Early life At the age of seventeen, while still in high school, Shimatani attended "The Japan Audition 1997", where she was chosen as the winner out of around 200,000 people and got a recording contract with the
Avex label. After this she continued her studies in high school in Hiroshima, although she started to take vocal lessons in Tokyo during the weekends. She graduated from Shimizugaoka High School.
1999–2002: Debut and mainstream success Her first single, entitled "Ōsaka no Onna" which was an
enka song, was released in 1999 on the
Avex Trax label. The single went to the top of the
Oricon's Enka charts and much critical acclaim, but failed to chart within the Top 40 of the mainstream charts, selling rather poorly. "Ōsaka no Onna" became then Shimatani's only enka single, as since her second one, "Kaihōku", she turned into more mainstream pop influences. Mainstream success did not come until 2001 with the release of Shimatani's third single, "Papillon", a Japanese version of
Janet Jackson's song "
Doesn't Really Matter". The single became her first Top 15 single in the Oricon charts, and eventually stayed within the Top 50 for twenty weeks, selling over 200,000 copies. Her sixth single "Shanty", which was used as theme song of
TBS'
TV drama Pretty Girls, became her first Top 10 single in the Japanese charts, peaking at number seven. In May 2002 she released another cover, this time of "Amairo no Kami no Otome" by the 60's
group sounds band Village Singers. The song became a massive success, peaking at number 4 and leading to a "boom of covers" in Japan. It also became one of the most preferred songs to be sung in
karaokes by Japanese people (it stayed at the top position of the Oricon Karaoke charts for 18 weeks, and it took the first position of its yearly charts). At the end of this successful year, Shimatani was invited for the first time to the most important Japanese TV show of
New Year's Eve, the
Kōhaku Uta Gassen on the NHK channel. From this time she would be invited to be in the show for another 3 years in a row. In 2003 she debuted as an actress in the
Fuji TV drama
Boku dake no Madonna, where she was given one of the main roles, and also made a debut as
voice actress in the animated movie
Doraemon: Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Spacetime Odyssey. In 2004 she also participated in her first musical,
A Star is Born, along with
Yukie Nakama and
Eriko Imai.
2005–2007: Pop to classical crossover In February 2005, Shimatani released her first concept album,
Crossover, which marked a sustained shift her music, from mainstream J-pop to
classical-influenced tunes. Since then her music has been heavily influenced by string instruments and pianos, instead of electric guitars, bass and keyboards, and also started to include some world ethnic elements. The first album released under this new style was
Heart & Symphony, which featured four singles including "Garnet Moon" (theme song of
PlayStation 2's ''
Another Century's Episode) and "Falco" (theme song of Miss Earth &
The Law Of Ueki''). The album peaked at number 7 on the Oricon charts. The theme song for the Japanese version of
Racing Stripes is "I Will" by her. In 2006, Shimatani released three singles. The first one was the double A-side single "Haru Machibito/Camellia", released on March 15. Another double A-side single, entitled "Destiny: Taiyō no Hana/Koimizu: Tears of Love" was released on June 21. "Destiny: Taiyō no Hana" was used as opening theme for
Black Jack 21. Finally, "Pasio" was released on November 15. The b-side of this single, "True Blue", was used as insert song for anime television series
The Law of Ueki, was used as insert song for beauty pageant television series
Miss Earth.. This year she also played the lead role of
Anne Shirley during the touring performance of
Anne of Green Gables in Japan, and starred in the live action film
The Prince of Tennis as
Sumire Ryuzaki. On March 7, 2007, Shimatani released her 6th studio album,
Prima Rosa, which peaked at number 16 on the Oricon charts. She also recorded a cover of
High School Musical's "When There Was Me And You" (in Japanese entitled "Anata to Ita Toki"), which was included as part of the
Disney film's Japanese soundtrack. On December 5, Shimatani released her first cover album,
Otoko Uta: Cover Song Collection, on which she only recorded covers originally sung by male artists, such as
Anzen Chitai,
Begin and
Masayoshi Yamazaki. For the album she also made a new
crossover version of "Amairo no Kami no Otome", which she performed live at that year's Kōhaku.
2008–present In March 2008, Shimatani released the single "Nakitai Nara" in March 2008, which debuted at number 34 at the Japanese charts, being her lowest peaking song since "Yume Biyori" in 2003. In June she released the triple A-side single "Wake You Up/Ame no Naka ni wa, Ame no Naka wo, Kaze no Naka ni wa, Kaze no Naka wo/Marvelous". "Wake You Up" was used as the theme song of
K-tai Investigator 7, which started airing in early April 2008; "Ame no Naka ni wa, Ame no Naka wo, Kaze no Naka ni wa, Kaze no Naka wo" was a song to pay tribute to poet
Mitsuo Aida and was also released as a single by itself; "Marvelous" was used as theme song for
Wrestling Asia Senshuken 2008 (the previous song used for this show was "Neva Eva", which was released back in 2007). The single debuted at number 33 on the Oricon charts. On July 16, Shimatani released her seventh studio album,
Flare. On March 4, 2009, she released her thirtieth single, "Smiles", which is being used as the theme song for the drama
Parallel, in which Shimatani herself stars. In July she celebrated her tenth anniversary in music releasing the greatest hits album
Best & Covers, and also holding a special live concert in the
Itsukushima Shrine. In 2011, Shimatani became part of the rock musical
Rock of Ages, along with other musicians such as
Takanori Nishikawa and
Misono. On October 1, 2011, Hitomi started her own radio program called
Eyes on Me in FM Yokohama. == Discography ==