CHAGE & ASKA

or Chage and Asuka are a Japanese popular music duo composed of two singer-songwriters from Fukuoka Prefecture, (b.January 6, 1958) and (b. February 24, 1958). To date they have sold over 31 million albums and singles in Japan.

They were formed in the late 1970s at the suggestion of the A&R division of the Yamaha Music Foundation. After the hit single "Banri no Kawa" in 1980, they produced several smash hits irregularly throughout the 1980s. However, thanks to Aska's hit solo single "Hajimari ha Itsumo Ame" in 1991, and several powerful tieups with TV programs, their popularity peaked during the first half of the 1990s. In those days, they released five million-selling hits: "Say Yes" and "Yah Yah Yah", "If", "Heart", "Meguri Ai". Two of those — "Say Yes" and "Yah Yah Yah" — each sold over two million copies. Their most well-known "Say Yes", released in 1991, is the sixth best-selling single in Japanese Oricon charts history.

They attempted to spread their market worldwide, especially to the United States. Yamaha released a compilation of cover versions by Western artists (Maxi Priest featuring Shaggy, Lisa Stansfield, Chaka Khan, Michael Hutchence, Alejandro Sanz, Cathy Dennis, Apache Indian, Boy George, Richard Marx, Londonbeat, Marianne Faithfull, and Wendy Matthews).

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