Her father loved jazz, and her mother loved Western music. Originally both her parents studied vocal music. She grew up in Tsushima, Nagasaki, and began to learn piano at the age of four under the influence of her elder brother and her elder sister. She joined the local chorus at the age of 9, and she discovered her five-octave singing voice while at her older sister's private music lessons. From then on she dreamed of becoming a singer and later won a contest in Fukuoka. She gradually came to want to leave Tsushima, where she was not able to get enough information about music, and wanted to take voice lessons in earnest in Fukuoka. Subsequently, she left her home and moved to Fukuoka with her elder sister where she attended high school. During junior high and high school she sang and played the trumpet in the brass band club. While going to the high school, she also began to go to a music academy and met two Black American vocal trainers there while she was in the eleventh grade. She began training with them in gospel and R&B. In April 1997, she was accepted into Seinan Gakuin University in commercial science. Career beginnings In May 1997, Misia finally passed a BMG Japan audition to find a soulful female R&B singer. Misia sang "Goodbye Darlin'" by Dreams Come True and was chosen from about 3,000 candidates. She decided to pursue a music career instead of school education and took a leave of absence from university. Her perception of the image of an R&B singer is hair styled in dreadlocks, so she styled her own hair that way that November. She used the stage name "MISIA" at the beginning of her music career. Establishing her popularity: 1998–2002 Misia debuted on February 21, 1998, with "Tsutsumikomu Yō ni..." which peaked at number 11 on the Oricon single charts. Her second single "Hi no Ataru Basho" reached number 9 and was used in the soundtrack of the movie Hood. Her first album, Mother Father Brother Sister, was released on June 24, 1998, entering the charts at number 3 and reaching number 1 after 4 weeks. In March 1999, she won Best New Artist of the Year and Best Pop Album of the Year at the Japan Gold Disc Awards. Misia's second album, Love Is the Message was released on January 1, 2000, which went