Aya Nakamura

In 2014, at the age of 19, she released her first single "Karma" on Facebook. With the help of the producer Seysey, she composed a break-up song, "J'ai mal", with a zouk type of melody. The song's video reached more than 1 million YouTube views by that time. An old-time friend, Dembo Camara, became her producer and artistic agent.

In 2015, she made the song "Brisé" with the composer Christopher Ghenda, and the video clip reached 13 million YouTube views. Then she released another song, "Love d'un Voyou", featuring the rapper Fababy and it received even more support on YouTube.

As a tribute to her cultural heritage and roots, she did a concert at the Modibo-Keïta stadium in Bamako, opening for the American-Nigerian star Davido. And she dedicated a song to one of the most famous Malian singer Oumou Sangaré, who was born in Bamako just like her.

In January 2016, the singer signed a deal with Rec. 118, a label from Warner music France. During the same year, she kept on doing collaborations and she released her second single "Super Héros", featuring the rapper Gradur.

On 25 August 2017, she released her debut album Journal Intime, led by her first Platinum hit, "Comportement".

The album was certified Platinum in France. On 23 September 2017, she participated to La Nuit du Mali in Bercy organized by the Wati-Boss, Dawala in order to celebrate the Independence Day of Mali in Paris. She shared the stage with Oumou Sangaré and other Malian artists such as Cheick Tidiane Seck, Lassana Hawa or Mokobé among others.[5]

On 6 April 2018, Aya Nakamura released "Djadja"—the first single from her second album—which stayed two consecutive weeks at number one on the French chart, and was later certified Diamond.[6]

The song quickly became a summer hit in France and soon became an international hit. She became the first French female artist to reach number one in the Netherlands since Edith Piaf with "Non je ne regrette rien" in 1961.[7]

"Djadja" was also the first Francophone song since 2009 to reach the top of the Dutch charts, the last one being "Alors on danse" from Belgian artist Stromaé.[8]

"Djadja" then conquered charts and radios all over Europe (Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland...)[9][10][11][12][13][14]

The following single "Copines" released in August 2018 entered at number four in France before climbing to number one in November 2018, and is also certified Diamond.[6]

On 2 November 2018, Aya Nakamura released her second album Nakamura. She became the first female artist to chart second album tracks in the French top 10 single simultaneously.

In January 2019 she won the European Music Moves Talent Award for Best Urban album.[15]

In February 2019 she was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Urban Album at the France Music Awards.

In April 2019, she released the video for "Pookie", which became the most viewed French video in 2019.[16] It has gained over 150 Million views to date while the song became her third Diamond-certified single.

Those heralded her first sold-out headline tour starting March 2019, including an Olympia Paris Hall sold out in less than two hours, followed by a Zenith tour in Fall 2019.

In May 2019, she was portrayed by The New York Times as "one of the most important act in Europe now, musically and socially".[17]

In June 2019, she earned her first nomination at the BET Awards as Best International Act,[18] and crossed the 1 Billion YouTube channel views.

In Summer 2019 she gained momentum with the single "Pookie" (with over 240 million YouTube views to date), including high-profile international versions with multi-platinum rappers Capo Plaza and Lil Pump.[19]

In August her YouTube channel became the most viewed ever for a French female artist (1.4 billion views to date).

In October, "Djadja" went Platinum in Spain[20] and Portugal, while "Pookie" was certified double Platinum in Italy.[21]

On 25 October 2019, Nakamura released a re-issue of the now double platinum Nakamura with five new songs, including the top-five single "40%".

In the December year-end recaps, she was named Most Watched French female artist in 2019 by YouTube, and Most Streamed French female artist in 2019 by Spotify.[22]

On 3 January 2020, she was announced to perform at Coachella Music & Arts Festival 2020.

On 12 June, Nakamura released a Spanish-language version of "Djadja" with Colombian singer Maluma.

On 17 July 2020, she released the single "Jolie nana" as the lead single from her third studio album Aya. It debuted at number one on the French singles chart, and achieved Gold status in 2 weeks.[23]It also reached the top 10 in Belgium and Switzerland as well as top 40 in the Netherlands. On the UK Afrobeats chart, it reached number 7.

On 9 October, she released the second single from the album, "Doudou". It peaked at number 9 in France, in the top 40 in Belgium and number 16 on the UK Afrobeats chart.

She announced the album on 15 October, with a release date of 13 November. The tracklist was released on 4 October, revealing collaborations with Stormzy, Ms Banks and Oboy.

*Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts.