Miyuki Nakajima

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Miyuki Nakajima (中島みゆき, Nakajima Miyuki) (born February 23, 1952 - ) is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and radio personality.

As a musical artist, she is well-known for her extremely intense and changeable vocal expression and decadent lyrics. In contrast, as a radio host, she was surprisingly loud and talkative. This extreme gap received favorable public reaction mainly in the 1980s, and she has continued to have a deep-rooted reputation as a musician. As two principal Japanese female veteran singer-songwriters, she is often compared with Yumi Matsutoya.

On Oricon, a Japanese official hit chart, Nakajima accomplished several achievements. From 1979 through 1985, she constantly made #1 hit albums, and succeeded on both albums and singles chart in the 1980s. She is the only solo artist who produced several #1 hits on Japanese singles chart for four decades; "Wakareuta (The Parting Song)" in 1970s, "Akujo" in '80s, "Sora to Kimi no Aida ni (Between the Sky and You)" in '90s and "Earthly Stars (Unsung Heroes)" in 2000s. Particularly, "Earthly Stars (Unsung Heroes)" remained on the charts for over 200 weeks. In addition, as a lyricist or composer, she wrote over 90 songs for numerous singers, and made several number one hits—"Abayo" performed by Naoko Ken, "Kosa ni Fukarete" performed by Shizuka Kudo, and "Sorafune (Ship in the Air)" performed by Tokio.

She is also well-known as a Japanese songwriter who has the most cover version which was performed by non-Japanese East Asian singers (especially Taiwan and Hong Kong). For example, "Rouge", the song which she presented for Naomi Chiaki in mid 1970s was covered by Faye Wong in 1992 as "Fragile Woman". Success of this cover version made her a superstar among Asian entertainers.