is a Japanese singer, produced by Takeshi Kobayashi. She debuted in 2000 as the fictional singer Lily Chou-Chou for the film All About Lily Chou-Chou, and later debuted as a solo artist in 2004. She is best known for her charity single collaboration with Bank Band in 2006, "To U." Salyu has also worked as a voice actress for the Japanese-language version of the game Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (2007), in which she voiced the character  (known as Babette in the English version). In 2011, Salyu embarked on a new solo project going by the name .

Biography

Much of Salyu's personal information and history has not been revealed publicly. Her official website's profile, for example, only lists her musical releases and commercial tie-ups, as opposed to her background. However, she has revealed two personal facts about herself in her blog: her first name is  and that she has four siblings. Her older brother,  is a former professional rugby union player, for the Toshiba Brave Lupus team.

Salyu learnt piano from a young age, however abruptly stopped these lessons in junior high school. Salyu began singing in elementary school after contracting pneumonia. On advice by her doctor to regain her lung strength, she was enrolled into a choir.

In 1998, while attending high school in outer Tokyo, Salyu was inspired to become a singer after watching a friend performing at a live house. Salyu auditioned in high school for a Sony musician audition and was accepted, later attending a Sony music training facility. Music producer Takeshi Kobayashi happened by chance to see a talking/singing audition video of Salyu, and 30 seconds into the tape, he was so impressed that he decided to meet her the next day. Kobayashi decided to work with her, and the pair soon began making demo tapes together. He gave her the stage name Salyu, which he chose as it was similar to the French greeting salut. Kobayashi was at the time preparing a soundtrack to Shunji Iwai's online novel and later film, All About Lily Chou-Chou. The novel and film centred around a fictional singer, Lily Chou-Chou, who began releasing actual music in 2000. The project was a collaboration between Iwai, Kobayashi and Salyu, as the vocalist for the project. This project allowed Salyu to perform on prominent music shows Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ and Music Station in June 2000.

After the release of the film in 2001, the group ceased to release music. Salyu began to perform concerts as a solo artist, performing on average once every two months due to her lack in self-confidence in her live performance skills. Kobayashi continued to work with her during this period, giving her music, and was the one who allowed her to debut as a singer in 2004. Her debut single was a collaboration with Ilmari from the hip-hop group Rip Slyme, called "Valon." Salyu later released a solo version of this song, "Valon-1," several months later. Salyu's second solo single "Dialogue" was awarded the Space Shower Best New Artist Video for 2004. After four singles, Salyu released her debut album Landmark in June 2005, which reached No. 22 on Oricon's weekly albums charts. Two days later, Salyu performed her first one-man live, at the Shibuya Club Quattro.

In 2006, Salyu reached a much greater audience through the Bank Band charity single "To U," in which she was a featured vocalist. The single was extremely successful, reaching number 2 on Oricon's single charts and being certified platinum. Her next singles "Name" and "Platform" (the film Metro ni Notte'''s theme song) were her first solo singles to chart in the top 20. Salyu's second studio album Terminal was her first top 10 release, charting at number 2.

Her 2007 singles "Liberty" and "Iris (Shiawase no Hako)" were her first works not to feature Kobayashi, instead were self-produced and co-written with Zentaro Watanabe. In late 2008, Salyu released her first greatest hits album, Merkmal, that marked 10 years since meeting Kobayashi. This was followed by her first performance at Budokan, during her tour for Merkmal. In 2009, Salyu's single "Corteo (Gyōretsu)/Halfway" became her first top 10 single. In 2010, Salyu released her third studio album, Maiden Voyage, which was her first self-produced album.

Salyu's fourth album, although the first as salyu × salyu, S(o)un(d)beams, was released in 2011. It is a special collaborative concept album with Cornelius, exploring to what extent Salyu's voice can be used as an instrument.

A fifth studio album, Photogenic, was released in 2012.

 Musical approach 

Salyu originally considered herself more of a vocalist as opposed to a musician, and early on in her career held a stance that she would be a singer who did not write her own material. She did not believe her compositions would be the best quality. In her first album, Landmark, all of the songs were written and produced by Takeshi Kobayashi. Her lyric contributions on the album were mostly suggestions for lyrics that could be better phrased. Salyu was encouraged through much of her career by other musicians to try to write her own music, however she mostly ignored the suggestions, until a musician told her it would let her understand her fellow musicians better.

She began branching into musicians other than Kobayashi in 2006, when musicians Yo Hitoto and Sarasa Ifu wrote lyrics to the songs on her "Tower" single. Her first song with her billed as the lyricist was "I Believe," from her 2007 album Terminal. Her 2007 singles "Liberty" and "Iris (Shiawase no Hako)" were her first works to be self-produced and her first singles to feature her own lyrics, though Salyu wrote the songs in collaboration with musicians Tatsuya Kokufu and Zentaro Watanabe. This was also the first time Salyu has not worked together with Kobayashi on a music release.

2010's Maiden Voyage was the first album of Salyu's to be self-produced. It featured predominately writing by Kobayashi, however six songs featured lyrics by Salyu, two music by Salyu, and one, "L.A.F.S.," was arranged by Salyu.

 Discography 

 Studio albums 
 Landmark (2005)
 Terminal (2007)
 Maiden Voyage (2010)
 S(o)un(d)beams (2011)
 Photogenic (2012)
 Android & Human Being (2015)

 Compilation albums 
 Merkmal'' (2008)

References

External links 
 Salyu.jp　 　 – Official Website
 Official Toy's Factory Profile 
  

1980 births
Japanese women pop singers
Alternative rock singers
Japanese-language singers
Living people
Musicians from Yokohama
Toy's Factory artists
21st-century Japanese singers
21st-century Japanese women singers
Salyu(사류 또는 사류우, 1980년 10월 13일 ~)는 일본의 가수이다. 가나가와현 요코하마시 고호쿠구 출신.

예명인 Salyu는 '건배' 또는 '친한 사이에서의 인사말'을 의미하는 프랑스어 단어 salut에서 유래했으며, 음악 프로듀서 고바야시 다케시에 의해 지어졌다.

내력

데뷔 이전 
어린 시절 피아노를 배우면서 처음으로 음악에 입문하였으며, 초등학교 시절 폐렴으로 병원에 입원하게 되었을 때 수영이나 노래를 하면 좋다는 의사의 말을 듣고 퇴원 이후 크라운 소녀 합창단에 입단하면서 노래를 부르기 시작했다.

1998년 고등학생 시절에는 친구의 밴드 공연을 본 것을 계기로 가수가 되기로 결심하여 여러 잡지사에서 주최하는 오디션에 참가하게 되는데, 이 과정에서 아키모토 야스시가 심사위원을 맡은 오디션에 참가하기도 했으나 심사 과정에서 탈락하였다. 그러던 중 소니 뮤직의 SD오디션에 참가하였고, 같은 회사의 가수 양성 기관에 다니면서 음악적인 기술을 익혔다. 이 시기에 촬영한 데모 비디오를 본 고바야시 다케시가 그녀를 프로듀싱하기로 결정하며 가수로서 데뷔하게 되었다.

데뷔 이후 
당시 고바야시 다케시와 친한 사이였던 영화 감독 이와이 슌지가 차기작 릴리 슈슈의 모든 것을 기획하며 OST 작업에 참여할 가수를 찾고 있었기 때문에 2000년 4월, 'Lily Chou-Chou' 명의로 처음 데뷔했다. Lily Chou-Chou로서의 활동을 끝낸 후에는 학업과 도쿄 도 내 라이브 하우스에서의 공연을 중심으로 한 음악 활동을 병행하였다.

2004년 4월에는 힙합 그룹 립 슬라임의 멤버 Ilmari와 함께 Ilmari×Salyu 명의로 된 싱글 《VALON》을 발표하였고, 2개월 후인 6월에는 토이즈팩토리를 통해 싱글 《VALON-1》을 발표하며 솔로로 정식 데뷔했다.

2005년 6월에는 첫 솔로 앨범 《landmark》를 발표하였다. 같은 해에는 다른 3장의 싱글을 발표했고 'ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL'과 'ap bank fes'05'을 시작으로 수많은 음악 축제에 적극적으로 참여했다. 또한 작년에 발표한 곡 <Dialogue(다이얼로그)>의 뮤직 비디오가 'SPACE SHOWER Music Video Awards 05'의 BEST NEW ARTIST VIDEO 부문에서 수상하여 음악계에 이름을 더욱 널리 알리게 되었다.

2006년 4월에는 히토토 요가 작사에 참여한 싱글 《Tower》을 발표하였다. 7 월에는 뱅크 밴드와 함께 'Bank Band with Salyu'로서 발표한 싱글 《to U》가 각 TV 프로그램과 잡지에 거론되기도 하면서 50만 장 이상의 좋은 매출 성적을 거두었다. 이후 발표한 싱글 《name》, 《플랫폼》은 오리콘 차트 톱 20 안에 진입했고, 특히 《플랫폼》은 당시 자신의 싱글 작품으로서는 최대의 매출을 기록한다. 같은 해에는 전년에 이어 ap bank fes'06과 COUNTDOWN JAPAN 06/07 등 다양한 공연 이벤트에도 등장했다.

2007년 1월에는 2집 앨범 《TERMINAL》을 발표했다. 이 앨범은 2007년 1월 29 일 오리콘 위클리 차트에서 첫등장 2위를 가록하면서 당시 자신의 전체 작품 중 최고 성적을 기록한 작품으로 남았고, 이를 통해 2007년 2월에는 《TERMINAL》이 자신의 작품으로서는 처음으로 일본 레코드 협회로부터 골드 디스크를 인정받았다. 이 해에는 데뷔 초부터 함께 작업해 온 고바야시 다케시가 아닌, 와타나베 젠타로의 프로듀싱 체제 아래서 본격적으로 작사 과정에 참여한 싱글 2장과 첫 뮤직비디오 모음집 DVD를 발표했다.

2008년 11월에 첫 번째 베스트 음반 《Markmal》을 발매했으며. 2009년 2월부터 4월까지 베스트 음반 발매를 기념해 전국 투어 《Salyu Tour 2009 Merkmal》를 실시했다. 특히 첫날인 2월 10일 공연은 자신의 단독 공연으론 처음인 일본 무도관에서 펄쳐졌다.

같은 해 2월 11일에는 다시 고바야시 다케시와 팀을 이룬 첫 더블 타이틀 싱글 《코루테오: 교레츠 / HALFWAY》를 발매해 싱글로는 처음으로 오리콘 10위권에 진입했다.

2011년 4월, 뮤지션이자 음악 프로듀서로 유명한 코넬리우스의 프로듀싱 하에 솔로 프로젝트인 '사류 바이 사류(salyu x salyu)' 명의로 첫 앨범인 《s(o)un(d)beams》를 발매하였다.

음반 목록

싱글 
Salyu 명의 싱글

salyu × salyu 명의 싱글

앨범 
Salyu 명의 앨범

salyu x salyu 명의 앨범

각주

외부 링크 
  Salyu 공식사이트
  토이즈팩토리 공식사이트
  익사이트 뮤직 프로파일
  사류의 익사이트 블로그
  오리콘측 프로파일
 Salyu "EXTENSION"

1980년 출생
살아있는 사람
일본의 여자 가수
요코하마시 출신
일본어 가수