Nobuo Uematsu

Nobuo Uematsu (植松 伸夫) is a prolific composer of video game music, most well known for his work on the Final Fantasy series

Biography
Nobuo Uematsu was born on March 21, 1959 in Kochi City, Japan. He started play music at the age of twelve when, inspired by Elton John, he taught himself how to play the piano. He started his professional career writing music for commercials after graduating from Kanagawa University. He joined Square Co., Ltd in 1986 and began composing music for video games. He parted ways with Square, now Square Enix Co., Ltd, in 2004. For those eighteen years Uematsu composed the music for over thirty games including, most notably the Final Fantasy series, the SaGa series, and some of Chrono Trigger. In 2004 Uematsu founded Smile Please, Ltd. and still composes video game music, as well as organizes live performances of his work.

In addition to writing video game music, Uematsu has also written the theme song for the anime, "Oh My Goddess!" and for top Japanese singers Emiko Shiratori and Rikki. He also has written a column for Weekly Famitsu magazine called "Nobuo Uematsu no Minna Sounano?" for several years.

It should be noted that the Final Fantasy VIII theme song, "Eyes on Me", which he wrote and produced for Hong Kong pop diva Faye Wong sold a record breaking 400,000 copies. It also won "Song of the Year (Western Music)" at the 14th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards in 1999. This was the first time a song from a video game ever won the honor. He also received the honor of being named an "innovator" in Time Magazine's "Time 100: The Next Wave - Music".

Uematsu's Final Fantasy compositions were first performed live in 2003 by his own band, The Black Mages at the GC Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. Since then, his music was featured in the 2004 tour entitled "Tour de Japon: Music of Final Fantasy" which built upon the success of "20020220: Music from Final Fantasy" album. An American tour followed called "DEAR Friends: Music of Final Fantasy". Most recently his music was performed at "VOICES: Music of Final Fantasy" which occured in 2006 at the Pacifico Yokohama Conference and convention center. This performance was dedicated to Final Fantasy music that features vocal elements. He has confirmed his participation and wrote the opening song to the upcoming "PLAY! A Video Game Symphony" which will tour the world in 2006.

Uematsu's style can only be described as eclectic. From pop to opera to metal Uematsu seems to have done it all. He has done much to establish video games as true art and is the most recognized name in video game music today.