Though she was competing against more than 3,000 aspiring artists, it was the charming Quebecoise’s singing, emotional expression, and mastery of Japanese lyrics that blew away the judges.

For the uninitiated, anison is short for “anime song” and refers to the piece of music that airs either at the beginning or end of an anime series. There are various types of anime songs, and stylistically the lines are often blurred between pop and anison. The main difference, according to the charming Canadian, is the connection viewers (or listeners) have with the song because of their devotion to the series or its characters – “you listen to the song all the time; you get attached to it.”

So how does a self-proclaimed “typical” girl from Quebec become an award-winning songstress in Japan? It’s a tale that spans several years and continents, featuring a shy but determined heroine.

As we sit down to chat at the Sony music headquarters with her manager, Himeka comes across as a sweet girl who’s still in a state of shock about everything that’s happened to her. Figuring out how to separate her artistic persona from her true self seems to be one of her biggest challenges, so she prefers not to delve too deeply into her past, revealing just a few details of her early life.

The name Himeka is not the one she was given by her parents, but her own invention. It belongs to a character in a story she wrote as a teenager. In the tale, this goddess-like woman gave strength and inspiration to other people, and this powerful character also became a motivational figure for the aspiring artist herself. Finding inner strength and determination seems to be one of the defining patterns of the real Himeka’s life. She alludes to the fact that her living situation was less than ideal, and that she had to work extremely hard to bring herself to Japan, enduring tedious factory jobs and forgoing university. Though some of these decisions were out of her hands, she never gives the impression that she’s bitter or remorseful about her past, just that she’d prefer to focus on the future.