Nakoma Saya (名駒沙耶), formerly known as Cherry, is a Japanese idol best known for being the longest lived member of SMXS' MEow. She left the group on 2022, and has since joined Crowne Entertainment. She's said to be preparing her solo debut.
History[]
Pre-debut[]
Saya was born on Yokohama, but when she was only a few months old her parents moved to Tokio. She had a very normal life until only two months after turning 10, when an SMXS Japan recruiter offered her a place in the company on the street, and she accepted without thinking too much of it.
Saya trained on SMXS's Tokio headquarters for half a year before finding out she was actually supposed to pay the training time. Her parents were struggling economically at the time and couldn't afford the fees SMXS required, so she was forced to stay on the training program until she was able to debut and pay the debt with work time.
2008-2011: Debut with Plushie[]
After over 2 years of training, Saya was added to the lineup of Plushie, a kid-focused girl group with a rotation system. Since she was the oldest member, not a lot of opportunities were given out to her through this project. Her debut under the group was on January of 2009, and that was the first and only time she actually promoted as a Plushie member until officially leaving the group on 2011. Through all of that, she was still training, which meant the debt got bigger every month, and she wasn't making any money to pay it off. The same day she turned 15 an invitation was given to her: If she left Japan and moved to Korea, she'd be able to debut with SMXS' new girl group and promote with them permanently, allowing her to cover the debt. Since there was no other option, on May of 2011 Saya and her father moved to Seoul, leaving her mother behind, althought she'd end up moving with them on November of the same year.
2012: Debut and career with MEow[]
A whole year after moving to Korea, Saya finally debuted with MEow on April 2012, but the group had almost no impact, and the members started leaving not even a month after debuting. Regardless of this, Saya knew she couldn't leave for contract reasons, since, if she left the group she'd have to leave the company as well and pay the training debt acordingly, which she had no chance of doing.
Saya was practically forced to stay with MEow during all of it's cotroversies and complications. Out of the 6 original members, she was the only one to stay in the group after 2016. She saw more than 20 members join and leave the group, and even became the leader after the previous one left.
Her life was heavily shook on 2019, when her original 7-year contract came to an end but she had to renew it due to not having fully covered her debts. At the same time, her parents had to move back to Japan, and leave her alone in Korea.
After staying with SMXS all the way to MEow's 10 year anniversary she bound up winning a lawsuit, which finally allowed her to finish the contract peacefully and leave the company, releasing her of any debt with it.
2023-present: New begginings[]
After leaving SMXS, Saya decided to stay in Korea to pursue her dream of becoming an actual artist, since, during her whole MEow era, she wasn't allowed to write, produce or choreograph anything at all. She signed a contract with Crowne Entertainment on October 2023, and has reportedly been preparing her solo debut since March 2024.
Saya debuted with the single album U&I and it's double titletracks on September 3, 2024.
Discography[]
| Title | Details | Tracklist | Release | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U&I
|
Single Album |
|
|
September 3, 2024 |
In The Darkest Room, Every Spark Is A Bonfire
|
Digital Single |
|
|
November 27, 2024 |
