Gackt Camui, better known by his stage name “Gackt” was born on July 4, 1973, in Okinawa. As the son of a music teacher, his musical education began quite early. He started playing the piano at age three, and from there added a variety of other instruments to his repertoire.
Since the start of his career in 1994, he has become one of Japan’s most famous artists, recognized for his talents as a musician, singer, songwriter and actor.
If you would like to get to know his music, you can start by listening to one of the following great songs!
This song was released in 1999 as the second single of Gackt’s debut album as a solo artist. With 248,360 copies sold, it also happens to be his second best-selling single of all time.
The song “Oasis” was released in 2000, and was used as the ending theme for the anime OVA New Fist of the North Star in 2003. In the same year, it was re-released along with his song “Lu:na” – the opening theme for the New Fist of The North Star – as the single “Lu:na/Oasis”.
“Redemption” is another of Gackt’s songs to be used as a theme song. This time, he specially composed it for the video game Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. It was released together with the game in January 2006. The video game character Genesis Rhapsodos was modeled and voiced by him, and was seen again in 2007 for the Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.
Inspired by a visit to some of the poorest countries in the world and the attacks on September 11 in New York, Gackt decided to write this song for world peace and love, and film the music video in New York. The single was released in December 2001 as a Christmas single, its title meaning “December’s Love Song”. By 2004, the single had been recorded in three additional languages besides Japanese: English, Chinese, and Korean.
Last not but least, this is Gackt’s best-selling single of all time. “Another World” is from his third album Moon, and was released in 2001. The music video was filmed in Hong Kong and used as a preview for his co-written and co-starred film Moon Child that premiered in 2003.
Over his long career, Gackt has written many other beautiful songs, so I would suggest you listen to many more in addition to this small selection!
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