterprises Image Song
3. In the Sky (August 3, 2005)
   • First Pressing DVD Included
   • SquareEnix Playstation 2 Game Grandia III Main Theme Song
4. Backseat Baby (November 30, 2005)
   • CD EXTRA enhanced
5. Bittersweet (January 25, 2006)
   • CD EXTRA enhanced

Albums（Japan）

1. Say It's Forever (September 22, 2004)
   • First Pressing DVD Included
   • If you run：Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation & Nippon Television Program "Dotch Cooking Show" Ending Theme Song
2. DREAMS (March 9. 2005)
   • English Language Album
3. Mizrock (February 22, 2006)
   • First Pressing DVD Included

Singles (Sweden)

1. Waiting (September 13, 2004)
   • CD EXTRA enhanced

Albums (Sweden)

1. Story Untold (November 17, 2004)
   • First Pressing Special Bonus Disk 『Say It's Forever』 Included

Compilation / Other Works

1. garp『garp2』 (June 30, 2003)
   • 「Say It's Forever」
2. V.A.『Light Mellow "blue oasis"』 (July 21, 2004)
   • 「Say It's Forever」

Photobook

1. "An Ordinary Day" (August 4, 2005), (JVC Entertainment Network Publication)
   • Online Mail Order Limit

[edit] Mizrock

Mini Albums

1. Good bye, yesterday (July 25, 2007)
   • First Pressing DVD Included
   • Good bye, yesterday：Mainichi Broadcasting System & Tokyo Broadcasting System Program Anime "Romeo x Juliet" Ending Theme Song

Singles

1. Best Friend (October 24, 2007)
   • First Pressing DVD Included
   • Best Friend：Nippon Television Program 『音楽戦士 MUSIC FIGHTER』POWER PLAY
2. Thank You xxx (February 20, 2008)
   • First Pressing DVD Included
3. ペッパー警部 (Pepper Keibu; Inspector Pepper) (July 02, 2008)
   • First Pressing DVD Included
   • Cover of the 1976 hit song by Pink Lady (band)

[edit] External links

• Miz Official Site
• GORGEOUS LiTTLE THiNGS (Miz fansite)
• New Day Come (Miz fanlisting)