| A hip-hopping soul and funk singer
with a honey-smooth voice, Toshi Kubota is a dynamic
songwriter and enthusiastic producer. Having sold over 11
million records, his first four albums in Japan all went
platinum. Kubota laid his foundation by creating new sounds
that were tight and cool, upbeat and elevating.
Raised near Mount Fuji in Japan, Toshi's talent was evident
soon after he started walking. He competed in his first
competition at age two, singing a popular Japanese tune at the
local amusement park. Even then, he loved to make people clap.
Later, when Stevie Wonder sang "My Cherie Amour" on the radio,
Toshi resonated inside. When Natalie Cole sang "Mr. Melody,"
the direction of Toshi's life was set.
Graduating with an economics degree, which has been useful
in his producing, Toshi sang the lead in a band through
college, going solo afterwards. In Japan, the press dubbed him
the Japanese Michael Jackson, and he outsold both James Brown
and Pink Floyd. Already a superstar in Japan, Toshi has been
making deep inroads into the American scene since 1990. His
accent is still Japanese (he learned English just a couple of
years ago), but his songs come out in pure funk.
He wrote and produced Sunshine, Moonlight, his U.S.
debut. It came out on the Columbia label in 1995. In 1996,
Columbia released "Just The Two of Us." The Bridge,
with the leads from Brazil, Japan, and the States, came out in
1997.
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