Ayumi Hamasaki

Name: Ayumi Hamasaki
Birthday: 2nd October 1978
Star sign: Libra
Place of Birth: Fukuoka
Blood type: A
Height: 5'1" (156cm)
(B/W/H): 31/20.5/32 (80/53/82)
Weight: 88lbs (40Kg)
Producer: Max Matsuura
Record Label: Avex Trax
Interests: watching baseball and music.
Talents: Playing piano, flower arranging, drawing, ballet, can write with left and right hands.
Favorite Food: sashimi, Sweets, cake, chocolate, and kimichi.
About Music: I listened to rock (Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple) through the influence of my older brother. Now I enjoy listening to black music like Babyface, En Vogue, etc.
Disliked Food: Pig leg.
Favorite Actors: Rie Miyazawa, and Nicolas Cage.
Favorite Authors: Natsuki Gin'iro, Mitsuwo Aida.
Admired Women: Keiko (Globe), Rie Miyazawa, Seiko Matsuda
Favorite Books: usually buy fashion magazines, etc. Modern-day translations of ancient Japanese poems (Manyoushuu) are especially interesting. Silver summer life works, Mitsuo Aida works, etc.
Favorite Singers: Keiko (Globe), Matsu Takako.
Favorite Movies: "The Bodyguard", "Betty Blue", and "Leaving Las Vegas"
Likes Collecting: Any white decorative things for the room.
People she respects: Someone that has a quality she doesn't.
People she dislikes: People who lie, and rude people.

Take a look at the Japanese pop music charts almost any day of the year and you’re guaranteed to find at least one if not more Hamasaki Ayumi singles and/or albums in the Top 20. She’s one of a handful of young female superstars dominating the world of J-Pop with a string of smash hits. Fans snap up copies of every release as soon as it hits store shelves--from her debut single "Poker Face" to her most recent video release "Vogue Far away Seasons" everything she touches is gold.



Like other Japanese divas, Hamasaki achieved success as an entertainer at a young age. Though still not 22 years old yet, she has already released 16 best-selling singles and 7 smash hit albums, as well as accompanying posters, photo albums, and videos. Capitalizing on the growing popularity of Japanese pop culture throughout Asia and around the world, Hamasaki has made her name a familiar one to non-Japanese as well.

Though insisting that she was shy and insecure as a girl, Hamasaki loves the spotlight these days, appearing frequently on music programs like Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ to perform her latest hits and banter with the hosts and other performers. Every time she takes the stage sporting a new haircut and fashion style, the young girls and women in the audience shriek Kawaii! (cute!) as they take mental notes on how to spruce up their wardrobe with trademark Hamasaki items, like her cowboy hat.

Hamasaki is often compared with Suzuki Ami, one of Japan’s other current pop darlings. Both women came to the forefront of the J-Pop scene at about the time, are roughly the same age, and sing the same type of songs. The Japanese media has made much of the similarities, hinting that there is a rivalry between the two women, but Hamasaki brushes aside such speculation, saying that the two of them are, in fact, friends.

Hamasaki’s star is still rising so we can expect to see more singles, albums, and videos from her in the years to come. We will even see her flex her acting muscles in future TV dramas and movies. Stay tuned as the best is yet to come!

*asiaFinest.com*


Ayumi Hamasaki-Misunderstood

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Yui

Yui, stylized as YUI, (born March 26, 1987) is a Japanese Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, composer, actress, and radio personality. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she played live at various locations in her home town before being noticed by Sony Music Japan when she was 17 and released her debut single months later. However her singles were only met with moderate success until her breakout "Good-bye Days", which charted for 44 weeks on Oricon and marked her as one of the Japanese music industry's rising stars.

Since her debut album, From Me to You, each of her albums has topped the charts, and has had at least one single reach number one yearly since 2007, including five straight from mid-2008 to late-2010.

She is popular in Japan and in surrounding countries, ranking number one in 2011 Count Down TV "Dearest Female Artist" and Music Station "Artist You Most Want to Marry"[4] polls, as well as Radio Television Hong Kong's "Most Popular Japanese Artist".


Yui-goodbye day

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Utada Hikaru-Asia's first Love

Hikaru Utada is one of Japan's most popular singers and songwriters, with multiple albums achieving number 1 status and awards. Outside of Japan, she is best known for writing and singing the theme songs "Simple and Clean" in Kingdom Hearts, and "Sanctuary / Passion" in Kingdom Hearts II. Those console games were a collaboration of two popular franchises: Disney and Final Fantasy, but it was her songs that helped contribute to its success.

Hikaru Utada was born in New York City, but had strong ties to Japan as her father, Utada Teruzane, was a musician and producer, and her mother, Keiko Fuji, was a Japanese enka (ballad) singer. Her family would reside between New York City and Tokyo with different projects. She considers her early influences on her music style to range from classic rock of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin to hip hop of Dr. Dre. At 12 years old, she recorded an English LP which didn't get much recognition in the US but got the attention of some Japanese record companies who helped her on an album called Precious where she went under the name Cubic U. This led to some soundtrack songs.

By the time she was graduating from high school, she had signed onto a major record label, Toshiba EMI, and released her first Japanese album, "First Love," a mix of R&B and pop songs that soon went platinum and is now one of Japan's best-selling albums of all time. She followed up with "Distance" and "Deep River" which also rocketed to multi-platinum status and contains some of her most memorable pop songs, two of which were combined into a theme song for the first Kingdom Hearts game.

While she enjoyed much success worldwide, she had yet to penetrate America's music scene. She had one song that was part of the Rush Hour 2 movie, and in 2004, at age 21, she worked with Island Def Jam Records on her English album Exodus, which was featured on a You Heard It First segment on MTV News. But the US market was hardly receptive to Asian singers, and she ended up returning to Japan to do some more soundtrack songs. In 2006 she released her fourth Japanese album, Ultra Blue, which also featured her single "Colors", and continued her streak of #1 albums. In 2008 she is planning the release of her fifth Japanese album, "Heart Station" and her third English album.

Japanese studio albums
First Love - released March 10, 1999.
Distance - released March 28, 2001.
Deep River - released June 19, 2002.
Ultra Blue - released June 14, 2006.
Heart Station - release March 19, 2008.

English studio albums
Precious - released January 28, 1998 under the name Cubic U.
Exodus - released September 9, 2004 (JP), October 5, 2004 (US).
(Unnamed third album project announced for 2008)

Compilation Albums
Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 - released March 31, 2004

Concert videos
Bohemian Summer 2000 - released December 19, 2000
Utada Hikaru Unplugged - released November 11, 2001
Utada Hikaru in Boudokan 2004 - released July 28, 2004
Utada United 2006 - released December 20, 2006








First Love

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