Chris Hart

As an African-American born in San Francisco, Chris Hart doesn't conform to the stereotypical image of a successful J-pop artist. His unusual journey into Japanese mainstream pop can be traced back to his early teens when, as a young student, he enrolled in Japanese classes at his local school. After a summer trip to Japan he fell in love with country and its culture and eventually majored in music and Japanese in college. From the age of 19 Hart performed as a vocalist for Nikita w/Metallic Beasts, a Japanese visual-Kei rock band which gave Hart the platform from which to develop his Japanese language abilities as a singer. From 2007 Hart began a solo project called LYV by which time his conversion to a full-time Japanese vocalist was complete with Hart writing and performing almost exclusively in the Japanese language. In 2012 after uploading a YouTube video he came to the attention of the producers of the Japanese reality TV show 'Nodojiman the World' which featured non-Japanese artists performing in Japanese. After his appearances on the show Hart's next single sold 300,000 copies and his career as a J-pop artist began to take off. With six albums to his credit Hart is now a million-selling artist with a significant Japanese fan base.

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