Loading details…
Artist
Sandii
12+ albums
new wavefemale vocalistsHawaiianjapaneseymo
about
Sandii (borni n 1952 as Sandra O'Neale) was born in Japan of mixed Japanese, Spanish and American blood. Her father was in the U.S. Navy, and she spent her early life in Japan, but moved to Hawaii in her early teens and began to study hula and Pacific dance. After becoming accomplished as a singer and dancer, Sandii released her first record "Perusha Neko" under the name Sandi Ai. Returning to Japan in 1975 she was befriended by Kyu Sakamoto, who helped her to get a job as a DJ on NHK TV in Japan. Sandii performed during the interval of the "World Popular Song Festival" in late 1975, and secured a record deal with Toho. Sandii's debut album was titled "Sandi Ai" and mixes Japanese originals with covers of well known songs by John Lennon and Olivia Newton-John. The album was not a great success and Sandii left Toho for Discomate Records. In 1976 Sandii had performed at the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival as a non-competitor interval act, but the next year she won the prestigious “Grand Prix Best Vocal Performance” award with the single Goodbye Morning, her best selling record to date. Sandii met Makoto Kubota in 1976 when he was a guest on her NHK TV show and afterward joined his band Yuyake Gakudan (Sunset Gang) as a backup singer. Makoto was an accomplished musician with broad influences, and the collaboration went on to be critically acclaimed, though never quite achieving the popular success expected. The music of The Sunset Gang was very influenced by Blues, Southern
