Ikuta Lilas (幾田りら), also known as ikura, is a singer-songwriter, a member of YOASOBI, and former member of PLUSONICA.
She’s a 4th generation member of the LESSON, a free program by Sony Music Japan, that bases on their experience of sending craftsmen out into the world, and they draw out every understudy’s true capacity and give them a thorough lesson on how to become an artist.
In 2015, Ikuta took part in the artist section of the TOKYO GIRLS AUDITION and progressed to the third screening. She was additionally a finalist in “SINGIN’JAPAN” sponsored by Sony Music.
In January and February 2016, she participated in the new artist training course “the LESSON” sponsored by Sony Music as a fourth-year student. She delivered her first demo album 15 no Omoi on August 26th.
In July 2017, Ikuta joined the acoustic session unit PLUSONICA. In the unit, she was in charge of vocals, guitar, trumpet, and keyboard.
She appeared on TV Asahi’s music variety show Konya, Tanjou! Ongaku Champ on February 4, 2018. She held a live concert on April 21st, and released her first mini-album Rerise only at the live venue. She passed her college entrance exams from September to October and entered college in April 2019.
On July 2, 2019, the TV commercial of Tokyo Kaijou Nichidou Anshin Seimei Hoken, in which she covered Sukima Switch’s “Zenryoku Shounen”, started airing. In November, she formed YOASOBI, a unit that “makes novels into music” with Ayase of Vocaloid-P, and is in charge of vocals under the name of “ikura”. The unit’s first single “Yoru ni Kakeru” released the following month, and its music video recorded a cumulative total of 100 million views. On November 16th, the one-man live “bouquet” was held at Harajuku STROBECAFE, and her second mini-album Jukebox was released only at the live venue. The music video for Ikuta singing “Love in Color” was released December 15th on the official YouTube channel of the camera app SNOW.
The nationwide distribution of Jukebox started on March 11, 2020. She appeared on TV Asahi’s Kan Jam Kanzen Nen SHOW on August 16th. Ikuta was selected to perform the Japanese version of the end credit song “Rocket to the Moon ~Shinjita Sekai e~” for the Netflix film Over the Moon directed by Glen Keane. She delivered a limited one-man recording LIVE at the “Online Wakasugi Matsuri” of Nippon Kougyou Daigaku on November 14th. She made her first appearance at the end of the year program NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen as a member of YOASOBI on December 31st.
Ikuta’s song “Romance no Yakusoku” was used as the theme of the 2021 reality program Kyou, Suki ni Narimashita. Himawari-hen. On August 13, 2021, she graduated from PLUSONICA, which she belonged to for four and a half years.
