今井絵理子 (Eriko Imai), born September 22, 1983, was the second youngest member in SPEED. She was one of the main vocals in the group. When Imai began her solo career in 2000, she merged with the dance group Crunch and the group was newly dubbed Eriko with Crunch. Their first two maxi singles, "Red Beat of My Life" and "Luv is Magic," were released the same year. "Red Beat of My Life" sold over 240,000 copies and was ranked #3 in the weekly rankings.
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今井絵理子 (Eriko Imai), born September 22, 1983, was the second youngest member in SPEED. She was one of the main vocals in the group. When Imai began her solo career in 2000, she merged with the dance group Crunch and the group was newly dubbed Eriko with Crunch. Their first two maxi singles, "Red Beat of My Life" and "Luv is Magic," were released the same year. "Red Beat of My Life" sold over 240,000 copies and was ranked #3 in the weekly rankings. "Luv is Magic" was ranked #1 in Oricon daily for one day and sold over 180,000 copies. Imai's style of music is rockish pop, which suits her voice, but she also sang ballads and slow numbers as well, and even attempted rapping in "Don't Stop the Music". Some of the entertainment industry friends Eriko has are J-pop singer Hikaru Utada and actress Rina Uchiyama. Eriko with Crunch did not last long. She went on without them pursuing her solo career under her own name. One of the Crunch dancer formed a duo group, named Ai-Sachi. That group released two singles in 2001 and 2002. She released her third single "In the name of Love" with the name "Eriko Imai", which sold about 140,000 copies and was ranked in the Oricon weekly top 15 for about 14 weeks. Her fourth single, "Identity", is viewed the downfall on Eriko's career. Many viewed the music as hard-core rock. Moreover, in the promotion of the music, she remarked that "Many artists these days succeed by popularity, not by hard work." This comment was viewed as a criticism on Morning Musume and triggered a waves of criticism on Eriko. She has not succeeded selling over 50,000 copies of her CDs ever since. Her fifth single, "Set Me Free" was filmed in Australia and she performed it in Kuala Lumpur during the 2001 Asia Music Festival. Afterwards, she released her first album, "My Place". Including self-composed songs, Himawari (Sunflower) and Dawn, it sold 93,700 copies and was ranked in the top 5. "Don't Stop the Music" was aired in Eriko's weekly Monday night radio talk show by TBS 954, "Eriko Imai Hotlink" more than a month before its release in January 2002. At around this time, Eriko considered changing her hairstyle to an Afro-style. She said that she wanted something new, but was willing to switch back to normal if her popularity sinks further. She has appeared in theater, film, radio and other parts of the entertainment industry. In 2001, she was awarded the Golden Arrow Award for Best Newcomer in Theater. This award was for her role in the musical Hi no tori. Imai has also lent her voice to one of the anime characters in Boku No Songoku in 2003, with her self-written single, "Butterfly" as the main theme song of that movie. She also starred in the hit movies Onmyoji in 2001 and Onmyoji 2 in 2003. In late 2004, Eriko authored an essay collection book covering various issues she had thoughts on. In April 2004 she married Shogo, lead vocalist of punk band 175R in a shotgun wedding, their son, Raimu, was born on October 18, 2004 weighing 3492g. On November 25 2004, Eriko released her Single Collection ~Stairway~ to mark her new life journey as a mother and wife and as a gift for all Eriko fans around the world. She registered her name as Eriko Kinoshita upon the change. On June 9, 2005, Eriko announced on her new website that she will return to the music industry as elly. She will try to compose and write her own songs as well. On the same year, elly 1st appeared on her birthday, September 22 to perform in a mini concert she held. Her 1st indie single, 'Star' was released on that day.Due to overwhelming response, she held an additional concert in October. She released her 1st Photo-Essay book, 'Egao de ikou' It writes about her life, thoughts and her days during pregnancy and was released on her son's 1st Birthday. elly released her 2nd indie single, 'Journey' on May 13th, where she began her follow up concert. In June 2006, elly held a secret marriage party in Guam. Only her close friends such as hiro and team-F were invited. elly was last seen in public on July 16th where she attended Vision Festival Vol.2. She appeared in a yukata and performed her new song, 'Journey' with VANILLA MOOD. elly also uses this chance to announce to her fans that her new album, entitled: 'Neverland' will be released on the 27th September.
