Miki Matsubara

About

Miki Matsubara (松原 みき, Matsubara Miki; 28 November 1959 – 7 October 2004) was a Japanese singer and songwriter. She contributed to the opening and ending theme songs of the anime Gu-Gu Ganmo under the name Suzie Matsubara. Her 1979 debut song “Mayonaka no Door (Stay With Me)” became a hit, reaching No. 28 on the Oricon chart.
Believing that her cancer diagnosis was the result of the lifestyle she lived during her career, Matsubara retired and severed all connections to the music world in 2000, dying from cervical cancer four years later at the age of 44. Since 2020, “Mayonaka no Door” has become widely known overseas due to its use on TikTok and the resurgence of the city pop genre.

Miki Matsubara was born 28 November 1959 in Kishiwada, Osaka. She spent her childhood in Hiraoka Town, an area of Nishi-ku in Sakai, Osaka. She grew up with her mother, father, and younger sister. Her mother was a jazz singer who sang with the jazz band and comedy group Crazy Cats, while her father was a board member of a hospital. Matsubara started learning the piano at the age of three and later became familiar with jazz. As a child, she went to Sakai’s Hiraoka Elementary School. In 1972…