Toshinobu Kubota

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Toshinobu Kubota is a soul singer from Shizuoka. He has used a number of different styles from pop through to reggae and soul. Kubota has released a total of eleven albums, four mini-albums, nine videos and twnety five singles since his debut and his albums have consistently sold over a million copies each in Japan.

Kubota sang from very young, winning contests from the time he was in pre-school. He played in several bands throughout junior high and high school, but their attempts to recreate the sound and feeling of American soul were unsuccessful. Kubota moved to Tokyo to study and spent much of his time performing and checking out music in Tokyo's numerous.

A label representative caught his act and set him up as a vocalist for a record by Naoya Matsuoka. This served as Kubota's demo. He made his debut in 1986 with the album Shake It Paradise, which went platinum soon after its release. The following three albums followed suit.

His popularity peaked with his award-winning 1990 Bonga Wanga. His biggest hit single was a duet with Naomi Campbell entitled La La La Love song, which was used as a theme song of the television drama Long Vacation and sold two million copies in Japan.

Kubota began traveling to the US frequently in the 90s, sometimes collaborating with American artists. In 1995, Sony released his first English language album Sunshine, Moonlight.

Nothing But Your Love, appeared in 2000 and featured guest appearances by Ahmir Thompson, Angie Stone, Raphael Saadiq and rapper Pras. Kubota continues to release and perform in Japan but has now made New York his home.

Kubota does a weekly late night radio show for Tokyo FM called Planet Flava. His singles are frequently picked for TV drama opening/closing credit songs, TV commercials and feature films.