Yukari Onishi, 41, is known as “the queen of Showa Era songs” in Japan, as this article from the Japan Times recounts. How and why she became a diva is told in a very revealing anecdote:

“I was living a happy life with no difficulty. If it hadn’t been for that day, I may have been living so even now.”

Onishi was referring to the fateful day 11 years ago when the [Kobe] earthquake struck. She tried to get into her husband’s futon so they could protect each other, but the husband shouted: “Get back under your own futon!” and rushed to his mother’s room to confirm her safety.

“From that point onward, I began to feel that we differed in what we felt was important in order to go on living, and I just couldn’t erase that feeling,” she said. Several years later, they divorced.

“I became alone in my mid-30s and realized what I really wanted to do,” Onishi said. She formed the Yukari Onishi and Shinsekai band and began to sing 1970s Japanese hits.