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b. Nori Awaya, 12 August 1907, Aomori, Japan, d. 20 September 1999. Awaya was born the daughter of a wealthy draper who went bankrupt when she was in her late teens. In 1923 she entered Toyo College of Music, first specializing in piano and then in vocals. She paid for her education by working as a nude model for art students and painters. She signed with Polydor Records in 1929, becoming the first singer of popular songs to have graduated from an orthodox school of music. Awaya moved to Columbia Records in 1931, when she had her first hit, ‘Watashi Konogoro Youtsuyo’ (‘I’m Feeling So Down These Days’). With such later hits as ‘Wakare No Blues’ (‘Farewell Blues’, 1937), ‘Ame No Blues’ (‘Rainy Blues’, 1930) and ‘Tokyo Blues’ (1939), the soprano became known as the ‘Queen of the Blues’. She later recorded for the Teichiku, Victor Records and Tohiba labels. These ‘blues’, however, referred to slow-tempo songs in minor keys with melancholic lyrics, with little affinity with western blues, and are categorized as a part of kayokyoku, formerly the most common and typically Japanese form of popular song. The exclusively Japanese and amusing misuse of this musical genre has become closely identified with Awaya, who was still active in her mid-eighties.
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