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27-Year-Old Canadian Wins Animax's Singing Contest (Updated)

Catherine St. Onge, a 27-year-old Canadian living in Tokyo, has won the 2nd All-Japan Anison Grand Prix singing contest on Sunday. Jupiter Telecommunications and the Animax anime television channel run this nationwide audition to find "next generation artists" to sing anime theme songs. St. Onge earns a chance to make her professional debut with a theme song to an Animax anime project next year. Shintarō Tokita of the J-pop duo Sukima Switch (Tokyo Marble Chocolate) will produce the song.

The winner of last year's 1st All-Japan Anison Grand Prix, Shuhei Kita, debuted in March with "Breakin' Through," the first opening theme song to the Persona -trinity soul- anime series. The song debuted at #26 on the Oricon ranking chart for CD singles. Kita has since sung the "Issei no Sei" opening theme for the ongoing Natsume Yūjin-Chō anime series.

3,186 entrants (up from 1,792 last year) auditioned at this year's preliminary rounds in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo. The 11 finalists (including one singing duo) competed at Tokyo's JCB Hall this past weekend. Animax will televise the "2nd All-Japan Anison Grand Prix Special" to mark its 10th anniversary on November 16. The special will feature live performances by contest judge and veteran anime theme singer Ichirō Mizuki (Mazinger Z, Captain Harlock), the idol group AKB48 (Deltora Quest), Akira Kushida (Xabungle, Nurse Witch Komugi), Nana Kitade (Fullmetal Alchemist, D.Gray-man), last year's winner Kita, and others.

Source: animeanime.jp

Update: St. Onge was the Karaoke Contest's first-place winner at Anime Expo 2002 and a Judge's Choice Award winner at Anime Expo 2004.

Update 2: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, Yahoo! News Japan's republishing of Mainichi Shimbun's article, and Animax's own blog have additional coverage and images. Thanks, Serena El-Farra.