大貫妙子 (Taeko Ohnuki)
大貫妙子 (Taeko Ohnuki)
Taeko Ohnuki (大貫妙子) (born November 28, 1953) is a singer and songwriter from Suginami, Tokyo. Her music spans multiple genres such as Jazz Fusion, New Wave, Synth Pop, and Bossanova, as well as multiple languages such as Portuguese, Italian, and French along with her native Japanese works.
Alongside Tatsuro Yamashita, Ohnuki founded the band Sugar Babe in 1973 and the group released one album, 1975’s Songs, before Ohnuki went solo and released her debut album, Grey Skies, in 1976. Despite going solo, she continued to collaborate with Yamashita as well as Yellow Magic Orchestra members Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto—Ohnuki’s longtime collaborator who she worked with on their 2010 joint album UTAU.
After a decades-long career in Japan, Taeko Ohnuki’s popularity within the Western audience grew in the 2010s with the revival of City Pop—a musical subgenre created in Japan in the late 1970s inspired by American R&B, rock, and jazz music. Ohnuki’s second album, 1977’s Sunshower, is considered one of the best City Pop albums, and songs such as Sunshower’s “Tokai” and “4:00 AM” from her third album, Mignonne, are two highlights from the City Pop genre.