倖田來未 (Koda Kumi)(Kumiko Kōda (神田 來未子), born November 13, 1982, is a famous female Japanese solo R&B and pop singer. She is the older sister of singer misono. She dreamed of becoming a singer ever since she was in elementary school, but had to put off this dream until she turned eighteen and debuted in 2000 with a single titled "TAKE BACK". Prior to this, Kumi also auditioned for the third generation of モーニング娘。, an all girl group, but was rejected in favour for 後藤真希. Massive success didn't come until 2003 with the release of her seventh single, titled "real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba," which became a huge hit song when the songs
were used as the themes of popular PlayStation 2 videogame Final Fantasy X-2. To make herself more marketable, Koda shortened her name Kumiko to Kumi.

In 2005, she was one of the best-selling artists because of her compilation of singles album titled "BEST ~first things~" which has sold a staggering 1,914,776 units to become the best-selling female album and in 2006, she reached the top of the ORICON singles charts with the first single of the "~12 Single~ Collection," the single titled "you." Also, she topped 浜崎あゆみ in album and single sales for 2006.

With the release of her 5th album, Black Cherry, in December of 2006 Koda was the first female artist to release a studio album that remained at the top of the ORICON weekly album charts for four weeks after 浜崎あゆみ with her album, Duty, released 6 years before.

On December 1st, 2007, she began her first arena tour Koda Kumi Live Tour 2007 ~Black Cherry~ at the Tokyo Dome. She is the sixth solo female singer to perform at Tokyo Dome.