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| · Ayu's Official Site · Ayu's twitter · Ayu's YouTube · masa's translations · Misa-chan's translations · |
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#1
14th May 2004, 04:19 AM
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Jpopmusic.com Profile
I am updating the profile for ayu at Jpopmusic.com, and was wondering whether you guys could look over what I've written to check for mistakes. If there's anything I should add, feel free to comment on it.
-------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Hamasaki Ayumi Birthday: October 2, 1978 Birthplace: Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan Height/Weight: 156 cm, 88 lbs Record Label: Avex Trax Favorite Foods: Sweets, including cake and chocolate, and kimchi Favorite Musicians: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Babyface, En Vogue, Keiko (Globe), Matsu Takako Hobbies: Playing the piano, flower arranging, and drawing Favorite Actors: Rie Miyazawa and Nicolas Cage Likes to Read: Fashion magazines, modern day translations of ancient Japanese poems Favorite Movies: "The Bodyguard", "Betty Blue", and "Leaving Las Vegas" Studies: Piano, calligraphy, abacus, flower arrangement 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 numerous singles like her debut, 'Poker Face' to her plentiful remix albums that have become the ultimate way to tide fans over between albums. Like other Japanese divas, Hamasaki achieved success as an entertainer at a young age. She was first discovered by a talent scout looking for models in bank ads. Her look caught the eye of another talent scout, and she soon became a swimsuit model with her own photobooks. But, this was not the life for her and she quit the job to pursue singing, landing small spots in 'Idol on Stage', a show dedicated to promoting up-and-coming artists by having them perform songs from the idoru era like Hayami Yuu's 'Haato wa Modoranai -Get out of my life' and Ann Lewis' 'Roppongi Shinjuu'. She later recorded a mini album, releasing the single 'Nothing from Nothing' and being featured on the mcAT single 'A'. A few years past since her release. Nothing large came from 'Nothing', until she was discovered by her now legendary producer, Max Matsuura, singing in a karaoke bar. He persuaded her to record a few songs, but it wasn't until he saw her lyric writing skills that things started taking off. She wrote the lyrics to her first single, "Poker Face' which made her stand out as a talented young woman. Though it didn't make large waves, the song got her on the map, and her first album 'A Song for xx' was released after her 5th single's release. The album featured her amazing lyric skills, the album 'autobiographical' according to Ayu (her nickname) and meant to introduce her to the world. She also released the first of her numerous remix albums after this one with a club side and an acoustic side. Her vocals, however, were not fully developed, and Avex sent her to New York to train and get inspiration. Afterward, she released the two versions of a new song, 'Whatever' in 1999, and followed up with her first number one single, 'Love ~destiny~ composed by Tsunku who would go on to more success writing Morning Musume's classic and wildly popular hit 'Love Machine' just a few months later (incidently, the B-side to Love ~destiny~ was another version of the song with lyrics by Tsunku which would be her only time to sing english words in a song until 11 singles later with 'Audience'). In 1999, she also released her first pv collection, 'A Film for xx' which was followed in 2000 by 'Hamasaki Ayumi' and 'A Clips'. Her sophomore album entitled 'LOVEppears' released 5 singles later, was a smash hit. It featured 8 singles (2 singles were released after the album, one on the same day) and came with an enhanced disk with CM clips and photos. It also started her famous (or imfamous) album covers featuring her with little clothing on. At this time, Ayu was a star. With singles like 'Boys & Girls', 'LOVE ~destiny~', and her magnum single 'A' jamming airwaves, she was THE idol, even sometimes having two singles on the charts at the same time faring well. She influenced fashion, her signature cowboy hat copied by girls everywhere. In 2000, she released four remix albums. This first was 'SUPER EUROBEAT presents ayu-ro', an album of Eurobeat mixes of Ayu's songs which helped to bring back the Para-Para craze that had taken Japan in the mid-90's, a popular dance style done to Eurobeat music. She then released four versions of ayu-mi-x, the second volume of her first remix album. Her next releases, hower, were somewhat darker and more heartfelt then her previous material. She released three singles in three months, the 'vogue', far Away', and 'SEASONS' series. Around this time, Ayu gained more creative control of her PVs, and in a PV featuring all three songs entitled 'Vogue far Away SEASONS'' she told the story of two children in a post apolyptic world. She was clearly growing in style, and her 3rd album 'Duty' featuring 5 singles brought her to even higher popularity with its deep and meaningful lyrics, sometimes even dark. In her 2001 Dome Tour, her perfomance of the title track 'Duty' had dancers in soldier uniforms and opened and closed with videos about our possible destruction of the earth. After that, she released her double sided ayu-mi-x III remix album. With 18 singles and 3 albums, she released her first best compilation, 'A Best' on the same day as another popular diva released her sophmore album. That sophmore album was 'Distance' and that artist was Utada Hikaru. This coming face off caused great stress for Ayu, and she later in an NTV special said that it almost caused her to breakdown and leave the business for real. However, both albums did well, and Ayu stayed in the business, even if a little shaken. 'A Best' featured a reworking of her poignant song 'A Song for xx' off of her first album, and re-performed/re-mixed versions of older songs. It also featured her widely popular single 'M', the first song she composed and wrote the lyrics to. After this release, she released a second Eurobeat compilation and her first 'Cybertrance presents Ayutrance' album, the first Jpop remix album released by the DJ group Cybertrance. Ayu released another single, 'evolution', before re-releasing her first 8 singles in maxi format. She then released 4 more singles to build up to her 4th album 'I am...'. The tone of the album was affected by post-9/11 feelings she had after visiting the city frequently in her career. It featured a rerecording of her single 'A song is born' recorded originally with Keiko from Globe for an all-star album entititled 'Songnation' with the theme of world peace in the post-9/11 world. The cover featured her in vines with a dove on her shoulder. This album also featured her first cover, 'Connected'. She wrote lyrics to the trance track 'The Love I Lost' by East Meets West to create an awesome transition between the first interlude of track 2 and the rest of the album. After 'I am...', she released a second 'Ayutrance' album and her fourth 'ayu-mi-x' album with a nonstop megamix side and an acoustic side. She also released a maxi-single for 'Daybreak', a track on 'I am...' featuring a remix by H/\L. Ayu followed up that release with 'Free & Easy', a song promoted with a photobook entitled 'Free & Easy'. She would also perform this song in China when she started Chinese promotion. This was followed by her magnum single 'H' and then her single 'Voyage' which was not only the theme song for the drama 'My Little Chef', but also was featured in a 40 minute movie entitled 'Tsuki ni Shimizu' starring Ayu, a condensed version of which became the PV. These singles went to appear on her 5th album, 'Rainbow'. 'Rainbow' also featured her song 'Real me' which not only had her first PV to feature english lyrics, but also to feature her dancing (which she jokingly said she never wanted to do again, and hasn't as of yet). This album broke away from her usually pop/rock style and more into an Americanized R&B-pop style. On this album, the tracklisting included a track entitled '00. Rainbow'. Because it was track 00, it was not on the album. However, fans could log onto her website using a key in the album and listen to an instrumental song sample and suggest lyric ideas. The actual song 'Rainbow' was released as the first track on her second best of album 'A Ballads' with original, remixed, and re-performed versions of ballads. It also featured her second cover song, this time it being a cover of Matsutouya Yumi's hit 'Sotsugyou Shashin', her first officially recorded track to use Japanese characters in its title as well. The following summer, she released her hit magnum single '&' featuring three songs, all with PVs. A month later, she released her single 'forgiveness' and then a month from that a new 'ayu-mi-x' (this time only with a remix side), 'Ayutrance', and 'ayu-ro', the three dubbed 'RMX Works' as a package. In November, she released her poignant 'No Way to Say' which won her multiple awards. In December, she released her mini album 'Memorial Address' in a CD+DVD package. The album featured three new songs, two of which there were PVs for. The DVD contained PVs for all the songs except for the last track, 'Memorial Address', a cover of LOVER SOUNDTRACK's song 'Kumo'. This album was very different from her other albums, almost all the pop elements gone. The album was clearly a rock album as was shown in songs like "Because of You" and "HANABI ~episode II~". As of this writing, she has released another CD+DVD bundle, this time a single entitiled 'Moments'. In the coming months, she will also release a single entitled 'Game'. Though still far before her prime, she has already released over 30 best-selling singles, 6 smash hit albums, 2 best of albums, 16 remix albums, and over 25 videos and DVDs combined since her 1998 debut. 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, even being featured on Chinese television in two 5th Season drink commercial spots. She is frequent image on TV through her numerous music show appearances, commercial endorsements (she is the second most popular CM actress), and her talkshow 'Ayuready' which ran for 74 episodes and featured a variety of guest from Hikawa Kiyoshi to Mini Moni. Hamasaki has had a rough life, raised fatherless by her mother and grandmother. She had acted and modeled before her debut, being in two movies. She has managed to overcome so much, and it looks like she'll be around to conquer more.
__________________
発売中ーナウ・オン・セール [yeah, I really don't know what's up with my signature...can't get rid of the white space] 
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#2
14th May 2004, 04:44 AM
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#3
14th May 2004, 04:56 AM
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No, he's right. She took East Meets West's "The Love I Lost" song. It's uh, like a Connected instrumental. =/
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#4
14th May 2004, 05:05 AM
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__________________
発売中ーナウ・オン・セール [yeah, I really don't know what's up with my signature...can't get rid of the white space]
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#5
14th May 2004, 05:24 AM
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#6
14th May 2004, 05:28 AM
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88 lbs? I thought she was 81, lol. The upcoming single is rumored to be "G".
No mention of her power in business by commercials, but thats ok. Otherwise, very good 
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#7
14th May 2004, 06:09 AM
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 thanks, by the way!
__________________
発売中ーナウ・オン・セール [yeah, I really don't know what's up with my signature...can't get rid of the white space]
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