Kanon Wakeshima

Kanon Wakeshima is a Japanese singer, cellist, and songwriter born on June 28, 1988 in Tokyo. Her work spans J-pop, baroque pop, and neoclassical dark wave. Encouraged by her parents, she began studying cello at the age of three. During junior high school she started musical activities, formed her own ensemble group, appeared in recitals and concerts, and at fifteen moved into baroque performance on cello. By sixteen she was writing her own music and combining singing with cello; after entering high school, she continued writing and singing, joined the light music club, and gave her first performance as a vocalist at a school festival. She later auditioned at Sony Music Entertainment as a singer and initially did not plan to include cello on her demo tape, but changed her mind after experimenting with performing alongside the piano. After reaching the finalist stage, she signed with the Sony subsidiary DefSTAR Records. Produced at the start of her major career by Mana (MALICE MIZER～Moi dix Mois), she debuted on May 28, 2008 under DefSTAR Records with the single "still doll", the ending theme for the anime adaptation of the manga series Vampire Knight. She also provided the voice for a maid who appears in the eighth episode of the series. Her second single, "Suna no Oshiro" (砂のお城), was released on November 12, 2008 and used as the ending theme for the second season of Vampire Knight. In 2008 she was also nominated for a Best Newcomer award in the fourth annual Shojo Beat Music Awards, whose nominees were selected by surveying record companies, music journalists, music experts, and music fans. Less than a year after her debut, she released her first album 『侵食ドルチェ』 in February 2009 and held her first one-man live, "絵画的音楽会", at Shibuya O-WEST on August 9, 2009, where she performed with three cellos. Mana's total production covered her first album and eight tracks on her second before she moved into self-production. In September 2011 she staged the self-produced concept one-man live 『The strange treat!』, performing album songs alongside unreleased material she had written during her student years. From 2012 onward she became more active in anime theme songs, including "Foul Play ni Kurari (ファールプレーにくらり)", "signal", "killy killy JOKER", and "RIGHT LIGHT RISE", and also expanded her work writing lyrics and music for other artists. She later joined HALLOWEEN JUNKY ORCHESTRA for VAMPS' event 『HALLOWEEN PARTY 2012』, contributed "Beauty & Stupid" to 『hide TRIBUTE VI -Female SPIRITS-』 in 2013, and announced at her June 2, 2019 one-man live 『DECADE』 that she would leave her agency and live in London for about a year and a half from autumn. Wakeshima is also known for using named cellos in her work: the white "Mikazuki-san" ("crescent moon") for live performances, the red "Nanachie-san" ("wisdom") for music videos, the brown "Yaeharu-san" ("multi-layered spring"), which she has had since middle school and uses for practice and recording, and, more recently, the silver "Momotose."