Ayami Muto (武藤彩未 – born April 29th 1996) is a Japanese singer, model, former Idol, as well as the original leader of both Karen Girl's and Sakura Gakuin. She is signed to Tsubasa Production for management and Shinkai for her music.
She started her career as a kid-model, signing with Amuse in 2004 and spending several years featuring in commercials for Ciào Magazine before being chosen as one of the Karen Girl's – a gimmick of sorts to help promote the Animated Adaptation of the popular comic – along with Suzuka Nakamoto (of later Babymetal fame) and Yuika Shima. There, she discovered her love of singing. After Karen Girl's was dissolved following the conclusion of the anime, she continued to star in commercials until she was recruited as a founding member of Sakura Gakuin, where she served as the first Student Council President, a role she would pass down to fellow Karen Girl's and SG member Suzuka.
After aging out of Sakura Gakuin in 2012, she embarked upon a solo singing career, releasing several well-received singles, albums, and live shows. However, for reasons unknown to the outside, she abruptly left Amuse at the end of 2015. Not long after that, she left Japan entirely and moved to New Zealand, promising she would return one day. She did so at the end of 2018 and soon restarted her singing career, this time with more input into her songs and improved English ability.
Ayami is known for her crystal-clear voice, near-perfect comic timing, and for being hilariously petite, standing just 149cm tall (that's just over 4’10½”). The latter is likely due to coming from a family of racehorse jockeys & trainers. She occasionally appears on horse racing broadcasts in Japan due to her knowledge of the sport. She's also quite possibly the biggest Seiko Matsuda fan on the planet and has intentionally tried to fashion herself in Seiko's image.
Her official website is here.
Her Youtube channel is here. Here is her Instagram, and here is her twitter.
Ayami's Discography
Full Studio Albums
- Eien tó Shunkan (2014)
- I-POP (2015)
Mini-Albums
- DNA 1980 (2013)
- Mirrors (2020)
- I Still Hum the Playlist I Gave You Back Then (2020)
- SHOWER (2021)
- Glitter Beat (2022)
Digital-Only Singles
- "Marmalade" (2020)
- "I Want You To Forget With A Kiss Tonight"* (2021)
- Image Board (2022)
- "Game Start" (2023)
- "DANG DANG Ki ni naru" (2023)
Live Albums & Concert Videos
- Live Debut BIRTH (2014)
- A.Y.M. Ballads (2014)
- Re:BIRTH ~ 19th Birthday Live (2015)
- Glitter Beat ~ Release Party (2022)
Tropes Applying to Ayami Muto and/or Her Music
- City Pop: This is her favorite music genre and a lot of her songs are in this style or call back to it.
- Cover Version: The majority of her Youtube output is her singing covers of 80's songs.
- The Oner: The music video for "Parallel World" is shot in a single long take.
- Self-Deprecation: Ayami is very well-known for this. She mostly pokes fun at her (lack of) height, including one live show where they had to build a riser for her to be seen onstage. She noted that even with the riser and heels, she was still shorter than her backing band.
- Singer-Songwriter: Ayami's stint as a solo Idol Singer didn't go so well, in part because by 2015 the market was more interested in the supergroups, so now she's trying her hand at lyrics.
- On her first post-sabbatical EP Mirrors she has writing credit for both "Amane" and "Aitai ga Ienai".
- She also shares writing credit for her 2020 song "Betty".
- During one live performance of "Betty", she took over the drums halfway through and kept time surprisingly well while also singing.
- Trademark Favorite Drink: Corona beer with a squeeze of lime. The "Betty" MV shows her gleefully counting a row of unopened Corona bottles at the bar, a humorous Call-Back to her tendency during her hiatus to only post photos of a half-empty bottle with the beach/ocean in the background.
