Erika Sawajiri's new single, "FREE," sold only about 50,000 copies during its initial week, but it was enough to reach #1 on the singles chart against little competition.

This is Sawajiri's first release under her new artist name ERIKA, but she already has another #1 release under her belt - last year, she sang "Taiyou no Uta" as the character Kaoru Amane in the drama of the same name.

With her new song, Sawajiri has become only the second solo female artist in Oricon's ranking history to achieve #1 with her first two singles (not counting artists who made solo debuts after being part of a group). The only other woman to do this was Hiroko Yakushimaru in the early '80s.