Ado

Ado is a Tokyo-born singer and utaite who emerged from Japan’s online cover-song scene to become one of the country’s biggest international artists. She began uploading covers in 2017 and made her major debut at 17 with ‘Usseewa’ in 2020. The song became a huge hit in Japan and introduced the vocal style that has become central to her music, shifting from whispers and deep growls to screams and rapid-fire delivery. Ado has remained visually anonymous throughout her career, usually performing in silhouette and using illustrated characters in place of a public-facing image.

Her debut album, ‘Kyougen’, arrived in 2022, the same year she reached a wider audience as the singing voice of Uta in One Piece Film: Red. Songs including ‘New Genesis’, ‘Backlight’, and ‘Fleeting Lullaby’ joined a catalogue that already included ‘Gira Gira’ and ‘Odo’. Her music has moved freely through Vocaloid-influenced pop, electronic music, rock, rap, and heavier experimental territory, with collaborators including Giga, TeddyLoid, Yasutaka Nakata, Vaundy, natori, MARETU, and Kikuo. Her second original album, ‘Zanmu’, followed in 2024, with the 40-track ‘Ado’s Best Adobum’ marking five years since her major debut in 2025.

Ado’s live career has grown just as quickly. Her first world tour, ‘Wish’, travelled across Asia, Europe, and the United States in 2024, including a sold-out UK debut at London’s Troxy. Weeks later, she became the first female solo artist to headline Japan’s National Stadium, performing to more than 140,000 people across two nights. She returned overseas in 2025 with ‘Hibana’, a 33-city world tour across five continents that drew more than 500,000 fans and included a sold-out show at The O2 in London.

Ado has also moved into artist production with the horror-inspired idol group Phantom Siita. In 2026, she signed with WME for representation outside Japan, performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago, and headlined SUMMER SONIC in Japan. Despite the increasingly large stages, her roots in utaite and Vocaloid culture are still easy to trace. Her career has been built around the strength and versatility of her voice, with her identity kept deliberately out of view.