Koda Kumi

A Japanese pop singer from Osaka on the avex rhythm zone label, she has been contending with Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro since the year 2000 as one of the top J-Pop singers. She first gained traction with a role in Final Fantasy X-2 as the voice actor and singing voice of Lenne, producing "real Emotion" and "1000 Words". Covering the 1970s anime theme song "CUTIE HONEY" and releasing a special "12 Singles of Christmas" series of singles through 2005-2006 kept the momentum going, and she became a household name.

She is known for her husky voice, variety of genres/style of songs (cute & fun, sexy, r&b, rap, rock, reggae, ballad), and being the "Queen of Live" - having memorable live performances with creative theatrics. She comes from a family of singers: her mother was a lounge singer and played the koto, and her younger sister is another J-Pop star, misono. She has been married to KENJI03 from BACK-ON since 2011, and they have one son born the following year.

Over the years she has collaborated with many artists, ranging from Fergie to Katori Shingo of SMAP to Tohoshinki / DBSK, to T-Pain and of course her own sister, misono.

As she surpassed her 15th anniversary, she started to go in a more western-style direction of music with more trap and hip-hop, which has created some dissonance in the fanbase but overall, Kuu is still Kuu.

Koda Kumi's songs are usually catchy, even if they're slow ballads.
Koda Kumi speaks super fast, it's hard to keep up!
Ayumi Hamasaki gave Koda Kumi some personal gifts recently. I think it's safe to say they don't hate each other.
If Koda Kumi's husky voice is so detestable, then what about Ayumi Hamasaki's high-pitched nasal whine?