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cccccccccccccccccccccccEarly life[edit]

Yui was born in Fukuoka, Japan. The Associated Press has reported that her full name is Yui
Yoshioka.[6][7]

She grew up in a single-parent family as 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 be able to sing it. By the time she was in elementary school she thought she would
like to become a singer.[8] Self-described as shy and horrible at talking to others as a child, she
would play outside by herself in mountains, rivers, by the sea and in rice paddies.[9]

During her third year in primary school, she was influenced by her mother to begin writing a journal
of her feelings and tried to compose them into poems. By the time Yui attended high school, she
began to write songs, thinking of that as being able to express herself little by little.[9][10] While in
high school, she worked part-time at a Chinese restaurant to help pay for tuition. Yet, between
music, school and work, she only had one or two hours of sleep, and believed she no longer had the
time to realize her dreams of a music career.[11] She subsequently became ill; however, it was at the
hospital that she was overwhelmed with the desire to make music and finally decided that school
and music could not coexist.[11]

Soon after leaving the hospital, she got a chance to see her first live street performance.[11] She
expressed a desire to pursue a musical career to the band, Bianco Nero, at the end of the concert.
The band advised Yui to join a private music school, juku. Despite the social norm of finishing school
in Japan and discouragement from her teachers, Yui did not hesitate to drop out of high school and
began to study guitar and songwriting at the music cram school "Voice" in her hometown of
Fukuoka.[11][12] Aspiring to become a professional, she took to street performing at Fukuoka's
Tenjin Station. These street performances helped Yui to overcome her shyness.

Initial career[edit]

Her professional career began in March 2004 when, at the recommendation of her cram school
instructors, she applied for an audition hosted by Sony Music Japan.[13] Although instructed that a
participant could only perform two songs, she first sang "Why Me" (a song later included in her
debut Sony Records single), followed by "It's Happy Line," and then half of "I Know", performing a
third song because she wanted the judges to hear a song full of hope.[11]

The judges gave her the maximum score. Because "I Know" was incomplete at the time, the judges
were able to get a glimpse of what would later be dubbed "Yui-go" (YUI)", or Yui-speak,
nonsensical English hummed to a tune during her songwriting process an example of Yui-go can be
found in the film Song of the Sun when Yui is working on the song "Goodbye Days".
On December 24, 2004, she released her debut single, "It's Happy Line", under the indie label Leaflet
Records, coupled with the track "I Know," although the pressing was limited to only 2,000 copies in
her home area.

From Me to You (20052006)[edit]

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 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.[14] The
music in Fukigen na Gene was eventually based on her songs "Feel My Soul" and "It's Happy Line".

On February 23, Yui released her first major debut single "Feel My Soul". With the publicity the
drama tie-in drew in, "Feel My Soul" managed to sell over 100,000 copies and managed to chart at
number 8 on Oricon Weekly Charts in its first week. Her next three singles, "Tomorrow's Way"
(theme song for the movie Hinokio), "Life" (5th ending theme for the Bleach anime), and "Tokyo" did
not chart as high as "Feel My Soul", and were only moderately successful in comparison. After the
release of four singles, Yui released her debut album, titled From Me to You, a moderate success
with sales of more than 200,000 copies.[citation needed]

Can't Buy My Love (20062007)[edit]

Yui made her acting debut in the full-length feature film Song of the Sun (Taiyou no uta,
),[15] which opened on June 17, 2006. The film was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film
Festival.[16] She had a unique way of approaching her role, such as imagining unscripted
conversations between other characters and hers as well as staying in her character's room and
fitting the aberrant sleeping patterns of her character to give herself a sense of her role.[17][18] She
would eventually attend the Japan Academy Prize and win the Best Newcomer Award for Midnight
Sun. Prior to the release of the movie, Yui released her fifth single "Good-bye Days" written
specifically for the film. The single is thus so far her highest selling at more than 200,000 copies sold.
All three tracks on the single are featured in Midnight Sun. The single also re-released the track "It's
Happy Line", originally released on her debut single.

Her next single, "I Remember You", did well in terms of sales, riding on the wave of the popularity of
"Good-bye Days". Yui's seventh single "Rolling Star" was chosen as the 5th opening theme for the
Bleach anime. Her eighth single, "Cherry" was featured in commercial promoting KDDI, a Listen
Mobile Service.[citation needed]

She released her second album Can't Buy My Love on April 4, 2007. The album spent two weeks at
number 1 on the Oricon charts, shattering her entire previous album's record sales in one week.
Can't Buy My Love managed to sell over 680,000 copies. Due to the success of Can't Buy My Love,
Yui's previous album, From Me to You charted once again, adding another 9,000 copies to the Oricon
counting.[citation needed]

I Loved Yesterday (20072008)[edit]

Yui released her 9th single "My Generation/Understand" on June 13, 2007. It was her first double A-
side single. "My Generation" was selected as the ending theme for the TV drama Seito Shokun!, and
"Understand" was chosen as the theme song for the movie Dog in a Sidecar (),[19]
(starring her senpai at Stardust Promotion, Yko Takeuchi). The single charted at number 1 on the
Oricon Weekly Charts the first week of its release.

Her tenth single, "Love & Truth" was released on September 26, 2007. The title track is the theme
song to the film Closed Note () (starring Erika Sawajiri, also of Stardust). During
this time, her previous two albums were re-released as Winter Sleeve Editions in alternative covers
taken from her "Love & Truth" photoshoot. Her first live concert DVD Thank You My Teens was
released on November 14, 2007, which contained footage of her second live concert tour.[citation
needed]

On November 19, 2007, Yui opened her first live s