Yui began writing poems in ninth grade. At the age of sixteen, by recommendation of her mother, she began studying song, songwriting, and guitar at a private music school in her native Fukuoka. Aspiring to become a professional, she carried her guitar around and sang at local places such as the seashore of Shingu, and in the middle of the rice fields of Kaminofu. Even though she is often uncomfortable when talking to people, she still enjoys communicating with her audiences at street performances in the Tenjin district of Fukuoka. Her professional career began in March 2004, when she sang three songs at an audition hosted by Sony Music Japan, despite the audition rule that a participant could only sing two songs. All of the judges gave her the highest score possible, which caused a fierce scramble among record labels to sign her. She first sang "Why Me" (a song later included in her major label debut single), followed by "It's Happy Line" and "I Know". "It's Happy Line" was her debut indie single with "I Know" as the b-side.
Upon leaving her home of Fukuoka for Tokyo, Yui wrote the song "Feel My Soul". She was planning its release on an indie label as a tribute to her hometown, when the song caught the ears of Fuji TV producer Mr. Yamaguchi, who happened to see the demo video clip. He claimed Yui's voice haunted him so much that he went out of his way to visit the recording studio himself. He even made his channel's prime time drama an extraordinary tie-in with Yui's debut track.
On February 23, Yui released her first major debut single, "Feel My Soul", that had a tie-in with a Japanese Drama named Fukigen na Gene. All music within Fukigen na Gene was mainly based on Yui's songs such as 'Feel My Soul' and 'It's Happy Line'. With the drama tie-in "Feel My Soul" managed to sell over 100,000 copies. Yui's next three singles, "Tomorrow's Way", "Life", and "Tokyo", did not chart as high as Feel My Soul did and were only moderately successful in comparison. After the release of four singles, Yui released her debut album From Me to You, another moderate success with sales of over 200,000.
Months later, Yui starred in a movie released on June 17, 2006, titled Taiyou No Uta-Midnight Sun, which was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Yui's 5th single, "Good-bye Days", was written for Taiyou No Uta ("Midnight Sun") and is by far her highest selling single, at 200,000 copies sold. "I Remember You", her next single, did fairly well, boosted by "Good-bye Days"' popularity. Soon after, Yui's 7th single "Rolling Star" was chosen by the anime series Bleach to be the 5th opening theme song; her third single, "Life", had previously been chosen as the 5th ending theme song. "Che.R.Ry", her 8th single, was used as a song for the KDDI au Listen Mobile Service CM. Her second album, Can't Buy My Love, fared well on the Oricon charts, staying two weeks at #1 and shattering her entire previous album's record sales in one week. So far, Can't Buy My Love has manged to sell over 500,000. Due to the success of Can't Buy My Love, Yui's previous album charted again to add another 9k or so to the Oricon counting.
She is set to release her 9th single, "My Generation / Understand", on 13 June 2007. This is the first time Yui will release a double A-side single. My Generation is the theme song for the drama "Seitosho-kun", and Understand is the theme song for the movie "Sidecar ni Inu".Download
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