Coppé

Coppé (pronounced Co-pa'y) is a Japanese electronic music singer-songwriter and music producer. She has released eight solo albums on her self-owned Mango + Sweet Rice label. Coppé was born and raised in Tokyo. Her real name is Yoshimi, which means pure, good and beautiful in Japanese. She was given the nickname Coppé by her mother because on her birth day she resembled a loaf of bread of the same name. As a child, Coppé travelled frequently between Japan and Hawaii, and also lived for awhile in Arizona. She studied classical piano and ballet from the age of three. As a child she won a Nihon Record Taisho award (sometimes called "Japanese Grammy") for her song "Peke No Uta", which was released via King Records. She also won a Chibikko Nodojiman award while still in elementary school singing her original song "Red Red Balloon". Also while still a child she began to appear regularly on a weekly NHK TV show "Uta No Tomodachi". This led to her getting involved with radio, her first regular show being "All Nite Nippon". She later also had shows on FM Tokyo and FM Yokohama. Her English language skills led to her being on NHK show based on learning English. Other TV shows in which she made regular appearances were TBS's "Jikan Desuyo" and "Ginza Now", NTV's "Shower Gang" and the music program "Poppers MTV" where she interviewed many foreign artists including Ray Charles, Bob Marley, James Brown, Madonna, the Police, Cyndi Lauper and Michael Jackson. After her father's death, she relocated to Honolulu in order to be closer to her mother. In Hawaii she also had a radio program on KIKI AM 83. Coppé also became known as a world class expert and collector of Disney goods, mostly Mickey Mouse related items. She has a vast collection of goods, many from the 1930s, 40's and 50's. While becoming well known as a radio and TV personality, Coppé also continued to write and perform her own music, and in 1995 she self-released her first album. Her music includes many influences but is generally electronic and club oriented. She has performed in the US, UK, Spain and Japan, and collaborated with a wide range of musicians including Plaid, Q-Bert, DJ Vadim, ex-Orb member Chris Weston, Senior Coconut, Tipsy, Peanut Butter Wolf, members of Skinny Puppy, Takemura Nobukazu, DJ Kensei, Hifana and Jemapur. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.