You may or may not remember when I posted my rather rambling Artist Spotlight about Bonnie Pink back in 2016…or my even more rambling one in 2017. But you are probably more likely to remember her from whenever I post her song for Birthday Girl for birthday girls. Well, today, Bonnie Pink herself is the birthday girl. Happy 50th birthday.

Asada Kaori started releasing music in 1995 under the moniker Bonnie Pink. “Scarecrow” is the first song from her debut album, Blue Jam.

By 1999, Bonnie Pink had settled into using a softer vocal style in her studio albums. And while her musical style was kind of varied from the start, it did gradually change over the years. Some of her songs had been used for intros and end credits for anime shows, but she was probably best known for a remix of the song A Perfect Sky from her 2007 album Thinking Out Loud.

2012’s Chasing Hope was Bonnie Pink’s last album. She would release a couple of songs after that, with the last one being in 2016. Other than collaborations, though, she had not really released anything herself…until last year…just over a decade after the release of Chasing Hope. I felt that that was deliberate. It is called Elegy.

At first I had wondered if this meant the end, but she released another song called “Like a Tattoo” ten days ago, and no, it is not a cover of the Jordin Sparks song. In any case, happy birthday to the birthday girl.