Biography
Keiko Kubota, born December 5, 1985 in Tokyo, is a Japanese singer known for her work in anime and game music. She began singing after joining Spacecraft, a Japanese talent agency, where she performed at small concerts alongside other emerging vocalists including Wakana, Kaori, Yoshida Yuuki, and Ito Ayaka.
Her recording career began with Yuki Kajiura on the Tsubasa Chronicle insert song "Kaze no Machi he" (風の街へ), a performance that highlighted her alto range and led to her being credited as FictionJunction KEIKO. She later formed the duo Itokubo with Ito Ayaka, releasing "Beautiful Katamari" and performing together for about two years before the project ended in January 2007. In 2007, Keiko auditioned for Kalafina and became one of the first two members alongside Wakana. After Sony held additional auditions, Hikaru and Maya joined from a pool of 30,000 applicants for the "Sprinter/ARIA" single, and Maya left shortly afterward. Kalafina then released "Oblivious," which bundled the ending songs for the first three Kara no Kyoukai films, followed by singles such as "Lacrimosa" and the album Seventh Heaven, which included all seven Kara no Kyoukai themes and additional tracks.
Around the same period, she also appeared in Yuki Kajiura live concerts, starting with the April 2008 show, then the July 31, 2008 concert recorded for DVD, a December performance celebrating that release, and the July 2009 tour for Everlasting Songs. With "Parallel Hearts" for Pandora Hearts, FictionJunction began being credited as a collaboration rather than as separate sub-units such as FictionJunction KEIKO. Keiko left Kalafina on April 1, 2018 but remained in FictionJunction, and she announced her solo debut through Avex on April 16, 2020.
