Sayaka Shionoya
Shionoya Sayaka, one of the finalists from VBA3, joined Fukuoka’s EXPG right after the contest and in a year (2012) she took a new audition that the label KING RECORDS had organized: KING RECORDS Presents Dream Vocal Audition. From 10.000 contestants, Sayaka Shionoya was chosen as the winner.
She won the prize Dream Vocalist Loved by ViVi (promoted by the magazine ViVi) in the final that took place on May 26th at the Akasaka BLITZ.
Later in August that year, Sayaka performed in front of 30.000 people at the Saitama Super Arena, during the Tokyo Girls Collection as a reward from the prize that she won.
This event she performed is one of the most prestigious fashion shows in Japan that also showcases promising and established talents from the music industry. She was also selected for the Tokyo Girls Collection by girlswalker.com 2012 Autum/Winter The Best Vocal Audition, and in October 13th she would get the recommendation to be in the plan for new music acts that the Tokyo Girls Collection offers, being labeled as an upcoming star to look forward to. The TGC Best Vocal Audition chooses singers from the auditions that are celebrated all over Japan to give them a special recommendation on their website, being one of the most influential websites, that is followed by young and teenage audiences.
Sayaka Shionoya had a digital single release, ONE, a ballad song with some R&B/Pop flavor, that showcased her vocal skills that had already brought them to the finale of VBA3, which got her into LDH even after failing to win that competition.
The song was written by Tai Sho, Erik Libdom and Kanata Okajima (lyrics). The single dropped in October 24th 2012 as a teaser to introduce EX FAMILY’s newest singer.
Her Major Debut would follow in January 23rd 2013, with KING RECORDS, she released the song Dear Heaven physically.
The song is written by MATSUCO TASHIROU, whom has also written songs for DEEP, with lyrics by Masato Odake.
The same month she launched her major debut song on January 18th she embarked into her own Musha Shugyo, in order to find a way to communicate with the crowd as well as to polish her vocal skills and show her talent, touring the 47 Prefactures while promoting her first single and other songs. The name for her own Musha Shugyo was Uta Shugyo. As the other challenges LDH acts had done, it was followed by Shukan EXILE’s TV show, as well as reported by Sayaka herself on her blog.
In May 15th, she released a double A-side single, Katakoi/Smile Again, showing two different sides of her with two ballads, one that had a sad feeling and slow tempo (Katakoi), and the other that had a happy feeling into it and a more cheerful mid-tempo (Smile Again).
Katakoi is a song by Jin Nakamura and Juri Ono, while Smile Again is a song by the same people that wrote the song ONE.
To commemorate the release of this second single, she held her first One Man Live at Tokyo, at the Shinagawa Stellar Ball (June 15th )
She was surprisingly chosen the most promising rookie act by digital charts site RECOCHOKU with the “Breaking Act to Look For” prize.
In August 21st her third single, Ocean Blue, was launched. This time, the song was a mid-tempo but still containing some nostalgic flow into it, a sound pretty close to FLOWER’s songs, written by Erik Libdom and Jeff Miyahara, with lyrics by Kanata Okajima.
The b-sides for this new single had two different styles that hadn’t been approached by her yet: Sign and True Love, weren’t the typical ballads that she usually offers. Sign is an electro-dance up-beat song written by FAST LANE, Erik Libdom, with lyrics by P.O.S., that is original by singer JUJU; while True Love is a cheerful track, that reminds us from the type of lively songs that the vocal duo LOVE used to sing, the song is written by SKY BEATZ, SHIKATA and Lisa Desmond, with lyrics by MOMO”mocha”N.
In November 6 2013 she launched another double A-side single, Snow Flakes Love/Ichirinbana. The first one, a mid-tempo nostalgic song that reminds of FLOWER’s style again, while the second one is a slow R&B song with some Latin flavor on the chorus.
Snow Flakes Love is a song by Erik Lidbom, Charlie Mason, with lyrics by Kanata Okajima, and Ichirinbana is written by Hiroki Sagawa from Asiatic Orchestr and produced by Jin Nakamura.
The single was released in two different types: A and B, containing two different b-sides depending on the Type. Type A’s b-side was the song GET SET, GO by FAST LANE, while Type B’s was the song to you, a song where Sayaka herself contributed to the melody and lyrics, written with Jeff Miyahara and SKY BEATZ.
Before 2013 was over, Sayaka Shionoya held her second One Man Live concert, with two different dates for Osaka (December 11th at Abe no ROCKTOWN) and Tokyo (December 13th at Roppongi’s Nicofarre).
Despite not being a top artist and one of the LDH acts that still has a long road to go, Sayaka has always managed to chart her single releases at Oricon, with increasing results (going from a modest #32 with her debut single to a #16 on the last one we’ve listed in this chapter). Although she is a very competitive market, filled with female vocalists from the same type of style (from veterans May J, Tiara, JUJU, BENI, etc. to more recent acts like Kana Nishino or Ms Ooja), she still has a lot of room to improve and explore herself. With the right support, she could surpass the likes of Yuna Ito (whom has been missing for years now, but an act she got often compared to on her first steps) or even get more on the creative side like Miliyah Kato or JASMINE. By now, she’s been using similar styles to LOVE, FLOWER and JONTE, but from her first year to now, she has evolved a little bit.
With all the single releases from 2013, she paved the path to her first album, but that is something we will leave for a future chapter.
Sources:
https://www.ldh.co.jp/artist/musician/shionoya_s/
http://www.musicman-net.com/artist/23885.html
http://www.musicman-net.com/artist/29105.html
http://www.musicman-net.com/artist/32557.html
http://www.vanitymix.jp/music/shionoya-sayaka/
http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2137613085840292901
http://mfound.jp/news/2012/05/011835.html
http://okmusic.jp/#!/images/news/48235
http://okmusic.jp/#!/news/26899
http://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000095242
http://okmusic.jp/#!/i/collections/1995781
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