Avu-chan

is a Japanese singer, songwriter, producer and actor. They debuted as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the band Queen Bee in 2009, and took on a side project as the lead vocalist and trumpeter of the supergroup Gokumontō Ikka in 2015. As a producer and songwriter, Avu-chan uses the name , and has written songs for Meg, Rina Satō, Ai Shinozaki, Hey! Say! JUMP, LiSA, KERENMI, and the SUPERNOVA sub-unit Funky Galaxy. They also produce the alternative vocal-and-dance boy group Ryugujo, formed in 2023 through the audition program "0th Class 0 - Avu-chan's Classroom" (0年0組 -アヴちゃんの教室-).

Biography Expressing interest in music since middle school and inspired by the Japanese pop/electronic group Perfume, Avu-chan formed the band Queen Bee in 2009 with classmates in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture. They started performing at their school's cultural festivals and gained considerable popularity doing so, after which Queen Bee went on to perform at live houses in the Kansai region. The band made their first major concert appearance at the Fuji Rock Festival in July 2010, where they performed as a part of the very selective "Rookie a Go-Go" section, sometimes called the "road to success" for new artists. Having released their debut album Witch Hunt independently in March 2011, the band signed to Sony Music Associated Records, and in September of the same year released their second album Peacock. Not long after signing a contract with Sony Music, Queen Bee found early success with their song "Desco", which was featured in the romantic comedy film Moteki (2011), where the band had also made a cameo. The newly formed supergroup, now known as Gokumontō Ikka, made their debut performance at the Rising Sun Rock Festival in August 2013. Only touring and releasing demos online at first, the band then released their first extended play Jitsuroku! Gokumontō Ikka during their November 2015 tour.

Queen Bee reformed in February 2014 after a one-year hiatus. In 2016, Queen Bee and Gokumontō Ikka released a split single, "Kinsei" / "Shibō Yūgi". The packaging for the limited edition of the split single was styled to resemble PlayStation fighting games, with the cover art illustrated by Kinu Nishimura, whose work on the Darkstalkers series has been considered a longtime favorite by Avu-chan.

In 2017, Avu-chan debuted as a stage actress with a production of The Rocky Horror Show, in the role of Columbia. The production toured Japan in late 2017.

Queen Bee's sixth album Ten (2019) was released to commemorate the band's ten-year anniversary, and was also their first album to ever reach the top 10 on the Oricon charts in Japan. It featured several tracks used as theme songs for anime, such as "Half" in Tokyo Ghoul:re, In 2019, Avu-chan returned to the stage, now in the role of Yitzhak in a Japanese production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. In late 2020, Avu-chan produced the song "Ōkami Seinen" for an anonymous boyband called Honey Bee, who were later revealed to be Hey! Say! JUMP, and in 2021, collaborated with the singer LiSA on the song "GL", from her 10th anniversary mini-album Ladybug. Avu-chan had been close friends with Harada, the creator of One Room Angel, and had written the song specifically for the series. . Avu-chan identifies with gender aspects of both men and women. In school, Avu-chan related to characters who had non-traditional experiences of gender in films, such as Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) and the character of Angel in Rent (2005). Avu-chan does not like people who categorize others by gender and racial labels. Avu-chan's official website biography written in 2012 used she/her pronouns, as well as an article with MTV from 2015, however as of 2019 the biography was updated to no longer use pronouns. Often, Japanese language sources will use the Japanese pronoun (the equivalent of she/her).

Avu-chan is of partial African-American descent and based the Queen Bee song "Half" (the ending theme song for the anime Tokyo Ghoul:re (2018)) on childhood experiences in Japan, when people questioned Avu-chan's ethnic background. As a child, Avu-chan wondered why people felt the need to ask about heritage and identity, and did not like the word hāfu (ハーフ, "half", the Japanese term for mixed race children), as Avu-chan did not feel like "half" of something.

Avu-chan's younger sister is former Queen Bee drummer Ruri-chan.

Discography Queen Bee

Witch Hunt (2011) Peacock (2011) Snake Princess (2012) Kirei (2015) Q (2017) Ten (2019) BL (2020)

Gokumontō Ikka Jitsuroku! Gokumontō Ikka (2015)

Guest appearances

+ List of non-single guest appearances with other performing artists Title Year Other artist(s) Album 2012 DJ Baku 2018 Kensuke Ushio Devilman Crybaby Original Soundtrack 2022 Otomo Yoshihide Inu-Oh Original Soundtrack 2013 Meg Continue Lyricist. 2015 Ai Shinozaki Eat 'Em and Smile First appeared as an acoustic piano version as a B-side of Ai Shinozaki's "Again" single. Rei Hino (CV: Rina Satō) Sailor Moon Crystal Character Song Collection: Crystal Collection Lyricist. Queen Bee members perform on the song and composed the track. 2021 LiSA Ladybug Queen Bee performs on the song.