Sunday, July 3, 2011
Lee Da-hae
Ayumi Hamasaki
Ayumi Hamasaki (, Hamasaki Ayumi?, also born October 2, 1978) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, record producer, model, composer, and actress. Also called Ayu by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the "Empress of Pop" because of her popularity and widespread influence in Japan and throughout Asia.Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen to pursue a career in entertainment.
In 1998, under the tutelage of Avex CEO Max Matsuura, she released a string of modestly selling singles that concluded with her 1999 debut album A Song for ××. The album debuted atop the Oricon charts and stayed there for four weeks, establishing her popularity in Japan.
Hamasaki's constantly changing image and tight control over her artistry has helped her popularity extend across Asia; music and fashion trends she has started have spread to countries such as China, Singapore, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. She has appeared in or lent her songs to many advertisements and television commercials. Though she originally supported the exploitation of her popularity for commercial purposes, she later reconsidered and eventually opposed her status as an Avex "product"
At age seven, Hamasaki began modeling for local institutions, such as banks, to supplement the family's income. She continued this career path by leaving her family at fourteen and moving to Tokyo as a model under SOS, a talent agency.Her modeling career did not last long; SOS eventually deemed her too short for a model and transferred her to Sun Music, a musicians' agency. Under the name of "Ayumi", Hamasaki released a rap EP, Nothing from Nothing, on the Nippon Columbia label in 1995. She was dismissed from the label when the album failed to chart on the Oricon.Friday, July 1, 2011
YUI
and expressed her desire to pursue a musical career to the band, Bianco Nero, at the end of the concert. Bianco Nero advised Yui to join a private music school. Yui soon dropped out of high school and began to study guitar and songwriting at a juku in her hometown of Fukuoka.Aspiring to become a professional, she took to street performing at Fukuoka's Tenjin Station. These street performances helped Yui to overcome her shyness.
Her professional career began in March 2004 when, at the recommendation of her juku instructors, she applied for an audition hosted by Sony Music Japan.Despite the audition rule that a participant could only perform two songs, Yui was allowed to sing three. She first sang "Why Me" (a song later included in her debut single), followed by "It's Happy Line" and "I Know". The judges gave her the maximum score, causing a fierce scramble among record labels to sign her. Because "I Know" was incomplete at the time, the judges were able to get a glimpse of what would later be dubbed "Yui-go", or Yui-speak (Yui語 in Japanese), nonsensical English hummed to a tune during her songwriting process — an example of Yui-go can be found in the film Song of the Sun when Yui is working on the song "Goodbye Days".
Upon leaving her hometown in Fukuoka for Tokyo, Yui wrote the song "Feel My Soul" as a tribute to her hometown. She initially had planned its release on an indie label. However, when the song caught the ears of Fuji TV producer Mr. Yamaguchi, who saw the demo video clip, he claimed that Yui's voice touched him so much that he went out of his way to visit the recording studio. Fuji Television's primetime drama Fukigen na Gene used Yui's debut track as an insert song.BoA
Boa Kwon (Korean: Kwon Boa, born November 20, 1987), commonly stylized and known by her stage name BoA, which is a backronym for Beat of Angel, is a Korean singer, active in South Korea, Japan, and the United States and sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Korean Pop Music".Born and raised in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, BoA was discovered by SM Entertainment talent agents when she accompanied her older brother to a talent search. In 2000, after two years of training, she released ID; Peace B, her debut Korean album. Two years later, she released her debut Japanese album, Listen to My Heart, becoming the first Korean pop star to break through in Japan following the fall of barriers that had restricted the import and export of entertainment between the countries since the end of World War II.On October 14, 2008, BoA debuted in the United States with the single "Eat You Up" and released her debut English-language album, BoA on March 17, 2009.BoA's multilingual skills (she speaks Japanese and English along with native Korean and has recorded songs in Mandarin Chinese) have contributed to her commercial success throughout East Asia. She is the only non-Japanese Asian to have three albums selling more than one million copies in Japan and is one of only two artists to have six consecutive number-one studio albums on the Oricon charts since her debut.
At age eleven, BoA accompanied her older brother to an SM Entertainment talent search. Though her brother was the one who auditioned as a break-dancer, SM talent scouts instead took notice of BoA and offered her a contract on the same night as the auditions. Her parents initially opposed the notion of BoA's leaving school to enter the entertainment business but eventually consented at her older brothers' persuasion.She has said that her early influence as a singer was Seo Taiji.BoA underwent two years of training (involving vocal, dance, and Japanese lessons), and at the age of thirteen released her debut album ID; Peace B in South Korea on August 25, 2000. The album was moderately successful; it entered the Top 10 of the South Korean charts and sold around 156,000 units.Meanwhile, her Korean record label, SM Entertainment, made arrangements with Japanese label Avex Trax to launch her music career in Japan. She was forced to quit school to prepare and in early 2001, BoA released her first mini-album, Don't Start Now; it sold around 90,000 units. After its release, she took a hiatus from the Korean music industry to focus on the Japanese market at which time she worked to solidify her skills in Japanese.BoA began her Japanese music career singing at the Avex-owned club Velfarre. In 2001, she released her debut Japanese single, a Japanese version of the song, "ID; Peace B" (originally from the eponymous album). The single reached #20 on the Oricon chart and was followed by "Amazing Kiss", "Kimochi wa Tsutawaru", and "Listen to My Heart"; the last became the singer's first single to enter the Oricon's Top Five. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, BoA recorded the charity single "The Meaning of Peace" with Kumi Koda as part of Avex's Song Nation project to raise funds for charity.Utada Hikaru
Hikaru Utada (, Utada Hikaru?, born January 19, 1983), known by her stage name Utada (play) in America and Europe, is a Japanese/American[2] singer, song writer, arranger, and producer. Since the release of her Japanese debut album First Love, which went on to become the best-selling album in Oricon history,[3][4] Utada has had three of her Japanese studio albums in the list of Top 10 best-selling albums ever in Japan (number 1, 4, 8) and six of her albums (including one English-language and one compilation) charting within the 275 Best-Selling Japanese albums list.Utada has had twelve number-one singles on the Oricon Singles chart, with two notable record achievements for a female solo or group artist: five million-sellers and four in the Top 100 All-Time Best-selling Singles. Utada has an estimated more than 52 million records sold worldwide.She was described by Time Magazine as a "Diva On Campus," a reference to her having attended Columbia University for a brief, career-break semester in 2000. In 2009, she was considered "the most influential artist of the decade" in the Japanese landscape by The Japan Times. In 2003, Utada was ranked number 24 in the survey of Top 100 Japanese Pop Artists of All Time by HMV, number 10 in HMV's Top 30 Best Japanese Singers of All Time in 2006.Yamada Ryosuke
Ryōsuke Yamada (, Yamada Ryōsuke?, born May 9, 1993 in Tokyo) is a Japanese tarento, actor, singer, dancer, and a member of Hey! Say! JUMP. He is under the management of Johnny & Associates and currently resides in Kanagawa Prefecture.On August 12, 2004, when he was in the 5th grade (age 11), Yamada appeared on the variety show Ya-ya-yah, where his audition for Johnny and Associates was aired.In July 2006, Yamada got his first role in a TV drama, Tantei Gakuen Q Special.In April 2007, he was chosen to be a member of the temporary unit Hey! Say! 7, which made his CD debut on August 1, when their single "Hey! Say!" was released. Between July and September of 2007, Tantei Gakuen Q became a TV drama series and Yamada played the same role he did in the Special that aired in 2006.From September 24, 2007, Yamada began performing as a member of Hey! Say! JUMP, making his debut on November 14 .From January to March 2008 Yamada was in the drama series, One-Pound Gospel, as Mukoda Katsumi, with Kazuya Kamenashi (KAT-TUN) and Hey! Say! JUMP member Yuri Chinen who appeared in the third episode. On April 12 of that year Yamada was in the drama, Sensei wa erai! along with fellow Hey! Say! JUMP members Yuto Nakajima, Yuri Chinen and Daiki Arioka. He played Gunjou Hayato. On June 14, Yamada played Furuhata Ninzaburo in the drama Furuhata Chuugakusei.
In October 2008, Yamada was in the drama series Scrap Teacher: Kyoushi Saisei as Takasugi Toichi, along with Hey! Say! JUMP members that appeared with him in Sensei wa erai!.In June 2009, Yamada became the leader of a temporary group NYC Boys with Yuri Chinen and Yuma Nakayama w/B.I.Shadow as a supporter for the Japanese Volleyball Team for the FIVB World Grand Prix 2009. Their single "NYC/Akuma na Koi" hit the #1 position on the billboard charts.On August 29 of that year, Yamada played Yuji Kawai in the drama Niini no koto Wasurenaide.On October 3, 2009, he starred as the lead role in Hidarime Tantei EYE SP playing the role of Ainosuke Tanaka.On October 17, 2009, it was announced that Hey! Say! JUMP member Yamada Ryosuke will play his first lead role in the upcoming drama series EYE / Hidari-me Tantei EYE Detective ' to be broadcast from January 2010.On March 2, 2010, an official press release made by Johnny and Associates revealed that Yamada and Chinen will be debuting for the second time as NYC. They will be working as a member of both Hey! Say! JUMP and NYC, which is a rarity in their talent agency. Ryo Nishikido was the first such case of a Johnny's talent officially debuting in two groups (Kanjani8 and NEWS) making Yamada and Chinen the second instance of such a case.In 2010, Yamada wrote a song called Shinku which was track 4 in Hey! Say! JUMP's first album Jump No. 1.
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