Origa

Died: January 17, 2015

Birth place: Kochenёvo, Novosibirsk, Russia

Olga Vitalevna Yakovleva, better known as ORIGA, was a Russian singer who worked mostly in Japan.

Her music studies began when she was 5 and at age 11, she was invited to appear on a children's TV program to perform a song she had written. From that time on, her studies of voice and composition have never stopped.

During her education at the Novosibirsk Musical College (1986-1990), she participated in various themed-based festivals and competitions, refining her own style as a popular singer on stage.

In December 1990, she went to Japan on a 3-month personal invitation and took part in several festivals in the City of Sapporo, where she represented the Russian culture. At the same time, she signed a contract with the ROAD & SKY Company, and, in May of 1994, she went to Tokyo to record her first album and later continue her career as a singer and composer. ORIGA's contract with ROAD & SKY remained valid until her death.

With her initial musical appearance in the style of Healing Music, ORIGA recorded 4 full albums, 2 mini albums and later a "Selected Songs" album through TOSHIBA EMI Records in the period from 1994 through 1999. Her [EIEN "Eternity"] album was the first Russian language album to appear on the Japanese national hit chart ORICON, and it took the 64th place. The "Polyushko-Pole" song from the album was used as a theme song for the famous TBS Channel TV series "Ao no Jidai" (Blue Era). During that time, ORIGA took part in various projects with leading Japanese pop artists as a back-vocals producer, worked on advertisements and commercials on radio and television (on the national NHK channel) and performed in music concerts.

After a long maternity leave, in 2003 ORIGA took part in recording several main theme songs for the anime series "Stand Alone Complex O.S.T" together with Yoko Kanno, which brought her vast popularity in the world of anime and led to subsequent work in other anime projects. At the same time, she changed her style to Electronica and started to produce her songs independently, releasing, through GEMMATIKA Records, albums "Era of Queens" and "Aurora", as well as a remake album of her own songs titled "The Songwreath".

Since 2008, ORIGA had been invited to participate as a lead singer in the project by a popular Japanese guitarist SUGIZO. Under this project, she had taken part in several concerts and a concert tour abroad.

Prior to her death, ORIGA still performed as a vocalist in a variety of projects. One of them, "Starry Tales" for the World Digital Planetariums. This work was in tandem with synthesizer player Himekami and brilliant artist Kagaya. In 2012, she participated in recording three soundtracks for video game "Final Fantasy XIII-2".

(Source: Official website)