Portamento (plural: portamenti, a noun meaning literally "carriage" or "carrying") is a musical term originated from the Italian expression "portamento della voce" (carriage of the voice), denoting from the beginning of the 17th century a vocal slide between two pitches and its emulation by members of the violin family and certain wind instruments, and is sometimes used interchangeably with anticipation. It is also applied to one type of glissando as well as to the "glide" function of synthesizers. (see main article glissando).

In the first example, Rodolfo's first aria in La Sonnambula (1831), the portamento is indicated by the slur between the 3rd and 4th notes. The second example, Judit's first line in Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1912), employs a more explicit notation; it is unusual in that the termination of the slide (shown as a grace note) is not the same pitch of as the following note.^{[citation needed]} Portamento may of course also be used for descending intervals.

Although portamento continued to be widely used in popular music, it was disapproved of for operatic singing by many critics in the 1920s and 1930s as a sign of either poor technique, or of bad taste, a mark of cheap sentimentalism or showiness. This of course is not valid criticism of a performer when portamento is explicitly specified in the score or is otherwise appropriate. However, when there is no such specification, the singer is expected to be able to move crisply from note to note without any slurring or "scooping".

Mami Kawada (川田まみ, Kawada Mami^?, born February 13) is a Japanese pop singer from Sapporo, Japan who is currently signed to Geneon Entertainment. She is a member of the I've Sound who performs soundtracks for eroge games and anime. Some of her music was used as the opening or ending themes for anime series such as Please Teacher!, Please Twins!, Starship Operators, Shakugan no Shana, Baldr Force EXE Resolution OVA and Hayate the Combat Butler. Her debut single "Radiance", released on February 23, 2005, was used as the opening theme for the anime Starship Operators. Her most successful single was "Joint," released on October 31, 2007, and used as the first opening theme for the sequel of Shakugan no Shana, Shakugan no Shana II.

Mami Kawada's vocal talent was first discovered by Eiko Shimamiya, who was her teacher at a vocal school in Sapporo, Hokkaido. She was introduced to I've Sound, a music production group whom Shimamiya was a member of. Kawada would later become a member of I've Sound. In 2001, she released her debut song with I've Sound was "Kaze to Kimi wo Daite" (風と君を抱いて^?), which was the opening theme for the eroge miss you. The song was featured in the I've Sound's 5th Compilation Album Out Flow.