Salyu

Salyu (サリュウ) is a female singer born October 13, 1980 from Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The name 'Salyu' was given to her by her producer 小林武史 (Kobayashi Takeshi), deriving from the french word 'Salut' which means 'Cheers!'. Most of her information is kept secret however on the September 14, 2006 episode of Utaban, she revealed her real name, Ayako. Ever since she was little she learned piano yet during grammar school she caught pneumonia and was suggested by her doctor to either take up swimming or singing. She chose singing and joined a choir singing children and recent songs. In 1998 she aspired to become a musician after watching a friend's band play and looked up auditioning ads. She made it to the Sony SD audition where music producer 小林武史 (Kobayashi Takeshi) discovered her, enquired about her and asked if she'd like to participate in 岩井俊二's (Iwai Shunji) cult hit film, All About Lily Chou-Chou of 2000.

Prior to the film's release Salyu released two singles, "グライド" (Glide) on March 19, 2000 and "共鳴（空虚な石)" (Kyoumei (kyuuko na ishi)) on June 21, 2000 under the role of Lily Chou-Chou in order to give the effect that Lily existed. After the movie, she released an album featuring the songs she sang as Lily entitled "呼吸" (Kokyuu) on October 17, 2001. In fact the song "回復する傷" (Kaifuku Suru Kizu) from this album was featured in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 in 2003 (where The Bride encounters Hanzo's swords). In August of 2001, she's also credited to have sung in the chorus of Mr.Children's c/w song 花 (Hana).

In 2004, Salyu collaborated with Ilmari (an MC from the hip-hop group RIP SLYME) on a single entitled VALON on May 21, 2004. On June 23rd of the same year, Salyu released a solo version of the song entitled VALON-1 as her debut single as Salyu. On October 27th, she released her fourth single Dialogue and after releasing two more singles, Peaty of March 24, 2005 and 彗星 (Suisei) of May 11, 2005, she released her first album landmark on June 15, 2005. "Dramatic Irony" from this album was used as the CM song for au KDDI 'SANYO W32SA' as well. After landmark, she released her 7th single 風に乗る船 (Kaze ni Noru Fune) on October 26, 2005. She also won the "Best New Artist Video" award at the Space Shower TV Awards for her Dialogue video.

In 2006, her 8th single, Tower (which was written by 一青窈 (Hitoto Yo), was released on March 5th and was the CM theme to Cho-ya 'Umesshu'. On July 19th, she collaborated with Mr.Children's Bank Band to release a single entitled "to U" which was used as the theme song for TBS's 'NEWS 23'. Her 9th single Name (also written by Hitoto Yo) was released on September 9th, and her most recent single Platform was released on November 11th. Platform was used as the theme song to the movie '地下鉄に乗って' (Chikatetsu Ni Notte). On January 17th of 2007, she released her second album Terminal.