井上陽水

Yosui Inoue (井上陽水, Inoue Yōsui?) (born August 30, 1948 - ) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, who is best-known for Kōri no Sekai, the first million-selling album in Japan, and several smash h

Yosui Inoue (井上陽水, Inoue Yōsui?) (born August 30, 1948 - ) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, who is best-known for Kōri no Sekai, the first million-selling album in Japan, and several smash hit songs such as "Yume no Naka e" "Shōnen Jidai" and "Makeup Shadow". He is the only Japanese male solo artist who made million-selling albums for three decades; Kōri no Sekai in 1973, 9.5 Karat in 1984, and the compilation Golden Best in 1999. On the Japanese music industries, he is one of three male solo artists who sold over 10 million albums.

In the first half of 1970s, along with Takuro Yoshida, Inoue prospered as a one of the most popular Japanese folk-rock singer-songwriters. After his doninance was settled temporarily in the mid of '70s, he gradually changed his vocal style to sticky and its pronunciation became characteristic. He is well-known for his such impressive vocal expression, eccentric lyrics, and dark sunglasses which he always wears. As a composer or lyricist, he often associated with several other singer-songwriters and record producers. Some of his hit songs were written with his songwriting partners, Koji Tamaki and Natsumi Hirai. Particularly, partnership with Tamio Okuda provided enormous commercial success in the mid of 1990s. They wrote several songs for Puffy AmiYumi, and all of them sold over 1,000,000 copies.