Biography
Yoyoka Soma is a musician from from Ishikari, Japan. Soma is best known for her skills as a drummer, but she is also a vocalist and a writer. Her parents, Akifumi and Rie Soma are both professional musicians. At the age of two, Yoyoka picked up a set of drum sticks and has never put them down since. She is considered one of the best female drummers in the world under twenty one years old. In 2018, at age 8, she gained international attention for an online video in which she covered Led Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times", which was uploaded to Vimeo as her entry for the 2018 Hit Like a Girl contest. Many people believe that she won the 2018 HLAG contest. She won a weekly contest but the yearly contest went to another Japanese female drummer. Yoyoka has maintained her contact with the HLAG organization and is currently a contest judge and is listed as ambassador to the HLAG organization. As of October 2019, the video has 3.2 million views.
Soma started drumming at age 2 and performing in concerts by age 4. Her drumming skills are self taught. She participated in her family band as an associate member until her fifth birthday. In 2015, she began playing in her family's band, Kaneaiyoyoka, with her parents, Akifumi and Rie Soma where she was subsequently listed as a full time band member. John Bonham, Chris Coleman, Dave Ghrol and Benny Greb are among her favorite drummers. She plays other instruments such as bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, xylophone and percussion.
Soma has cut three musical albums where she has drummed, sang and written a number of the tracks on each album. She has written theme songs for Japanese TV shows. In addition to her two professional websites, she has two youtube channels. One channel is for covers she drums to of conventional and popular rock songs. Her other channel is more of a social awareness channel on various topics including hosting a radio channel
She has appeared twice on the American television talk show Ellen and in advertisements for sports apparel maker Nike, Italian luxury fashion brand Moncler, a Lego documentary, a Nissan commercial, a Sapphoro beverage commercial and Japanese casual wear designer uniqlo. She has been on Japanese TV numerous times both as a musician and as a guest interviewee. Her online videos have been viewed over 31 million times.
Soma, at the time of this writing (2020), is currently in fifth grade. She is learning English and maintains her standing in her family band by performing in weddings, at bars and various functions, in addition to maintaining passing grades at school. She is also a studio drummer and a session drummer, drumming with other professional musicians and established musical groups such as Cyndi Lauper, Fall Out Boy, Char and select performers. She also is a guest performer at fashion shows like the Tokyo Girls Collection.
