Namie Amuro: Queen of JPop

Long before KPop became widely popular amongst youngsters, there’s JPop. I became a JPop fan since 1995 before I shifted to rock music.

I’d been listening to a lot of JPop songs of globe, Utada Hikaru, trf, Puffy, Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro.

I became a Namie Amuro fan when I saw her video, “Body Feels Exit” on channel V exactly 17 years ago. I send a letter to VJ Michael Chiang and asked him on what is the name of the said artist on that particular video. He answered my letter and the rest is history…I became a fanatic of Namie-chan.

I collected magazine articles and CDs of Namie-chan before. And she even appeared on Coke Zero’s commercial two years ago.

Namie Amuro 安室 奈美恵 is a Japanese singer, entertainer, and former actress, who, at the height of her popularity, was referred to as the “Teen Queen” and is referred to as the “Queen of Japanese pop music”. Born and raised in Naha, Okinawa, Amuro debuted at the age of 14 as an idol in the girl group Super Monkey’s. Though mostly unsuccessful, the group gained popularity during their final year together with the single “Try Me (Watashi o Shinjite)” (1995). Amuro left Toshiba-EMI after releasing two more solo singles; she continued her music career as a solo singer with the then-small independent label Avex Trax. Under the guidance of producer Tetsuya Komuro, Amuro quickly became a commercial success, producing several million-selling records and starting several fashion trends. Her single “Can You Celebrate?” (1997) became Japan’s best selling single by a solo female artist. However, in late 1997, Amuro put her career on hold to focus on her pregnancy and marriage.

She returned to the music scene in 1998 with her number-one single, “I Have Never Seen”, but faced slowly declining sales. After unofficially severing ties with Tetsuya Komuro in 2001, Amuro joined Suite Chic, which would transform her from a pop idol to a R&B artist. Since reinventing herself, Amuro has achieved newfound interest. Her seventh studio album, “Play” (2007) debuted at the top of the charts and was followed by “60s 70s 80s” (2008), her first number-one single in 10 years.

Over a decade since her musical debut, Amuro has remained one of the longest surviving popular female acts in Japan. She is the only Japanese female artist to have achieved a Top 10 single each year for 14 consecutive years. She also continues to successfully combat social stigma as a divorced, working, single mother. On July 30, 2008, Amuro released her first greatest hits album, Best Fiction, since transitioning to R&B music. It spent six consecutive weeks at the number-one position on Japan’s Oricon weekly charts, and was elected as “the best album of the year” at the 50th Japan Record Awards. From 2008 to 2009, she toured Japan to promote the album. It was estimated that she played to an audience as high as 400,000, potentially the largest audience of her career.

Studio albums

1995: Dance Tracks Vol. 1

1996: Sweet 19 Blues

1997: Concentration 20

2000: Genius 2000

2000: Break the Rules

2003: Style

2005: Queen of Hip-Pop

2007: Play

2009: PastPublished with Blogger-droid v2.0.4