Kaori Mochida

Kaori Mochida (持田 香織, Mochida Kaori, born March 24, 1978 in Tokyo, Japan) is the female lead singer of Japanese pop group Every Little Thing.

Biography

Mochida began her career as a child actress, appearing in magazines and TV commercials. She then became a member of the second generation of idol group The Kuro Buta All-Stars, and entered the entertainment world as "持田かおり" (Kaori Mochida, with Kaori written in hiragana). Shortly after, she released her first single as a solo artist, titled "Mō Ichido" in November 1993. She didn't decide to become a singer professionally until she was in high school.

In 1995, she met Mitsuru Igarashi, and signed to the Avex label. At first she was meant to debut as a solo artist, but as Max Matsuura suggested, she then formed a duo with Igarashi, and then a trio when Ichiro Ito was incorporated as a guitarist. They debuted in 1996 with "Feel My Heart". Following her debut with Every Little Thing, Mochida became a popular fashion icon in Japan, and started to appear in TV commercials for a wide variety of beauty products. The spots that she starred in usually used the songs of her band as background music. After the departure of Mitsuru Igarashi from Every Little Thing in 2000, Mochida started to take more control in the music making process, and soon started to write her own songs. The first song for Every Little Thing that she wrote lyrics for was "All along" included in the Time to Destination album, and the first song she composed was "Jump", released as a single in 2001.