Takako Matsu

On February 9, 2020, Matsu was called to join Idina Menzel, Aurora and eight more of Elsa's international dubbers to perform the song “Into the Unknown” during the 92nd Academy Awards. Every international performer sang one line of the song in a different language: Maria Lucia Heiberg Rosenberg in Danish, Willemijn Verkaik in German, Matsu in Japanese, Carmen Sarahí in Latin American Spanish, Lisa Stokke in Norwegian, Kasia Łaska in Polish, Anna Buturlina in Russian, Gisela in European Spanish and Gam Wichayanee in Thai.

On November 27, 2014, Matsu revealed on her official website that she was pregnant with her first child. On March 30, 2015, she gave birth to her daughter. She revealed on her website that the baby was 3466 grams.

Matsu was born into a traditional kabuki & buyō house, which produced famous actors and actresses, including her father Matsumoto Hakuō II, kabuki actor and head of the buyō house; her uncle Nakamura Kichiemon II, Kabuki performer and actor; her elder brother Matsumoto Kōshirō X, Kabuki performer and actor; her sister, six years her elder Kio Matsumoto, stage director and actress and her husband Kazuhisa Kawahara, actor. Her mother Noriko Fujima is a businesswoman. She married guitarist and record producer Yoshiyuki Sahashi on December 28, 2007, and her married name is now Takako Sahashi (佐橋隆子 , Sahashi Takako) . She also has the name of Natori (the accredited master) of the Matsumoto school of Nippon Buyō (Japanese dancing); Shodai Matsumoto Kōka (初代 松本 幸華 , "Kōka Matsumoto the First") .

In May 2007, Matsu kicked off her third concert tour to commemorate her tenth year as a singer.

In releasing her album Cherish you in 2007, the song "Ashita Haru ga Kitara" was redone to combine Matsu's voice as a 20-year-old with her current one.

In July 2006, Matsu and Kimura starred in a special one-night edition of Hero. In October 2006, Matsu was in a weekly drama for the first time in over three years titled Yakusha Damashii for Fuji TV alongside 73-year-old actor Makoto Fujita, a family friend.

In September, 2004, she released "Toki no Fune", which was composed by the Japanese singer Akeboshi. It is similar to his song, "A nine days' wonder", which was released after the "Toki no Fune" single. The single also contains a cover of Akeboshi's "White Reply" previously recorded on her sixth album, Harvest Songs.

In late 2004, she won the Best Actress of the Year of the 29th Hochi Film Award and the 28th Japan Academy Prize at the same time for The Hidden Blade.

In 2001, she starred in Hero with Takuya Kimura again. In 2003, she has also published a photo essay book, Matsu no Hitorigoto, through Asahi Shimbun Publishers. In 2004 she was Kim in Miss Saigon.

In 1997, she debuted with the single "Ashita, Haru ga Kitara". She appeared on NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen again as a singer on the last day of the year. In an interview with NHK in 2007, Matsu recalled the incident that triggered her musical debut. At the wrap-up ceremony of the drama, Matsu sang karaoke which was heard by its director who suggested that she give singing a try. Although she refused at first, as she was not confident enough in her singing, Matsu eventually accepted because she saw it as "[a] chance that not everyone got". In the same year, she starred opposite Takuya Kimura in the drama Love Generation, in which she played a lead role with Takuya Kimura.

In 1996, she appeared on the drama Long Vacation starring Takuya Kimura of SMAP, following matriculating to college. She was a supporting role, but, began to establish in full-scale her position as an actress because the drama was a major hit. In the same year, she hosted the 47th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen at the age of 19, making her the youngest ever to host the show.

Takako debuted in theater when she was sixteen years old, in Ninjō-banashi: Bunshichi Mottoi at Tokyo Kabuki-za in 1993. Her first lead role in television was in the NHK Drama Hana no Ran (Child's part) in 1994, and she also starred in NHK Drama Kura in 1995. Because Shirayuri Gakuen, her high school, prohibited working in the entertainment industry, she transferred to Horikoshi High School.

Takako Matsu (松 たか子 , Matsu Takako) , born Takako Fujima (藤間 隆子 , Fujima Takako) , on June 10, 1977, is a Japanese actress and pop singer/songwriter.