Fans to Idols
October 28, 2005
In the ever-changing anime convention culture, where someone’s idea of entertainment may be hit-or-miss, Geneon Entertainment USA came upon a way to produce a celebrity out of the legions of anime fans when they started teaming up with Anime Expo in Southern California in July 2004 for the first-ever AX Idol competition.
Fans that have always wanted to try their hand at singing music from Japanese animation get to audition in front of their peers for the title of AX Idol and the chance to win a recording deal with Geneon Music and/or an English voice role in a future Geneon Entertainment anime release.
Stephanie Yanez is the 2004 winner of AX Idol and the featured voice on Geneon’s Anime Karaoke Collection Volume 1 CD. At a young age, she aspired to be a professional singer, being exposed to a broad spectrum of music including jazz, R&B, punk and hip hop by her mother. She also appreciated Japanese animation at a very young age, when she saw Unico, and later Sailor Moon on syndicated television and Samurai Champloo, currently airing on Cartoon Network. While studying music in college, she also pursued her anime passion, and at an early 2000 Anime Expo in Long Beach, California, she was first introduced to cosplay and the anime karaoke scene.
Yanez lost her first anime karaoke contest, but she had the perseverance to perfect her sound and entered more karaoke contests as a group and eventually on her own, eventually winning first place at the karaoke contest at Pacific Media Expo 2004. Her rise to fame in the anime community began when she wowed the crowd at Anime Expo that same year with her rendition of the Chobits theme “Ningyo Hime” (Mermaid Princess) and won the AX Idol music competition.
After winning the competition, she worked tirelessly to produce four tracks on the Karaoke Collection CD, some of which were exclusive tracks recorded with well-known Japanese music producers I’VE, where she made friends with Kotoko, I’VE’s featured artist, whose song “Wing My Way” is also featured on the CD as Anime Expo 2005’s official theme song. Her next performance will be at the third annual Japantown Anime Faire in San Francisco, December 17-18.
For more information on Stephanie, visit www.steph-idol.com or MySpace.com at www.myspace.com/stephmusic. For more information about the AX Idol program, visit the Anime Expo website at www.anime-expo.org.
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