Juria Kawakami

Juria Kawakami was born and raised in Hokkaidō, Japan.^[2] At an early age, she was extremely shy. Worried about this, her mother urged her to take singing and dancing lessons.^[2] Soon she became very interested in singing, and her shyness was "cured."^[2]

Jurian Beat Crisis "Go! Let's Go!" (2009)

A 25-second sample of Jurian Beat Crisis's debut single "Go Let's Go!"

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Early in her career, Kawakami was part of the Hokkaido branch of Actors Studio as an actress.^[3] In 2005, Kawakami auditioned for A-Motion '05, an audition held by Avex Group, but did not pass the second round.^[4] She auditioned again in the following year at A-Motion '06, performing the song "Soba Kasu" by Judy and Mary and winning the Grand Prix out of 10,000 contestants.^[1][5][6]

In 2009, Kawakami debuted as Jurian Beat Crisis, with plans of releasing a digital single every month over the course of one year.^[7] All 12 songs to be released were composed by Jun Sky Walker(s) [ja] guitarist Junta Mori [ja], with Lindberg members Maki Watase [ja] writing the lyrics and Tatsuya Hirokawa [ja] arranging the songs.^[7] Jurian Beat Crisis was marketed as a solo music project, of which Kawakami was its lead singer.^[7] Jurian Beat Crisis was also marketed to high school students, as Kawakami herself was a high school student and the lyrics of her songs were written from a high school student's perspective.^[7] To promote Jurian Beat Crisis's debut, Kawakami was featured in her own television program titled Juribe Channel on Fuji TV 2, and a column titled Juria's Banana Days was serialized in Seventeen.^[7]

On August 27, 2009, Jurian Beat Crisis made her debut performance at A-Nation '09 with the song "Go! Let's Go!"^[8] The song was later released digitally on September 2, 2009.^[7] "Go! Let's Go!" was used in commercials for the Bourbon Petit Series [ja] for the month of July prior to its release.^[7] On October 21, 2009, Jurian Beat Crisis released her second single, "Hurricane Love", digitally, which was used as the ending theme song for the variety show Oto no Moto [ja] for the month of October.^[9] Kawakami described the song as the "moment when appearing in front of a rival in love", where she hopes that the song will inspire self-confidence during times when one is "feeling ready to lose because the female rival is very cute."^[9] Jurian Beat Crisis's third digital single, "Lonely Flight", was released on November 11, 2009,^[10] which was then followed by her fourth digital single, "Aitai yo... Love You", on December 9, 2009.^[11]

Jurian Beat Crisis's fifth digital single, "Flying Rabbit", was released on January 27, 2010.^[11] Her sixth single, "Sakura Mau", was released digitally on February 17, 2010, with its music video directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi.^[12] She then released "Mō Ichido..." on March 17, 2010.^[11] On April 7, 2010, Jurian Beat Crisis released her eighth digital single, "Brightest Way", as the theme song to the television drama Geki Koi: Unmei no Love Story [ja].^[13] She then released "Soda Aji no Kiss" on May 19, "Namida no Naka Kimi o Mitsuketa" on June 16, and "Heart no Bakudan" on July 7, and "Ima Sugu Kiss Me" on August 11.^[11] Her debut physical album, self-titled Jurian Beat Crisis, was released on September 1, 2010, compiling all of her 12 monthly digital singles.^[14]

After the release of her first album, Jurian Beat Crisis began writing the lyrics to her songs.^[4] In April 2011, Jurian Beat Crisis released the song "Kimi ga Ita Shirushi" digitally, as the theme song to the film adaptation of Mahō Shōjo o Wasurenai.^[15] On June 7, 2011, Kawakami was appointed as the cheering manager for the 2011 Japanese High School Baseball Championship, releasing the song "Zutto Koko kara" as the event's official theme song.^[16][17][18] The song was released as her first physical single on August 10, 2011, with it pre-released digitally on July 20, 2011.^[17]

On February 1, 2012, Jurian Beat Crisis released her second physical single, "Sakura Namida", as the theme song for the film Shodō Girls!! Watashi-tachi no Kōshien.^[19] The music video features the main cast for the film, credited as the Matsuyama Girls High School Calligraphy Girls.^[19] On March 7, 2012, Jurian Beat Crisis released her second album, Sotsugyō: Glorious Days, which had a "graduation" theme, as Kawakami herself was graduating from high school during that time.^[4] The lyrics to all songs were written by Kawakami, who stated that the songs were meant to give a "positive" outlook for graduates and as a memorable event for people who have already graduated.^[4] The lyrics to "Fuzzy Glider", one of the original songs on the album, were based on Kawakami's own experiences of self-contemplation, where she conveys to the listener not to take things seriously.^[4]

In 2012, Kawakami appeared in the stage play Holstein Killer Never Die!! as Asuka Yamashiro in April, Musical: Dream High as Yoon Baek-hee in July,^[20] Naoto Shirogane in VisuaLive Persona 4: The Evolution in October.^[4][21] In 2013, Kawakami was cast as Ayaka Suzuki in Akuryō Byōtō [ja].^[22] In 2014, she was cast as Marina Shinagawa in Mischievous Kiss 2: Love in Tokyo and starred as Saki Yamagishi in the stage production of One Week Friends.^[23][24] In 2015, she portrayed Narukami in Kamisama Hajimemashita: The Musical and Ms. Accord in Puyo Puyo On Stage.^[25][26]

All songs were released under the name Jurian Beat Crisis.

• JURIAN BEAT CRISIS Official Website