sifow
sifow (シーフォウ), born Shiho Fujita (藤田志穂) May 11th, 1985 in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese singer.
At the age of 19, sifow realized that she had a bad image of herself in society, due to the fact that she was a ganguro gyaru. Ganguro girls are generally known not to study hard at school and not pursue any goal or career. Their tans pose a significant health risk, specifically to skin cancer. Thus ganguros are usually seen as not caring about their future and only living for the moment. For this reason, they are rarely taken seriously by society. Because of her appearance sifow suffered a lot of prejudice and she started to consider her image and herself more seriously. Sifow felt her image projected an unclean and misleading image of herself. She started writing on a blog and started considering her future. Her blog contained her dreams and ambitions and soon started getting a lot of attention. She felt the need of getting people take her seriously.
In April 2006, she set up her own company and christened it "G-Revo" which means "gal revolution". It received a lot of support from her blog readers and her friends. The idea of the company started in January 2005 when she published her opinion on how people think of gyaru. It was simply a journal of interviews and columns that were positive and served as a shout out to the younger generation, in particular males. Her aim was basically to recreate a fresher image of a gyaru. She wants to prove that the real meaning behind being a gyaru is their fashion, attitude, speech and feelings.
In 2004, sifow started her modelling career, which gave her a lot of exposure in fashion magazines. She also appeared in the magazine for "Gal's World - Charisma". However she soon realized she wanted to be a singer rather than simply a model. She came up with her stage name sifow and made her debut in the indies scene with a self produced single titled "I Uta". This single was released on the 17th April 2005 and all the promotion and sales were done online from her official site. A promotional video was also filmed. Surprisingly enough she sold 500 copies in 8 minutes and 1,000 copies within three days. The single was limited to 2,000 copies which were sold out. For the reason of her internet promotion, sifow started being called a "net-artist". Later on sifow released her second single "mermaid story" and her third/fourth single "Apple - blue/red", which also got sold out. Her singles got a lot of attention because of her unique sense of style.
Later on in 2005 she got noticed by avex trax and she got a contract from them. Her first release was her mini album titled "& YOU REVOLUTION". It was released on the 15th February 2006 and contained five songs. Two tracks were new, while the other three were from her indies releases. They were rearranged and rerecorded. Sifow also filmed a promotional video for one of her songs from this album, "Jewel". It was directed by Takahide Ishii, who also directed Ami Suzuki's "To be Free" and a few EXILE clips. Nonetheless avex seemed to give little promotion to this mini album and it did not get a lot of attention. In February sifow also modelled for Konami’s "DDR Strike".
n April, sifow released a book titled "a gal revolution". It was published by Kodansha on April 17 and was limited to 20,000 copies. The reprint had already been decided even before the publication, due to popular demand. In May, sifow returned with a single titled "CLOVER". This single carried a colourful and lively mood within it. Both songs included within the single were upbeat and invigorating. Her promotional video was filmed in Okinawa and made a strong use of contrasts. On the 19th May, sifow opened a clothes outlet, called "REVROSSA×CLARITY" in Shibuya 109.
July has also been a rather busy month for sifow. She was in the tracklisting of the remix album titled "EROCAWA TRANCE", where a remix of "Jewel" was included within the tracklisting. Also her second single "LOVE & PEACE", again features an upbeat and lively single. The style slightly varied from her previous releases due to it being much more energetic and has a more bubblegum-pop style. In the photoshoot for this single, sifow has appeared with sexy and colourful outfits and her promotional video made use of a lot of bizarre and amusing themes and imagery. It seems that this single shall have much more promotion than her previous two releases. It is the ending song for a show called "スポんちゅ" and also she has appeared in a few magazines. Also she performed at a special live on the 5th August and at a-nation on the 20th and 27th August.
Sifow’s musical style is quite unique, compared to various mainstream female artists. Instead of taking the pop genre formula, she seems to experiment a lot with Eurobeat, mixed with trance and with a hint of fantasy. It is reminiscent to the musical genres which were typically used in the 90’s. Although her vocals are not exactly what you'd call impressive, they are quite pleasant to listen to and happen to be soothing too. Sifow also writes her lyrics for her songs.
Sifow recognizes herself as a role model to young women and therefore promotes a strong image and through G-Revo she is able to support these girls to live their dreams and aim for their future. She feels that she has three facets of herself; a gyaru, a president and an artist.
In early February 2008, sifow announced that her music career was to be put on an indefinite hiatus in order to open a school in 2010. For now, it is unknown how long this hiatus will last. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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