Thelma Aoyama (青山テルマ), born on October 27, 1987 in Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan is a Japanese pop and R&B singer. She is part Afro-Trinidadian and Japanese. She is famous for her collaboration song with SoulJa, "Koko ni Iru yo", and her answer song "Soba ni Iru ne". In September 2008, the Guinness World Records certified that "Soba ni Iru ne" became the best-selling digital download single in Japan with over two million "full-track" downloads (Chaku Uta Full). However, the record of the Guinness World Records was replaced by Greeeen's song "Kiseki" in June of 2009. Including various forms of digital downloads, it sold over 8.7 million downloads by November 2008. Both of the songs are similar, and both share the same chorus. However, the song "Soba ni Iru ne" proved to be more popular than the song "Koko ni Iru yo", debuting at #3 in its first week on the Oricon charts, and in its second week, reaching #1 on the charts. "Soba ni Iru ne" stayed in the Top 5 ranking for 7 consecutive weeks. It became the highest-selling female single (strictly a duet song) on the Oricon 2008 yearly charts When she was ten years old when she began to sing and discovered gospel music. She spent six years at Osaka International School as an elementary school student. At age 12, her family moved to Torrance, California, and she attended Calle Mayor Middle School. She lived there for two years. She returned to Japan in the winter of 2002. Her family moved to Tokyo; this time moving to Tokyo where she attended the American School in Japan and received voice training. Currently, Aoyama is studying at Sophia University in Tokyo. Aoyama's first release in the music industry was a collaboration single with DS455 in June 2007, which broke the top fifty. She debuted with ONE WAY three months later, which peaked in the top one hundred of the Oricon chart. A few weeks later she was featured on a single by SoulJa called ここにいるよ feat. 青山テルマ. The single was a long charting hit despite only reaching #6. It has sold over 100,000 copies. Her debut album, Diary, was released in Japan on March 26, 2008. And released a concert album and DVD titled: Aoyama Thelma Tour 2009 "Diary" Party Party: Thelma Remix is a remix album by Japanese Pop/R&B singer Thelma Aoyama. It was released on December 10, 2008. On February 11, 2009, she released album Love!: Thelma Love Song Collection, which debuted at the number-one position on the Oricon weekly charts. Emotions is Thelma Aoyama's second studio album, and her third album overall. It was released on September 9, 2009. In late December, it was announced that Aoyama collaborated with Big Bang's Taeyang for her single, "Fall in Love", which was released on January 27, 2010. In early February, right after the release of her new single "Fall in Love", Aoyama announced on her official blog that she released a single called "Kaeru Basho" that was out on March 3, 2010.The first song called "Kaeru basho" is the ending song in the movie Doraemon: Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King. This single features SoulJa, once again, as they have before with Soba ni Iru ne and has a B side called "Anata ga Kiechaisode".
