Chris Hart

He is also known as クリス・ハート on Japanese letter name. 28 year-old Chris was born in the San Francisco Bay Area on August 25, 1984 to a jazz bassist father and classic pianist mother. Chris was trained in classical music from a young age, learning the oboe, clarinet, saxophone and flute. His first exposure to the Japanese language was at the age of 12 when he took a Japanese class at school. Chris soon became enamored of Japanese culture, watching all the Japanese music variety shows he could on cable TV. He became heavily influenced by Japanese pop as he listened to performers like Oda Kazumasa, Tokunaga Hideaki and Zard. Consumed with thoughts about Japan, he finally got to go to there for a home stay in Tsukuba City during summer vacation in his 13th year. Chris was only in Japan for little over two weeks, but he was unable to forget the kindness of the Japanese people he met then. He came back to America already homesick for Japan, sometimes being overcome by feelings of "I want to go back!" It was during one of those times that a TV commercial was playing a 30-second clip from the Off Course song "Kotoba ni Dekinai" (the "la la la" and the final "kotoba ni dekinai"). The music brought Chris to tears and made him feel even more emotional about Japan. He went on to sing in Japanese in a rock band with Japanese musicians, and soon his environment was bringing him into contact with Japan every day, hearing and speaking Japanese and listening to J-pop with his many Japanese friends. His mother also sang salsa music in Spanish, so there was nothing strange to Chris about singing in a foreign language. In college Chris took a double major in music and Japanese. Afterwards, looking for a job where he could use his Japanese, he worked at an international airport and for a Japanese cosmetics company. His Japanese even came in handy for a police job. He never gave up on his longing for Japan and his dreams of singing in Japan, though, and at age 24 he finally decided to make the move. After finally deciding to move to Japan in 2009, Chris first settled down in Adachi-ku in Tokyo's shitamachi or old town area. While making a living servicing vending machines, he continued to upload his J-pop covers and original song videos onto YouTube. One of his YouTube videos caught the eye of a Nippon TV staff member in 2011, and Chris went on to appear on the prime time music competition show "Nodojiman Za! World" in March 2012, where his heart-warming rendition and outstanding vocal skill touched the hearts of the judges and the audience alike. Praised as a "soul-singing genius" and "miraculous singing voice", Chris won the competition hands-down. He exudes very Japanese-like qualities of reserve and lovability in his performance, and together with the warm embrace of his smooth voice, his TV appearances left a powerful impression on the eyes and ears of many. That includes hit producer Jeff Miyahara, who fell in love with that voice and called Chris the very next day to launch his bid to produce Chris Hart as a artist. Chris Hart appeared on the show again in October 2012 when he did a heartfelt rendition of Yusaka Kiyama's "Home". The impact of his performance was apparent when the original "Home" recording hit the top of the Rekochoku ringtone and iTunes download charts the next day and was also number one in Amazon mp3 downloads. His powerfully moving voice led Yusaka Kiyama to declare, "I was blown away, I would love to meet Chris." Now Universal Sigma has scheduled the long-awaited Chris Hart debut release for the spring of 2013, fulfilling his heart's desire. Chris Hart will be singing Japan's heart. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.