Profile of Thelma Aoyama

Japanese and a quarter Trinidad-Tobago.
Fall 2007, debut!!

At the age of 3, she had so much interest in Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" music video that she watched it until the videotape wore out.
She went to Osaka International School until the 6th grade. At age 10, her eyes were opened to the excitement of singing and she started training in Gospel music.
Age 12, she and her family moved to LA.
In the winter of 2002, she transfered to Tokyo. While going to Choufu American High School, she intensified her voice training.
Recently, while attending college, she has been collaborating on tracks with many artists including Douji-T, DS455, and SPHERE of INFLUENCE and getting a great response from critics.
Armed with cute looks and delicate, powerful, emotionally rich vocals over which she has superb control, she's definitely an R & B singer to watch out for!

[translated by hirukenzan from http://www.thelma.jp/ profile section]



Thelma Aoyama (青山 テルマ, Aoyama Teruma?), born October 27, 1987, is a Japanese Pop and R&B singer. She is one quarter Trinidadian and three quarters Japanese. She is famous for her collaboration song with SoulJa, "Koko ni Iru yo", and her answer song "Soba ni Iru ne" (which reached #1 on Oricon charts in its second week). Her debut album, Diary, was released in Japan on March 23, 2008.

When Aoyama was three years old, she took an interest in dancing while watching Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" music video. She spent six years at Osaka International School as an elementary school student. When she was ten years old, she discovered gospel music and developed an interest in singing. At age 12, her family moved to Los Angeles, California for two years. She returned to Japan in the winter of 2002. Her family moved to Tokyo. Aoyama attended the American School in Japan. She also began to take vocal lessons. Currently, Aoyama is in college.

Aoyama's first release in the music world was a collaboration on DS455's single "Summer Paradise: Risin' To Tha Sun, feat. Aoyama Thelma". The single reached #46 on the Oricon charts. On September 9, 2008, Aoyama made her solo debut with the single "One Way". This single debuted at #98 on the Oricon charts. Two weeks later, Aoyama was featured on the hit single "Koko ni Iru yo" with fellow J-Soul artist SoulJa. The single stayed on the charts for many weeks. Despite only reaching up to #6 on the charts, the single has sold over 100,000 copies.

In early 2008, Aoyama released an answer song to the single "Koko ni Iru yo" by SoulJa with her own single titled: "Soba ni Iru ne" which also featured SoulJa. Both of the songs are similar, and both share the same chorus. However, the song "Soba ni Iru ne" proved to be more popular than the song "Koko ni Iru yo", debuting at #3 in its first week on the Oricon charts, and in its second week, reaching #1 on the charts. "Soba ni Iru ne" stayed in the Top 5 ranking for 7 consecutive weeks, and it is currently still in the top ten ranking, as well as being the highest selling single by a female artist of 2008 so far.


Albums
2008-03-26: Diary #3

Singles
2007-09-05: "One Way" #98
2008-01-23: "Soba ni Iru ne feat. SoulJa" (そばにいるね; I'm by Your Side) #1
2008-07-09: "Nando Mo" (何度も)#6 +50.000
2008-11-12: "Mamoritai Mono" (守りたいもの)
2008-12-10: "Daikkirai Demo Arigato" (大っきらいでもありがと)



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