Ayumi Hamasaki

Ayumi Hamasaki

Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎あゆみ, Hamasaki Ayumi, born October 2, 1978) is an award-winning J-Pop singer. Commonly known just as "Ayu", Ayumi Hamasaki is one of the most popular and influential Japanese pop singers, and is dubbed “The Empress of Pop”. She was born and raised in Fukuoka and moved to Tokyo to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Since her debut in 1998 with her first single poker face, she has sold more than 45 million records in Japan alone, with the releases of her eight full-length studio albums, one mini-album, four compilation albums, 41 singles, and several non-studio albums, being the top selling solo and female artist and the fourth top selling Japanese artist in history. With the release of her 40th single Blue Bird, Hamasaki's single sales have passed the 20 million mark, making her the first solo and female singer to reach that milestone.

With the release of her 39th single Startin' / Born to be... in 2006, Hamasaki became the first, and so far the only, female singer to have 27 #1 singles and 38 singles in the Top 10 of the Japanese Oricon charts. She has 15 consecutive #1 singles to date (starting from Free & Easy). Hamasaki is also the first Japanese artist to have her first original eight studio albums top the charts.

Biography

Although Hamasaki lived with her mother, she was primarily raised by her grandmother. She has vague recollections of her father as he supposedly divorced her mother and left the family at around the time she was five, and she has not seen him since. She grew up in a very liberal household where she was expected to do what was right for her without her mother intervening in her affairs, since her mother was always out working to support the family.

In her youth, Hamasaki started her modeling career as a model for a local bank. During high school, she was considered a delinquent because she dyed her hair and wore short skirts, both of which were considered extremely unconventional in Japan at that time. She did not enjoy her time at school much and did not get along well with the teachers. She found studying chemistry a very easy thing to do, but eventually dropped it because she found that it didn't seem necessary to make a living.

Occasionally, Hamasaki would go from home Fukuoka to Tokyo for short periods of time, to do various modeling jobs and during her stays, she would make friends with people she met at work. After graduating from junior high school, she had her mind made up to go to a senior high school in Tokyo. She took entrance exams to Horikishi Gakuen (art/entertainers school) together with her friends, and she was the only one to fail — much to the surprise of herself and the school.

When taking the entrance exams again, Hamasaki ventured from her former talent agency SOS (targeted mostly at young models) to Sun Music, because the chief of SOS felt she would not do well because of her short height and would do much better in other activities, such as appearing on television.

Hamasaki reportedly used the pseudonym Kurumi Hamazaki once during her works, as she acted in low budget dramas like Miseinen and b-movies like Sumomo mo momo; however, she did not find success.

Hamasaki recalls the times of her activities in show business as a terrible period. She felt she simply couldn't quit her agency as she lived in the agency dormitory at the time, and she needed her jobs to make a living. She remembers the confusion she felt when acting in dramas with people she had seen on television back in Fukuoka. Also, she was unable to understand many of the girls in the business, who acted flamboyantly towards photographers during photoshoot works and were often selfish, which gave her the impression that they were very silly. This resulted in her having a lot more boys as friends rather than girls.

In order to release pressure and forget about her confusion, Hamasaki would spend her free time wandering the streets of Tokyo, shopping, and dancing at clubs in the Shibuya district with her friends.

She finally decided to leave show business after finding out about certain aspects that did not feel right to her. For example, many photos from some of her photo shoots were not used afterwards, and while working on television productions, not all of the footage would end up in the final product.

Hamasaki decided to drop out of high school at fifteen, something she vaguely remembers by sending a fax message with the words "I quit." written on paper. The reason for quitting was because she did not want to see the people and teachers anymore, feeling conspicuous among them, as her appearance and looks were different to others' in the entertainment school.

Around the time when Hamasaki dropped out of both high school and the talent agency, where her contract was soon to expire, her mother was coming to Tokyo to start a new job. Ayumi went on to live with her together in the apartment her mother rented. As peaceful days entered her life again, she would once more go back to spending long hours having fun with friends in fashionable places in Tokyo's entertainment districts.

Professional career

1995: Nothing from Nothing era

Main article: Nothing from Nothing

The first steps Hamasaki gave on music was in the rap scene. On December 1, 1995, Hamasaki's first album along side with Dohzi-T, DJ Bass Nothing from Nothing was released. There's poor information about this era in Ayu's life, but it is known that there was virtually no promotion for the album. After failing to chart in Oricon, the project was most probably dropped by the company Nippon Columbia.

Hamasaki met her future producer, Masato Matsuura in a disco club called Velfarre. which was owned by the Avex company. As she had not known him nor seen him in person, when he was introduced to her as the executive director of Avex, Hamasaki mistakenly greeted a person sitting next to him, as she had heard he was much younger than he was. She later met Matsuura again at Velfarre club in Tokyo. He picked one song for her to sing (which was by Tetsuya Komuro). Afterwards, he asked Hamasaki if she wanted to pursue a singing career. Not feeling confident in singing, she stated firmly that she didn't want to.

After a while, Hamasaki lost contact with Matsuura. She had given him her phone number before, so he left few messages on her answering machine, but as she quickly forgot his name, she didn't do anything about it. One day, when she was walking through the center street of Shibuya, she received a phone call from Avex. She was put through to Matsuura and as they talked, she initially expressed new interest in singing, because she didn't have any other activities, but as Matsuura mentioned vocal training and singing classes, she resigned again. A week later, she changed her mind once more and went to Avex offices herself.

Hamasaki was contracted to take vocal training in Tokyo but she stopped attending as she found it too rigid. She kept skipping the classes but didn't tell Matsuura about it. When he started calling her, she would switch off the phone, knowing that she'd be asked about the classes. When he finally found out, for a more relaxed atmosphere Matsuura sent Hamasaki to New York, an event she would later say was exactly what she needed. Impressed by the writing style in her letters to him, Matsuura suggested that she try her hand at writing her own lyrics for her songs.

1999: A Song for XX and Loveppears era

Main article: A Song for XX

Main article: Loveppears

Hamasaki has never had any formal instruction in lyric writing, but is able to draw on her emotions to write her lyrics. Her producer, Max Matsuura, has stated repeatedly that she has a gift which only develops with practice and that it is highly unusual for such a young artist to be so articulate and mature in her writings. Also, Hamasaki's song writing abilities have been repeatedly compared to those of Utada Hikaru, although their styles are in fact markedly different.

In 1998 , Ayumi's debut single, "poker face", was released. Her grandmother died shortly before her debut single was released - it's now believed that, due in part to that, Ayumi strongly dislikes the song. The single debuted #22 on the Oricon charts and sold 43,000 copies, and started to gain more fame since then. At the release of her 3rd single, Trust, she got into the Top 10 of the charts for the first time. Depend on You which is Hamasaki's 5th single was the main theme of videogame Thousand Arms. She got her first #1 spot on the charts with her debut album A Song for XX, released on January 1, 1999. A Song for XX held the top spot for a total of 5 weeks and quickly became certified platinum.

Her first #1 single also came in 1999 with the release of Love ~Destiny~, song produced by Tsunku. Since the release of the 9th single, Boys & Girls, her singles changed format from 8 cm to 12 cm discs (which could hold more data), following the trend of the music industry. As a result her singles began to feature more tracks, namely, remix tracks. Boys & Girls its first week didn't get the 1st spot on the charts (mainly because of known rival Ami Suzuki and her single "Be Together"), but in the second week she reached the 1st place; Boys & Girls is her first certified million seller single. Be Together ended up selling around 800,000 copies total. However, Boys & Girls sold over one million copies.

Her 10th single "A" is at the moment her best-selling maxi with more than 1,600,000 copies sold. Oricon recently announced "A" as the 6th highest selling single from a female artist during the last 10 years. In November 1999, she released her second album, Loveppears, less than a year after her first. The album sold over two million copies. However, a controversy arose due to the front cover of the album which featured her topless with only her hair covering her breasts. The single Appears was released the same day. Following the release of Loveppears, were two recut singles from the album because of her big success. Those singles were Kanariya, released in December, and Fly High, released in March of the following year. The song Trauma was also a popular hit.

2000: Duty era

Main article: Duty (album)

In 2000, she became a spokeswoman for Kosé, a cosmetics company in Japan. When she appeared in commercials to promote Kosé's lipsticks, a record 500,000 lipsticks were sold in only two days. Her single "Vogue", which was used as background music, also benefitted from this commercial, selling over 700,000 copies. She also became a spokesperson for Tu-Ka and promoted their cell phones. At this moment she was already very popular, being featured in articles about her successful life and style.

From April to June of 2000, she released one single per month, Vogue, Far Away, and Seasons, which would later be coined as The Trilogy because of the similar themes in lyrics and connected music videos. September saw the release of her third full-length album Duty. Like her previous studio albums, Duty topped the charts and went on to sell 3,000,000 copies, making it her highest selling original studio album. On the same day, the limited pressing single, Surreal and her Ayumi Hamasaki Concert Tour 2000 A were released, both topping the charts in the Single and DVD Charts respectively. These three releases on the same week made her the first artist to top three charts on the same week.

2001–2002: A Best and I am… era

Main article: A Best

Main article: I am...

To round off the year 2000, the single M was released, and became her fourth million selling single, selling over 1,300,000 copies. The song M saw Hamasaki take more creative control of her music, as she started to compose some of her songs under the pseudonym Crea. The following year, a controversy was started when the label forced Ayu to release Never Ever followed by her compilation album A Best. Its release date was changed to put her in direct competition with Utada Hikaru's second album Distance. Though Distance topped the charts first week, A Best topped the following week, and although both albums sold over 4,000,000 copies, this change staggered the sales of both albums. Distance and A Best were the 1st and 2nd best selling albums of 2001 respectively. However, it was made clear in interviews that it was not her wish to release the best album, as she felt that was too early to release a best album. Matters were made worse with all the public attention on the "competition" between the two.

Later in 2001, her second eurobeat remix album became the second remix album in Japanese history to top the charts, following Misia's Little Tokyo. When her 4th album's release was delayed, stock prices for Avex Trax began to decrease, showing the amount of influence she wielded. It was estimated around that time that she was responsible for 40% of the Avex Trax's profit. In December, her duet with Keiko of Globe was released as a single for Avex's nonprofit project, Song Nation, which raised money for the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. On the first day of 2002, her fourth album I am... was released, and like its predecessors Loveppears and Duty, it achieved triple-million status, with sales of 2.3 million copies.

2002–2003: A Ballads and Rainbow era

Main article: Rainbow (Ayumi Hamasaki album)

Main article: A Ballads

The release of "Free & Easy" in April saw a complete shift in the trend of Hamasaki's singles, away from multiple remix tracks. The single only featured two remixes alongside the title track. The single also threatened to break her string of consecutive number ones, as Mai Kuraki's "Feel fine!" single (released on the same date), briefly topped the daily charts. However, "Free & Easy" eventually claimed the top spot only the weekly chart. Her fifth million-seller single "H" was released in July of that year. Like "A", this single featured multiple a-sides; however, unlike "A," this single did not contain any remixes. Her followup single "Voyage" had an extended music video to promote it — a short film titled Tsuki ni Shizumu (or Sinking into the Moon), which featured Hamasaki acting for the first time since her idol days. Voyage set a new record for Hamasaki for it topped the Oricon Chart for a total of 3 weeks. This makes Voyage the first and only single from Hamasaki which has stayed at the top spot for so long.

The much-hyped studio album Rainbow was released in December. Though Rainbow broke the one million mark in the first week, it was the first of Hamasaki's albums since A Song for XX that failed to sell two million units. The album featured more of Crea songwriting and composition like the previous album, and saw her first use of English phrases in her songs (other than her song "Limit" on her first album Nothing from Nothing). The album had a massive promotional campaign, where the buyers of the more-expensive initial pressings could access a password-only website that featured a part of the instrumental version of the title track Rainbow that was not on the album. Once accessed, fans could submit their own lyrics and suggestions for the song. Over 100,000 people accessed the website. The song was later featured on her ballad compilation album A Ballads, which was released on March 2003. Though promoted extremely well, A Ballads experienced slow but steady sales, and has recently passed the million threshold. Many of the songs on the album had already been featured on her previous compilation album, A Best, and the album featured only two new songs, possibly leading to these low sales.

2003–2004: Memorial Address and My Story era

Main article: Memorial Address

In July, & was released — her first single in nine months. Like the single H, "&" featured three prominent tracks, but also featured the b-side "theme of a-nation '03". This was Hamasaki's last single to sell over 500,000 units on the Oricon Charts. The follow up single, "Forgiveness" would continue Hamasaki's string of number one singles, but underperformed saleswise in contrast to her previous efforts, barely selling 220,000 copies in contrast to the sales of "&", which netted sales of over 570,000. After the releases of the Forgiveness (August) and No Way to Say (November) singles, she released her first mini-album, Memorial Address, which only featured three new songs. Memorial Address was unique because all of the songs, except for the title track (which was a bonus track), had a music video. Memorial address was also her first album to be available in CD only or CD+DVD formats. Memorial address made her the only female solo artist to have a million seller mini-album.

Main article: My Story (Ayumi Hamasaki album)

In the spring of 2004, Hamasaki released Moments in both a CD only and CD+DVD combination, something which she continues to do now. It was featured in her last Kose Visee commercial before her contract with the cosmetics company ended. In July that year, internal strife in her recording company, Avex Trax, occurred. A feud between Max Matsuura and Yoda, an executive at Avex Trax, caused chaos and also sparked rumors that Hamasaki and other popular artists in Avex Trax including Hiro, Every Little Thing, Hitomi, and Do As Infinity might leave the record company and follow Max Matsuura. As a result, the stock prices for Avex Trax began to plunge; when Hamasaki sided with Matsuura (stating that whatever he does, she would do too), Yoda ended up resigning, effectively ending the feud. However, because of this, she also announced she would not participate in the major music awards anymore. She also announced that she felt she was receiving the same awards every year, and by forfeiting her right to claim awards she was giving opportunity to new singers.

In December of 2004, she released her sixth studio album My Story which was certified million-status, selling over 574,000 copies in the first week, and netting sales of over 1,140,000 copies, making it the second highest selling female album of the 2005 Oricon year.

2005–2006: (miss)understood era

Main article: (miss)understood

Hamasaki's 35th single, "Step you/is this Love?," was released in April. It was a double a-side single ("Step You" used in TV spots for Panasonic and "Is This Love?" for Morinaga chocolates). The single topped the daily, weekly, and monthly Oricon charts. It held the #1 spot on the weekly charts for 2 weeks in a row. This single went on to sell over 345,000 copies, her highest selling single since her 2003 single "No Way to Say" and for the year of 2005.

Her 36th single "Fairyland" was released on August 3, 2005. It debuted at #1 on the Oricon charts. The single was coupled with (c/w) the rock-track "Alterna." It is also her first single to feature different cover art for the CD version and the CD + DVD version.

Hamasaki's 37th single "Heaven" was released on September 14, 2005. The song was used as the theme song of the movie Shinobi: Heart Under Blade. The single had also included "Will", which she co-composed under the name of CREA. It was her 12th consecutive #1 single starting with "Free & Easy" in 2002.

Her 38th single "Bold & Delicious/Pride" followed with its release on November 30, 2005. This single carried a remarkably different flavor, bringing with it a completely new sense of music style away from her previous works. She had listened to some of Sweetbox's songs and had asked Geo (the composer), if she could use some of his music. The single had low first-week sales of about 84,000, and barely held the #1 position for the week although it continued her streak of #1 singles. This was the single that tied her with Seiko Matsuda for the most #1 singles by a solo female artist: 25.

Hamasaki’s 7th studio album, (miss)understood, was officially released on January 1, 2006. It debuted with sales of about 650,000 copies reaching the #1 spot on the World Global Charts.

2006: Secret era

File:Music Station.JPG

On television program Music Station, December 1 2006.

Main article: Secret (Ayumi Hamasaki album)

Hamasaki's thirty-ninth single Startin' / Born To Be... was released on March 8, 2006. The single debuted at #1 on the Oricon chart with sales of 116,000, and thus broke the record of most #1 singles in Japan for a solo (female) artist previously held by Seiko Matsuda. It was her 26th #1 single. However, Seiko still holds the record of the most consecutive No.1 singles for a female artist, a record that she has been holding for two decades and not likely to be broken anytime soon (Ayumi has 15 consecutive number 1 singles as of March 2007). The song "Startin'" was used as the opening theme song for the PS2 video game, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams while the song "Rainy Day" (which was featured on her (miss)understood album) was the ending theme. The song "Born To Be..." was used for Nittele's coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

She then embarked on the "Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2006 ~(miss)understood~" which spanned three months with its first date in Saitama on March 11, 2006 and made its last stop at Yoyogi on June 11, 2006. With 30 concerts, it was her largest tour to date. The last concert of the tour was recorded and released on DVD in November. It entered both the music-DVD and general-DVD charts at the top position.

Hamasaki released her 40th single "Blue Bird" on June 21, 2006. It contains the title song "Blue Bird" (featured on a Zespri Gold Kiwi beverage commercial), coupled with the track "Beautiful Fighters" (featured on her Panasonic D-snap and D-dock commercials). A trance remix of "Blue Bird" and a rock version of the (miss)understood album track "Ladies Night," called "Ladies Night ~another night~" (which was featured in an earlier Panasonic Lumix commercial), are also featured in the maxi single. "Blue Bird" scored the #1 position on the daily Oricon chart. Just a single day after going on sale, Oricon confirmed the single had outsold its competition already, securing the weekly #1 for Hamasaki's 15th consecutive number one single and 27th total number one single, selling 160,572 copies in its first five days.

On October 25, 2006, a number of artists from the Japanese iTunes store, including Ayumi Hamasaki, were added to iTunes USA.

Hamasaki released her eighth full-length album, Secret on November 29, 2006. Originally, the album was slated to be released as her second mini-album with seven songs overall. The speculation proved to be false when her official website announced a change of plans and that Secret would be a full-length album in October 2006. The album was completed on November 8. Hamasaki also raised media attention for the music video of "Jewel," which shows 100 million yen (almost $900,000 U.S. dollars) worth of diamonds, jewels, and Swarovski crystals. The video is one of the most expensive videos ever made. On that same day, she sang "Jewel" in an orchestra version on 130,000,000 Choose Best Artist 2006. The album debuted at the top spot of the Oricon weekly chart with first week sales of 386,280 copies, outselling the number two album for a large 160,129 copies, but sold 263,000 lower than her last studio album (miss)understood showing. This is because the "first week sales" of (miss)understood were actually the sales of two weeks, as Oricon blends the last week of a year with the first one of the following year, making an Oricon Year with 51 weeks only. The same rule applies for the first week sales of her I am... album.

Secret is also believed to be Hamasaki's most successful album yet in worldwide sales. Not only did Secret top the Japanese charts, the album was an instant number-1 hit in countries as Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and China surpassing the (miss)understood international success, being in Taiwan the #1 Japanese album of the year with a 3.54% of total sales.

On December 8, 2006, CNN International channel aired a special 30-minute interview with Hamasaki as part of a special Talk Asia show week "Japan Now" (that also featured BoA and Ken Hirai as representatives of entertainment in modern Japan/Asia). During the interview, Hamasaki talked about her feelings towards her own success, her life as a pop icon and her plans for future. She answered some of the questions in English. More importantly, she confirmed information about her upcoming Asia tour, which was subject to recent rumours in Chinese media. For her Asian tour in 2007, it was confirmed she would make stops in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

2007: A Best 2 and Tour of Secret era

Main article: A Best 2

Main article: Tour of Secret

On February 28, 2007, Hamasaki released two compilation-albums entitled A Best 2 -Black- and A Best 2 -White-. They are both released as Limited edition 1CD+2DVD-packages, as well as a normal edition 1CD package. The songs included on this album are from her evolution single to her Bold & Delicious / Pride single, including a few album tracks. A Best 2 -Black- includes sad, dark songs, a black cover for the limited edition, and a new song entitled "part of Me" which will be featured in a new Panasonic CM. The backstage footage of her Best of Countdown Live 2006–2007 A can be found on the DVD for the Black edition, as well the PVs or promotional clips for the songs included. The white edition of A Best 2 will feature up beat songs, as well as the live footage of her CDL 2006–2007, and promotional clips for the respective songs on the album.

The special site abest2.com was set up on February 15, 2007 to promote and celebrate the release of the album.

From March until the end of June, Hamasaki will hold an Asia tour, Tour of Secret, visiting not only Japan, but also Taiwan, Shanghai and Hong Kong. According to her official fanclub Teamayu, the Japanese version of the tour will promote her album Secret, while the ones held in the respective countries will bring back more of her older songs.

A flyer listing the Asia Tour was handed out at the CDL 2006–2007, Ayumi Hamasaki Asia Tour 2007 ~ Tour of Secret ~ There will be an JAL package from Japan to the countries, tour official website (not active yet 1st January 2006) here: [1] Dates of the JAL package tour are Taiwan, March 23–25, Hong Kong, April 6–8, Shanghai, April 21–23. She will not perform at Singapore and Beijing. According to the Singaporean news, no label there can afford Hamasaki to perform. Avex's CEO has also said on his blog that since Beijing is reconstructing their stadium for 2008 Olympic games, no venue is available for a stop. This concert is already highly anticipated since it is her first time venturing outside of Japan. As a result, tickets were sold out to the Taiwan concert in less than two hours. Similarly, tickets were sold out in less than three hours in Hong Kong and six hours in Shanghai, China

On the release day of A Best 2, the -Black- version reached to the top #1 position on the Oricon Charts while the -White- version reached #2. By the 2nd day, both versions switched positions as -White- got the #1 position while the -Black- got the #2 position. A Best 2 first day sales totaled a whopping estimate of 170,000 copies.

The first week sales figure of A Best 2 gained a total of 950,000 copies. -White- version sales totaled to 475,284 and -Black- version sales totaled to 470,057 respectively, while holding the first and second positions of the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart. Also both of the CDs ended up at the top of the United World Charts as well.

Setting yet another record, Hamasaki's is the first time in 36.5 years that a female artist has occupied the #1 and #2 spots on the Oricon album charts at the same time. And she is the only artist ever to do this also in the United World Charts.

On March 10, 2007, the day of the first ~ Tour of Secret ~ concert, an English version (along with Chinese) of the official website was released. As of March, 2007, according to Oricon, Hamasaki is the 4th best selling Japanese artist of all time. She is also the best selling female and solo artist of all time in Japanese history with average sales per year of over 5 million.

Recently while performing in Taiwan on March 24, 2007, Hamasaki sang the song Who..., part in Japanese, part in Chinese, and part in English. At the end of the show, she said "Wo Ai Ni (我愛你)", which is Chinese for "I love you". Afterwards, she said goodbye to Taiwan, and set off for Hong Kong.

On April 1, 2007, it was rumored that Hamasaki and her boyfriend of six years, Nagase Tomoya of TOKIO, are engaged. The wedding is to take place as early as October; however, with their hectic schedules, it may not occur until December.

2007: New Single

On May 16, 2007 it was announced Ayumi Hamasaki's new song, glitter, would be used in a commercial for "Zespri Gold Kiwi". The following day, it was announced on Tower Records in Japan that her new single would be called glitter / fated, and would be released July 18, 2007.Glitter is said to be a "shimmering up-tempo track", while Fated is described as a "medium-tempo rock ballad", and will be the theme for the movie "Kaidan", which shares the same director as The Ring 2. The single will also contain the track Secret.

On May 30, it was announced that Hamasaki will be going back to Hong Kong to shoot a short movie for her latest single, Glitter / Fated. The film has a leading male role, played by Shawn Yue. The film was supposed to be directed by Andrew Lau, but he was going to be in America at that time. It was also announced that Andrew Lau will be doing a special collaboration with Hamasaki, although the details are still unknown. The PV of glitter was aired on MTV Japan on July 10, 2007. It is said to show clips of the short film "Distance Love". The PV ends on a cliffhanger, tying into the second part of the short film, where fated will be played.

Cultural impact

Fashion

Hamasaki has been considered the fashion leader amongst Japanese females ever since reaching superstar status in 2000 , especially amongst Japanese high-school girls. Regularly appearing in leading Japanese fashion magazines such as ViVi, Cawaii and Popteen, she became a trend-setter with her unique style. Japanese streets were filled with young females trying to imitate her style with fashion items such as oversized sunglasses and fake fox tails. Her influence in Japanese fashion has seen her win an unprecedented three consecutive Nail Queen awards and five Best Jeanist awards, and was inducted into the respective Halls of Fame for her achievements. Japan's cosmetics giant, Kose, has also used Hamasaki in many endorsements for Visee cosmetics pieces such as mascara and lipstick.

In Oricon's 2006 spring and summer polls, she was named the most fashionable female artist. She has appeared on the cover of Vogue twice, once modeling for an entire spread featuring Bulgari, and the other for popular designers Dolce & Gabbana. Numerous pieces were designed for Hamasaki. She was recently featured in a spread for Dior jewelry and luxury items featuring an Ayumi in a manner of timeless and classic elegance, as compared to her usual "popstar" appearance. Hamasaki is also often seen with designer goods from major fashion houses from all over the world such as Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, Juicy Couture, and Christian Louboutin.

Lyrics

As the lyricist of all of her songs, Hamasaki is well known for her deep and poetic lyrics, setting her apart from other pop stars. As others concentrate on matters of love and heartbreak, recurring themes in Hamasaki's lyrics are loneliness, self-doubt, and hope, themes which deeply resounded with the younger generation of Japan. "Seasons" won the Best Lyrics Prize at the Japan Record Awards in 2000.

Music videos

Besides her CD releases and tours, Hamasaki has also become quite well-known for her stylish, innovative music videos. Often making videos for album tracks as well as singles, these PVs (promotion clips) have become selling points in themselves, now packaged along with her albums and singles. This was considered a smart move by industry insiders in light of flagging CD sales and rampant piracy.

Her videos often have dark themes and imagery, including horror and supernatural elements. Popular clips have featured death, ghosts, executions, werewolves, reincarnation, clowns, doppelgangers, cyborgs, angels, and Santa Claus. Others have been pure upbeat pop in style, so much so that they are considered to be ironic and post-modern.

Ayumi Hamasaki x Hello Kitty

A merging of Hello Kitty and Ayumi Hamasaki has been made, and was first seen when the "Tour of Secret" goods became available on mu-mo on March 9th, 2007. It is said they together "will make a new character". Hamasaki is assumed to be depicted by her popular 'Ayupan'. All other information on the "Ayumi Hamasaki x Hello Kitty" project between Sanrio and Avex Trax is currently unknown. It is also unknown if "Ayumi Hamasaki x Hello Kitty" will be released outside of Asia.

Hamasaki released a statement about the new character on her official website, saying:

I am so happy to have the opportunity to do a collaboration with the kitty that I've loved since I was a little girl. Hello Kitty has a special place in the heart of girls everywhere, no matter their age or nationality. My ASIA tour starts on March 10, and I'll be performing not just in Japan but in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. We've created all sorts of tour goods as well as other Hello Kitty collaboration projects for the tour, and I hope you will enjoy them.

An Ayumi Hamasaki x Hello Kitty x Ash & Diamonds collaboration item has been made. Ash & Diamonds is a Japanese jewelry company. The item, a strap, comes in either gold or silver and sells for ¥9975 (roughly $83 USD).

On May 8th, 2007, her website announced an Ayumi Hamasaki x Hello Kitty x Lumix collaboration. Lumix is a brand of digital cameras from Panasonic, whom Ayumi Hamasaki is the spokesperson for. The slim camera has an imprint of Hello Kitty on top of Hamasaki's logo. The camera sells for ¥54600 (roughly $455 USD), and includes a handbag.

Symbols

File:Ayumi Symbols.jpg

Ayumi Hamasaki has used various symbols over the years. Her symbols are comprised of 4 "A"s, 1 "M", and an "H".

Ayumi Hamasaki uses some symbols to represent her own name or some of her singles/songs. Usually, when typed, the symbols are just replaced with the special symbols.

Her main symbol, is used to represent her full name while symbols such as the H and M were used for once only to represent their respective singles. Variations to the have been used on some of Hamasaki's albums such as My Story, (miss)understood and Secret

Rivalry

Ami Suzuki

One of Hamasaki's first rivals since her debut was Ami Suzuki. They both debuted around the same time and both had a similar style of music and singing. While Suzuki was working under Sony Music Japan, the two artists were put in direct competition with the release of Suzuki's Be Together and Hamasaki's Boys & Girls. Be Together took the #1 spot in the first week, and Boys & Girls in the second week. Despite this, Be Together sold approximately 800,000 copies, while Boys & Girls sold over a million. In 2005, Ami Suzuki joined the avex trax label, and therefore she is no longer considered a rival of Hamasaki.

Utada Hikaru

Hamasaki is commonly considered to be the direct rival of (also J-pop star) Utada Hikaru, which caused intense debate between fans of both artists.

On March 28 2001, Utada Hikaru and Hamasaki came in direct competition. Utada's album Distance and Hamasaki's album A Best were released on the same day. Distance topped the charts for the first week while A Best was #2. The following week A Best hit #1 and Distance dropped to #3. At the end of the year, Distance and A Best were the top 2 highest selling albums of the year.

In a very personal interview that was broadcast by the Japanese NTV on April 12, 2004, Hamasaki explained that this rivalry made her feel terrible but that it was pushed by the record companies. In protest, she is depicted with a tear on her cheek on the cover of her A Best album. It is speculated that this protest is also the reason why she insisted on re-recording some of her old tracks that are featured on this album.

On one of her TV-appearances on Music Station in December 2005, both Hamasaki and Utada appeared together and got along very well. Utada even commented that she sang some of Hamasaki's songs when she went to karaoke.

The Hamasaki-Utada rivalry has been regarded as one of the biggest rivalries in the Japanese music industry.

Both Hamasaki and Utada appeared again on Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ on February 26, 2007 and on Music Station on March 2, 2007.

Discography

Main article: Ayumi Hamasaki discography

Albums

Year	Title	Daily Chart Positions	Weekly Chart Positions
1995	Nothing from Nothing	N/A	198
1999	A Song for XX	1	1
1999	Loveppears	1	1
2000	Duty	1	1
2002	I am...	1	1
2002	Rainbow	1	1
2003	Memorial Address	1	1
2004	My Story	1	1
2006	(miss)understood	1	1
2006	Secret	1	1

Compilations

Year	Title	Daily Chart Positions	Weekly Chart Positions
2001	A Best	1	1
2003	A Ballads	1	1
2007	A Best 2 -Black-	1	2
2007	A Best 2 -White-	1	1

DVD

Video clips

• A Film for XX (1999-09-15)
• A Clips (2000-02-23)
• Hamasaki Ayumi (2000-03-29)
• Vogue Far away Seasons (2000-09-20)
• Surreal (2000-12-13)
• M (2001-02-07)
• evolution (2001-06-13)
• A Clips Vol.2 (2002-03-13)# 89,531 copies sold

Filmography

• Tsuki ni Shizumu (月に沈む, Sinking into the Moon) the song "Voyage" was made for the movie, and the promotional video is scenes from the movie. (2002-11-13)
• Distance Love short film. (2007-07-18)

DVDs

• Ayumi Hamasaki Concert Tour 2000 A 第1幕 (2000-09-13)
• Ayumi Hamasaki Concert Tour 2000 A 第2幕 (2000-09-27)
• Ayumi Hamasaki Countdown Live 2000-2001 A (2001-06-20) 44,726 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki Dome Tour 2001 A (2001-12-12) 132,554 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki Countdown Live 2001-2002 A (2003-01-29) ¹
• Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2002 A (2003-01-29) 6,583 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki Stadium Tour 2002 A (2003-01-29) 14,306　 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki Countdown Live 2002-2003 A (2003-01-29) ¹
• Ayumi Hamasaki Complete Live Box A (2003-01-29) 72,826 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki A Museum ~30th single collection live~ (2004-02-25) 101,294 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2003-2004 A (2004-09-29) 69,829 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki Countdown Live 2004-2005 A (2005-03-02) 66,674 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2005 A ~My Story~ (2005-08-24) 86,887 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki Countdown Live 2005-2006 A (2006-03-23) #2 57,405 copies sold
• Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2006 A ~(miss)understood~ (2006-11-01) #1 100,302 copies sold

¹ (Only in the complete live box. Total 64,323 copies sold)

DVD audio

• Rainbow (2003-07-09)
• Carols (2004-09-29)
• My Story (2005-03-24)

Super Audio CD (SACD)

• Carols (2004-09-29)
• My Story (2005-03-24)

Other

• A Visual Mix (PlayStation 2 software, 2001-12-13)

Awards and records

Years	Awards and Records
1998	Japan Gold Disc Awards- Best New Artist (1998) Japan Gold Disc Awards- Pop Album of the Year — A Song for ×× Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan
1999	Japan Nailist Association- Nail Queen All Japan Request Awards- Grand Prix Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan
2000	Japan Gold Disc Awards- Pop Album of the Year — Loveppears Japan Gold Disc Awards- Single of the Year — A The Japan Record Awards- Best Album — Duty The Japan Record Awards- Gold Prize — Seasons Best Jewelry Wearing Teenager Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan Japan Nailist Association- Nail Queen
2001	MTV Japan Video Music Awards- Best Female Artist Japan Gold Disc Awards Japan Gold Disc Awards- Song of the Year — M Japan Gold Disc Awards- Song of the Year — Seasons Japan Gold Disc Awards- Pop Album of the Year — Duty Japan Gold Disc Awards- Artist of the Year Japan Cable Award- Grand Prix The Japan Record Awards- Gold Prize — Dearest The Japan Record Awards- The Award — Dearest MTV World Music Awards- Best Japanese Pop/Rock Artist MTV World Music Awards- World's Best-Selling Asian Artist Japan Nailist Association – Nail Queen Un-sorted – Barbie Award Best Jeanist Association- Best Jeanist of the year Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan 130 million people choose best artist award – Best artist
2002	MTV Asia Awards- Best Female Artist Award MTV Asia Awards- Most Influential Japanese Artist In Asia (special award) Japan Gold Disc Awards- Pop Album of the Year — A Best Japan Gold Disc Awards- Pop Album of the Year — I am… Japan Gold Disc Awards- Artist of the Year Japan Cable Award- Grand Prix The Japan Record Awards- Gold Prize — Voyage The Japan Record Awards- The Award — Voyage Oricon Awards- Best selling remix album of the year (Super Eurobeat presents Ayu-ro mix) All Japan Request Awards- Grand Prix Japan Nailist Association – Nail Queen 130 million people choose best artist award – Best artist Best Jeanist Association- Best Jeanist of the year Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan Un-sorted- All Japan Request Award
2003	MTV Japan Video Music Awards- Best Female Video — Because of You MTV Japan Video Music Awards- Best Pop Video — No way to say MTV Japan Video Music Awards- Best Live Performance Presented by Asahi Super Dry Japan Gold Disc Awards- Song of the Year — Free&Easy Japan Gold Disc Awards- Song of the Year — H Japan Gold Disc Awards- Song of the Year — Voyage Japan Gold Disc Awards- Rock/Pop Album of the Year — A Ballads Japan Gold Disc Awards- Rock/Pop Album of the Year — & Japan Gold Disc Awards- Rock/Pop Album of the Year — Memorial address Japan Gold Disc Awards- Artist of the Year The Japan Record Awards- Gold Prize — No way to say The Japan Record Awards- The Award — No way to say 130 million people choose best artist award – Best artist All Japan Request Awards- Grand Prix MTV World Music Awards- Best Japanese Pop/Rock Artist Oricon Chart Awards- Best Selling Album Title Award Oricon Chart Awards- Best Hit Award Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan Best Jeanist Association- Best Jeanist of the year
2004	Hito Awards Taiwan – Best foreign Artist Hito Awards Japan – Moments 130 million people choose best artist award – Best artist Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan Best Jeanist Association- Best Jeanist of the year
2005	Best Jeanist-Best Jeanist – Now on Hall of Fame for winning best Jeanist 5 times. 130 million people choose best artist award – Best artist Hito Awards Taiwan – Best foreign Artist Hito Awards Japan – my name's Women Musicnet Awards – Best Album (My Story) Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan Best Selling solo and female Japanese Artist Awards (Worldwide Award)
2006	Best Looking Female Solo Artist Japan & China Rank 2nd Total Female Artist Album Sales Rank 1st Total Female Artist Single Sales (more than 20,000,000 single copies) Oricon Awards – Hat Beauty Oricon Awards – Summer Fashion Beauty Oricon Awards – Best Autumn Hairstyle Oricon Awards – Best Skin No. 1 in HIT FM Asia Music Chart Musicnet Awards – Best Artist Musicnet Awards – Best Album (miss) understood Musicnet Awards – Best Single (Heaven) Musicnet Awards – Best Concert Video (Arena Tour 2005 ~My Story~) CDTV Awards – My Fashion Leader 130 million people choose best artist award – Best artist Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan The Japanese artist with all Original Albums ranked no.1 consecutively from Debut Album
2007	First female solo artist in 36 years who have simultaneously occupied the top two positions at the album chart The only artist to hold onto both the #1 and #2 positions at the United World Chart (album) Best Selling Female & Solo Japanese Artist in history 4th Best Selling Japanese Artist in history Oricon Awards – Deeply Impressed Eyes Beauty award Oricon Awards – Favorite Artist to wear kimono Oricon Awards – Best Spring Hairstyle Oricon Awards – Rank 5th Best Spring TV-CM Tie-up (part of Me, Panasonic Lumix FX30) Oricon Awards – Rand 4th Best Summer TV-CM Tie-up (glitter, Zespri Goldkiwi) RTHK International Awards - Best Japanese Song of the Year - Secret Rank 1st in the voting for 'Koisora' Movie theme song Sanspo Awards – Best Female Hairstyle of Japan

References

• ayumi hamasaki official website (Japanese/Chinese/English)
• Oricon Style
• HMV

External links

Official sites

• Ayumi Hamasaki Official website
  • Template:Ja icon Ayumi Hamasaki Official Fanclub