The last voice some people in Japan hear before they die is the Metal Gear Solid singer. Donna Burke is famous for her work in Hideo Kojima’s games, but her career reaches far beyond that.

The bond between Hideo Kojima’s video games and music is legendary. Every time fans dive into one of his works—like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach—they’re struck by how music shapes the story’s atmosphere. This goes all the way back to earlier titles: think the walkman feature in Metal Gear Solid V or iconic tracks like Snake Eater and Peace Walker.

It’s not just the composers, Harry Gregson Williams and Ludvig Forssell, who deserve the spotlight; the vocalists matter just as much. Among them, Donna Burke stands out: she lent her voice to Heavens Divide in Peace Walker and Sins of the Father in MGSV, and she’s the iDroid in both Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain. She’s performed these songs at the Metal Gear in Concert shows, gracing venues like London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Donna Burke, an Australian-born singer and voice actor, has lived in Japan since 1996. Beyond Metal Gear, she voiced Angela Orosco in Silent Hill 2, narrated Final Fantasy Chronicles in English, and appeared in Boktai—another Hideo Kojima project. Yet her voice is familiar across Japan, even to those who never played a game.

“You might hear my voice just before you die”

Donna Burke is the English voice on Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains, a job she’s held for twenty years—meaning her voice is recognized by millions, with some 400,000 commuters hearing her daily. “They wanted someone who had lived in Japan for a long time and had a British accent,” she told The Japan Times, but the key was to match the style of the previous announcer.

That’s not her only iconic gig: Burke also voices Japan’s earthquake warning announcements in English. “You might hear my voice just before you die,” she once joked to theworld.org, referencing Japan’s 1,500-plus earthquakes per year. The last major one struck on New Year’s 2024, claiming 215 lives.

After moving to Tokyo, Burke first worked as an English teacher, but her earliest odd job was singing at funerals—a bizarre coincidence, considering her future work. Friend and fellow voice actor Chris Wells says her gaming roles gave her a rare kind of fame: “She has fans in a way most narrators never do. When she speaks at conferences or performs, people line up to see her.”

Donna Burke doesn’t appear in Kojima’s latest title, Death Stranding, but for Metal Gear fans, her voice is iconic—forever linked to the series’ most memorable moments.

Source: 3djuegos