Lisa Ono

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Lisa Ono in 2005.

Lisa Ono (小野リサ, Ono Risa) is a popular Japanese bossa nova singer. She was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1962 but moved with her family to Tokyo at the age of 10. From that time on she spent half of every year in Japan, and half in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Although she lived in Brazil for such a short time, she was turned into a type of MPB (Brazil Popular Music) ambassador in Japan, influenced by her father, who owned a club while living in Brazil, and was also Baden Powell de Aquino's agent.

After moving to Japan, Lisa's dad opened a new venue called Saci-Pererê, a Brazilian restaurant where she started performing mainly bossa nova and samba. Besides singing, Lisa Ono plays the guitar and is a songwriter. Her first album, Catupiry, was released in 1989. She hasn't stopped recording since then, releasing one disc a year, mostly in Portuguese. She soon became famous in Japan after appearing in several TV commercials.

In 1991 her album Nanã won the "Grand Prix Gold Disk Award for Jazz" in Japan. Her third album Menina was recorded in Rio, and won the same Grand Prix award. In 2003 she released an album entitled Dans Mon Île (French for "In my island"), themed around a voyage to France and based on famous French songs.

Lisa announced the birth of her second child (a boy) on October 7, 2004.

Lisa has performed with Tom Jobim and with João Donato in Brazil, in addition to other performances around the world. Appearances in Japan include concerts at the Blue Note Tokyo with Paulo and Daniel Jobim, Toninho Horta, and Emílio Santiago.

In addition to making guest appearances on other recordings, Lisa has also created music for television commercials in Japan.