They let her cook, and now she’s eating. Japanese singer-songwriter tuki. made her meteoric debut when she released “Bansanka” in late 2023, and by January became the youngest solo artist in history to have a No. 1 on the “Billboard JAPAN” Hot 100. And she didn’t stop there. tuki. won the Special Award at the 2024 Japan Record Awards. At the 2025 Music Awards Japan, she was nominated for Best Japanese Singer-Songwriter Song and took home New Artist of the Year. When “Bansanka,” tuki.’s debut song, surpassed 100 million streams, she became the youngest solo artist in history to do so, and by late May this year, the song was sitting at 500 million. Fueled by this success, tuki. made her first live TV appearance at the 2024 “Red & White Year-End Song Festival,” and she’s now set to hold her very first concert at the legendary Budokan, a dream venue for artists, next February. In other words, she’s easily living up to her full potential.

Anonymity for life’s simplicity
As her celebrity grows, it can’t be missed that tuki. is rather unique in a number of ways. First, she remains committed to keeping her identity a secret. In the videos she posts and during Instagram livestreams, she positions her camera so nothing from the neck up is visible to fans. In duets, like the one she did with singer-songwriter Yuuri, or at the aforementioned “Red & White Year-End Song Festival,” she boldly performs with her back toward the camera. Similarly, like fellow artist Ado, she sometimes uses specific lighting to obscure her face. When asked during a live remote on the April 27 episode of “SUNDAY’S HATSUMIMI-GAKU” on MBS about why she keeps her face hidden, tuki. answered, “To make sure I can have a normal life.” If that goes away, she said, “it’s hard to write music. I’m pretty sure I can only make music if I’m living a regular, happy life. I guess it’s so I can write songs that listeners can connect with.”

In fact, hidden from the camera is the face of a 16-year-old high school student—a second unique point about tuki. As a singer-songwriter who’s currently in school, tuki. often makes media appearances wearing outfits inspired by school uniforms, and the cover art for her singles consistently show a girl wearing the same. She writes lyrics that teens can relate to on a deep level, too. In the graduation-themed song “SAKURA KIMI WATASHI,” tuki. sings, “You tell me as you take off your second button / ‘It’s the last time so it’s fine’ / The classroom on graduation day / Feels somewhat sad  … Blackboard and notes, I hear the pens running / Staring out at the field / Even equations can’t solve / I was looking for answers / The bell goes like it’s rushing us.” She’s said the song “captures exactly the way I feel right now. I’m graduating this March too, so I wrote the lyrics without holding any of my feelings back. A lot of my personal experiences are woven into this song, so it felt a bit embarrassing thinking about friends who really know me, which made me think about releasing it after graduation,” she said. “But anyway. Because it’s graduation season, I feel like it resonates not just with middle schoolers my age but with high schoolers and all kinds of other people.”

Something that hundreds of nights cannot offer / Just offer me your “I love you”
Love makes up the core of tuki.’s music. As a teenager, she’s at that age where you dive headfirst into love without any thought of what lies beyond. You can see this vividly in her lyrics. “Pure Love Ingot,” with its playful melody, is about innocent young love (“Love, just that / Was enough to overcome anything / So cute just like a kid / Running around after tying her ribbons”). The subtly queer-coded “Inferno Love Letter” compares love’s all-consuming passion to hell (“How’s it going King Yama / Judge this uncontrollable heart / Cook me up and make me drink those needles / Love never dies / You and I, both reborn / With our perfection and laugh together”). And “Aimoraimo” (roughly “love and lies”) is a straightforward slice of life (“‘Hey, what are you up to?’ / ‘Just drying my hair’ / ‘I just called to hear your voice’ / ‘What are you up to?’ / ‘Was just laying in bed’ / ‘I was also thinking about talking to you’”). On top of this, tuki.’s unique vocal style—a voice that alternates between crying pleadingly, pouring out emotion without restraint or forethought, and sounding like she’s choking back tears—infuses her songs with a sense of urgency or desperation. In fact, when she was on “SUNDAY’S HATSUMIMI-GAKU,” tuki. revealed that most of her songs were inspired by someone she was head over heels for when she was in middle school but who didn’t feel the same way. It’s precisely this kind of authenticity that gives her songs a sense of being rooted in reality, allowing listeners to lose themselves even more deeply in the music.

tuki.’s world: TikTok and beyond
tuki. frequently mentions specific social media networks by name in her lyrics. In “Love expiration date,” which tuki. describes as a response to “Bansanka,” there’s a line that goes, “Stop scrolling through TikTok / Bring it on / Don’t get your guard down / When you’re next to me / Instagram / Story’s fine / You can scroll through when you go.” You also get lines like “Our story / Let’s make it” in “SAKURA KIMI WATASHI.” Here we can see a third unique part of who tuki. is.

Specifically, TikTok, where she got her start. In 2022, while still in middle school, tuki. first started posting on TikTok under the name RUI and her popularity rose from there. She changed her nickname to what it is today and continued to actively post on the app. “Bansanka,” which she wrote herself and which became her debut song, also made its first appearance on TikTok. First she shared just the chorus, then followed that up with a making-of video. The overwhelming response led her to start a YouTube channel two months later, in September, where she then released the music video. So why did she choose TikTok as her starting point? In an interview with “Billboard JAPAN,” tuki. gave some insight into that question.

―What kind of music do you usually put on as a listener?
tuki.: I don’t listen to any one artist so much. More often, I find myself listening to songs that pop up on TikTok and make me think, “Oh, this is nice!”

―You’ve been uploading videos to TikTok as well.
tuki.: Since I’m always on TikTok anyway, it was really only at a hobby level, but I thought, “Why not try posting a video?” I never imagined people would listen to me this much.

It’s a response fitting for someone who’s part of a generation accustomed to short-form content. tuki. continues to actively engage with her fans on TikTok, Instagram Live, and X (formerly Twitter). On March 31, the singer announced that she would be retiring the name tuki.(15) and be working under the name tuki.(16) from April 1. It’s a fun detail considering how, in Japan, the academic year begins in April.

From 15 to 16, from teen to adult
While staying true to her student singer image, tuki. seems to be embracing some changes since turning 16 and becoming a high school student this year. On January 8, tuki. released “15,” her first album. A major milestone for the singer, “15” is a compilation of songs she created until she was 15.

“Damashiai,” released on April 14, serves as the theme song for the Sunday night drama “News Anchor” on TBS, starring notable actors like Hiroshi Abe, Mei Nagano, and Shunsuke Michieda. The song marks the first time tuki. has provided a theme song for a TV series. Perhaps for that reason, rather than the acoustic sound she’s leaned into in the past, “Damashiai” is driven by a prominent, drum-heavy beat, evoking a more rock-driven vibe reminiscent of Kenshi Yonezu’s “Kanden.”

And tuki. contributed other songs for the show, too: the new track “Seimei” (released as a single on May 26) and “STRANGERZ” (released June 9). There was much attention paid to the fact that no one artist has ever contributed so many songs to the same drama. In “Damashiai,” tuki. sings, “In a world that’s nothing but a deception game / I need an eye / To discern what can be believed / Nothing in the future is fixed / Don’t betray this heart.” Compare that to “Seimei”: “This life that explodes / What is it desperately struggling to leave behind? / Because the memory of chasing after you / As I stepped on your shadow remains within me / I can’t completely let go of that small part of me.” The words show a more mature side of tuki. emerging. Unlike her earlier songs, which often played on a stark contrast between light and dark elements in a single track, her newer work leans toward a darker, heavier tone overall. In other words, her new songs feel less wrapped up in one person’s feelings and have become more refined, addressing more universal emotions and perspectives.

When an artist is as unique as tuki., you can’t help but wonder what kind of songs she might be looking to sing next. In an interview with Japanese entertainment webzine “Real Sound” last March, they asked tuki., “Assuming you continue with your singing career, do you have an ideal image in your mind of the kind of artist you’d like to be in a few years’ time?” “I just want to live an ordinary, peaceful life,” was her unexpected response. “I don’t really have an image of the ideal singer. … I’ve never even thought about wanting to be someone else.” Even after everything, she reiterated her goal to live a calm, quiet life. Still, she allowed herself some modest ambition: “I’d like to try performing live at least once. And I’d like to put out more songs someday.”
With more songs and a concert on the horizon, you really want to know what tuki.’s thinking, too. But one thing is certain: Even though she dreams of a quiet, peaceful life, her talent won’t let her off the hook that easily. We’ll continue to cheer for tuki., who, “like a lone whale,” is sure to keep navigating “uncharted territory” ahead.