Emma Hazy Minami

Emma Hazy Minami (Japanese: エマ・ヘイジー・ミナミ), also called EMMA, is a Japanese virtual singer and VTuber co-produced by Asahi Broadcasting Television (ABC TV) and Ficty Inc. She is best known for cover songs, especially Japanese city pop, and for live sessions where she sang and played her own accompaniment.

Profile

Item	Detail
Debut	November 2018 (YouTube channel opened September 10, 2018)
Agency	Co-produced by ABC TV and Ficty Inc.
Self-description	Virtual club singer
Hashtag	#EMMAHAZY
Character designer	Shogoshogo
Genre	Music
Status	Indefinite hiatus announced in February 2020

Career

Emma Hazy Minami's YouTube channel opened on September 10, 2018. She was selected through the "Ficty Virtual YouTuber Audition in Kansai supported by ABC," an actor audition run by Ficty and ABC TV. The judges included the VTubers Peanuts-kun and Kogaryu Ninja! Ponpoko. Her debut came in November 2018. Her first performance was a cover of "Seppun" by Original Love, posted on the audition's YouTube channel. In it she sang while playing her own accompaniment. Akihito Ninomiya, a Ficty co-founder and producer of the VTuber unit KMNZ, then announced that she would soon start live streaming.

She later covered "Anata no Dance de Sawagashii" by the idol group Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku. The song was an insert song for the TV drama "Kami Tunes: Narase! DTM Joshi," and this cover was her first music video. The choreography was supervised by the choreographer akane. To promote the release, she interviewed the group's members, and she also announced that she would appear in the drama. In April 2019, she held a street live performance that included a live session.

On October 16, 2019, she released her first cover album, "Cover Selection1 -Midnight Lady-." Its seven tracks are city pop classics chosen around the theme of the urban adult woman. With the album came a music video for "Plastic Love," originally sung by Mariya Takeuchi. In the video, actress Reina Triendl played a live-action version of the character. She also hosted "EMMA presents Midnight Pretenders," a radio program on ABC Radio devoted to city pop.

In February 2020, she posted a handwritten letter to her supporters on X (then Twitter) and announced an indefinite hiatus. A single record followed in June 2020. In June 2021, a new 7-inch vinyl record was announced as part of the CITY POP on VINYL 2021 campaign.

Activities

Streaming style

Most of her content was music. She posted cover videos and also ran a weekly live stream called "EMMA's BAR" on her YouTube channel, on Tuesdays at 21:00. On the stream she sang live with live instrumental accompaniment. Archives of these streams were kept public for one week only. Her channel also has covers of Vocaloid songs such as "Senbonzakura," "Suna no Wakusei" and "Lost One no Goukoku," as well as songs like "Gekko" by Chihiro Onitsuka. Her first solo live show was billed as "EMMA's BAR in TOKYO."

Music and works

"Seppun" (cover of Original Love), debut performance video
"Anata no Dance de Sawagashii" (cover of Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku), first music video
"Cover Selection1 -Midnight Lady-" (first cover album, October 16, 2019), including "Plastic Love"
"Break The Distance (feat. EMMA HAZY MINAMI)," on the VTuber original song album "VirtuaREAL.01" by the Osaka creator group USAGI Production (December 18)
"Christmas Eve" and "Happiness" (covers of Tatsuro Yamashita and AI), released digitally on December 24
"Mayonaka no Door / Stay With Me" with "Mayonaka no Joke" (7-inch clear yellow vinyl, announced June 2021)

Characteristics

In her character setting, Emma Hazy Minami is a mysterious female singer who appears at a club in "Virtual Minami," a corner of the virtual world. She calls herself a "virtual club singer." Music media described her voice as melancholic and emotionally moving. They noted her focus on city pop, a genre that was being rediscovered by listeners around the world at the time, and her ability to accompany herself while singing.