Japanese Breakfast is the solo project of South Korean singer Michelle Zauner. Born in 1989 in Seoul to a Korean mother and an American father, she moved to the United States with her parents when she was nine months old and grew up in Eugene, Oregon.
Under the labels experimental pop, lo-fi, indie pop and dream pop, Japanese Breakfast's music gained space in the independent scene from the 2010s onwards.
However, before this project, Zauner led a band called Little Big League, formed in 2011 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Little Big League released two albums, These Are Good People (2013) and Tropical Jinx (2014).
In 2014, she left the band to move to Eugene to take care of her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. After her mother's death, Zauner dedicated herself to Japanese Breakfast. Her debut album, Psychopomp, was released in 2016. The cover of that album features a photograph of Zauner’s mother, left, with a friend in Seoul when she was in her twenties.
Japanese Breakfast followed with Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) and Jubilee (2021), a work that earned the artist two nominations at the 64th Grammy Awards—Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album. Upon its release, Jubilee debuted at number seven on the Independent Albums chart.
The loss of her mother and her Korean heritage are central themes of Crying in H Mart, a memoir that Zauner released in 2021, before Jubilee.
Japanese Breakfast returned with a new album in 2025, when she released For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women).
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