Yuuri (優里)

Yuuri (優里), born 木村優里 on March 23, 1994 in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and YouTuber signed to Ariola Japan under Sony Music Entertainment. He first performed as the vocalist for the four-member rock band The Bugzy before the group disbanded in May 2019. After the breakup he began busking mainly in Tokyo, and in October 2019 a street performance at Shibuya Scramble Crossing drew wider attention when Hiro of MY FIRST STORY joined him; the following month he appeared during the encore of the final show of MY FIRST STORY TOUR 2019 at Saitama Super Arena. His official site is yuuriweb.com, and his YouTube activity has remained part of his public profile through "Yuuri Channel". Yuuri made his formal solo debut in December 2019 with the single "Kakurenbo." He followed with the independent release "Kagome" in 2020, then made his major debut with "Peter Pan" on Sony Music Labels and released "Dry Flower," which became a major streaming hit in Japan, topped Billboard JAPAN's 2021 year-end Hot 100, and surpassed 500 million streams. His first original album, "壱", was released in 2022, and that year "Betelgeuse" also passed 100 million streams. In anime-related work, Yuuri performed "Curtain Call (カーテンコール)," the opening theme for Boku no Hero Academia, and "Thunderbolt (サンダーボルト)," the opening theme for Thunder 3. In 2026, live footage from CENTRAL26 was also released sequentially on THE FIRST TAKE and YouTube.