Origa — singer-songwriter with roots in the USSR
Origa was born Olga Vitalyevna Yakovleva on 12 October 1970 in Kochenyovo, a small urban village about fifty kilometres west of Novosibirsk, in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. From 1986 to 1990 she studied at the Novosibirsk Music College, taking part in festivals and competitions and developing her own style as a popular singer.
After graduating she visited Japan in 1991, arriving in Sapporo on a home-stay exchange programme, and the same year released her first album, Olga. In 1993 she signed with the Tokyo agency Road & Sky Organization and moved to Tokyo, where she lived until 2011; she made her major-label debut in Japan with EMI Music Japan in 1995. She took part in projects including a Radio Japan series and sang in the chorus of a charity single for victims of the Kobe earthquake. Over her career she released seven solo albums, two mini-albums and three singles.
Her collaboration with the composer Yoko Kanno began with the anime series Turn A Gundam, for which she sang Gabriela Robin's song Moon with a chorus. After a long break following the birth of her child, in 2003 she recorded the vocals and lyrics of Inner Universe, the opening theme of Kanno's soundtrack for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The song brought her an international audience among anime fans. She also sang Rise, the opening of the second season, 2nd GIG, and in 2006 the opening song Player and the closing theme Date of Rebirth for the film Solid State Society. She performed theme songs for other anime, including Fantastic Children and Princess Arete, the hymn voice of the character Kanon in the game Ar nosurge, and from 2008 sang as lead vocalist in projects with the guitarist Sugizo.
In 2011 she moved to Vancouver, continuing to record and perform in Japan and appearing as a guest at anime conventions in North America and Europe, among them Anime Boston and Anime Revolution in 2013 and 2014. She had just completed work on a new album in Tokyo when she died in Japan on 17 January 2015, aged forty-four.
"Came to Sapporo as an exchange student in 1991; lived in Tokyo from 1993 to 2011, then in Vancouver while continuing to work in Japan."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Kochenyovo, Novosibirsk Oblast (Russian SFSR, USSR)
Born Olga Yakovleva in 1970 in Kochenyovo, near Novosibirsk, she studied at the Novosibirsk Music College, came to Japan on an exchange in 1991 and built her career there.
Kochenyovo, Novosibirsk Oblast (Russian SFSR, USSR). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.