Yui, stylized as YUI, (born March 26, 1987) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, composer, actress, and radio personality. She is currently signed to Studioseven Recordings and attached to the talent agency Stardust Promotion.



Yui was born in Fukuoka, Japan. She grew up in a single-parent family; her father left her mother when she was three. She stated that she had always been close to music, as she would remember the beats from music she heard on the radio, and could sing it. By the time she was in elementary school she thought she would like to become a singer.

During middle school, Yui wanted to fit in more and started joining more clubs. She noted that of the clubs she joined, it was badminton she enjoyed the most and she entered badminton contests and tournaments. In her third year, she was influenced by her mother to begin writing a journal of her feelings and tried to compose them into poems. By the time she was in high school, she began to write songs. While in high school, she worked part-time at a Chinese restaurant to help pay for tuition. She thought that, being so busy, she no longer had the time to realize her dreams of a music career. Between music, school and work, she only had one or two hours of sleep; eventually she got ill. While in hospital, she was overwhelmed with the desire to make music. She decided that school and music could not coexist.



After leaving the hospital, she got a chance to see her first live street performance. She expressed desire to pursue a musical career to the band, Bianco Nero, at the end of the concert. Bianco Nero advised Yui to join a private music school. Yui soon dropped out of high school and began to study guitar and songwriting at a juku (cram school) in her hometown of Fukuoka. Aspiring to become a professional, she took to street performing at Fukuoka's Tenjin Station. These street performances helped Yui to overcome her shyness.



Her professional career began in March 2004 when, at the recommendation of her juku instructors, she applied for an audition hosted by Sony Music Japan. Despite the audition rule that a participant could only perform two songs, Yui was allowed to sing three.

Upon leaving her hometown in Fukuoka for Tokyo, Yui wrote the song "Feel My Soul" as a tribute to her hometown. Although she initially had planned its release on an indie label, Fuji Television producer Mr. Yamaguchi was so inspired by Yui's voice that he insisted on having her work on the music for his primetime drama Fukigen na Gene even before she released her first major single.

Yui made her acting debut in the full-length feature film Song of the Sun (Taiyou no uta, タイヨウのうた), which opened on June 17, 2006. The film was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Yui attended the Japan Academy Prize and received the Best Newcomer Award for Midnight Sun.



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