[Added by Kawai]
Ayu and Ayu kissing!
Even the reports from Japan used such headline. Hamasaki Ayumi decide to launch her new selection "A Ballads" on March 12th. The cover image that was just released was very shocking---The lip-trumbling Ayu is kissing!
The theme of the cover is "The me now healed the me in the past". Ayu posed as her old self on the left and now on the right, making a kissing pose. The production of this took 2 times longer than the usual time, with high-quality photo stitching that makes it hard to differentiate them and leaving fans, male and female, stunned. The album will have 4 different cover, like what she had done with "A Best", and fans would only know their selection after opening the cover.
The talk is not only on the cover photo, but also on the songs that is featuring. The selection features 13 of Ayu's numbers from the beginning of her singing career. The focal point is on "Rainbow", a song composed with the input of fans after listening to audio clip of it's melody in the initial press of the latest album on sale last december. 100,000 responses had been received for this and all of them have been read by her. Thus this is especially meaningful.
The launch date of March 12th had unexpectedly coincidence with the date of annoucement of Japan Gold Disk award. This year sees a one-on-one duel between Ayu and Utada Hikaru and if Ayu manage to hold the rein, she will be the first to be awarded "Artist of the Year" for 3 years running.
A Best saw a incredible sales of 4.65 million copies, so how would "A Ballad" fare? We'll see.
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Translation by Kawai.