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ABOUT AYU>> |
BirthDate: 2nd October 1978
BirthPlace: Fukuoka Prefecture
Zodiac: Libra
Blood type: A
Height: 5'1" (156cm)
Weight:
88lsb (~40Kg)
Measurement: 80-53-82
Record label:
Talents: Playing piano, flower arranging, drawing, ballet, can write with left
and right hands.
Favorite
Female Entertainers:
Keiko (Globe), Rie Miyazawa, Seiko Matsuda
Musical
Influences:
As a child I listened to rock music (Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple), influenced by
a relative. Now I like listening to soul music such as Babyface and En Vogue.
Favorite
Actors:
Nicolas Cage, Rie Miyazawa
Favorite
Movies:
The Bodyguard, Betty Blue, Leaving Las Vegas People
I Dislike:
Liars, people who don't say hello.
Current
Interest:
Collecting white things for my room
Favorite
Food:
Sashimi, sweets, cake, chocolate, kimchi (Korean marinated cabbage)
Disliked food:
Favorite
Books:
Most of the fashion magazines. Modern-language translations of the Manyo tanka
poems are especially interesting. Poems of Natsuo Giniro, Mitsuo Aida, etc.
Lessons:
Piano, Japanese calligraphy (5th rank), abacus calculation, Japanese flower
arrangement, Kumonshiki study system
About
My Lyrics:
I like to try to view my own and my friends' experiences objectively, and put
my honest feelings into words. If I write when I'm low, it will be a dark
song, but I don't care. I want to be honest with myself at all times.
To be honest. To be myself. This is easy to say, but difficult to do. Nowadays
the world is full of greed and lies, and most people just stand aside avoiding
trouble. But some people do strive toward their dreams and try to be
themselves. Such people shine and make the rest of us willing to support them.
Hamasaki Ayumi [
People
I Respect:
People
who have things I don't have.
Ayumi Hamasaki released her debut single "poker face" on April 4, 1998. Ayumi
chose to be an artist to express her true self and feelings, and took a trip
to New York in the summer of 1997 to take vocal lessons.
A debut as an artist... how could she succeed as a professional singer? What
would she have to do? With no answer to these questions, Ayumi flew to New
York full of anticipation and fear. Sensitive as she is, Ayumi not only
developed her skills as a vocalist, but also developed mentally by coming
across fresh ideas unknown in Japan and by watching the self-confident
behavior of New Yorkers.
"To tell the truth, I was very anxious at first. But I was encouraged by the
sight of young children living earnestly, and valuing themselves honestly
without hesitation. In New York, I made many technical achievements, and
moreover, I grew stronger at heart."
Now mature both as a vocalist and a person, Ayumi started writing lyrics as
soon as she returned to Japan. Her style is to view her own and her friends'
experiences objectively, and to write about them in her own honest words. In
"poker face," she writes about strength within sorrow.
"At first, the song was about a weaker girl," Ayumi remembers. "But you can
cry anytime, and I wanted to smile at those sad, lonely moments. I rewrote the
lyrics over and over, and finally finished the song the day before the vocal
recording."
Starting with this debut single, Ayumi has written all the lyrics of the songs
she releases. The lyrics won't include fake thoughts or even flights of
imagination. As Ayumi says,
"I don't want to lose myself or lie to myself. I
don't feel much stress about being myself. It's not difficult for me. It's
just being natural. Being true to yourself isn't something you strive for."
The music on "poker face" is produced by Yasuhiko Hoshino (composition) and
Akimitsu Honma (arrangement). The track is done in a pop style that captures
the essence of the 80s sound. Its melody blends seamlessly with the world
described in Ayumi's lyrics, and sweetly embraces her lonesome touching voice.
"When I received the song's tape, I thought 'What a difficult song!' When I
made a trial recording with the first lyrics (before rewriting), I hated it.
But with the current lyrics, I could feel the song at once... and could sing
it better than any other song I had tried. My voice came out naturally and the
song became so much mine that I forgot I'd thought it was difficult."
Brilliant vocal technique perfecting difficult songs. Talented lyrics of
honest feeling. Ayumi's rise has just begun. Look for her to soon make a name
for herself as a top artist.
Credit: Kazuki Okabe
Source of strength for young people searching for a place of their own.
Ayumi writes her own lyrics, lyrics that express an image of herself that is
true to life. Her songs speak of heartache, loneliness and despair, the
importance of accepting and believing in ourselves just as we are, seeing
failure in love as energy to go forward, and offering the encouragement that
"I (ayu) am right here with you."
In an article in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on June 2, 2001 copywriter Maeda
Tomomi noted, Today's younger generation suffers from a real thirst from-they
are desperately seeking words with the power to rescue them. Many teenagers
shed tears of relief when they hear songs like those of Hamasaki Ayumi-whose
lyrics are embarrassingly straightforward for anyone of my age-grasping for
the strength and solace they offer. You can tell that the adults in their
lives aren't offering any support or advice-even moralistic that really
resonates in their hearts." She continues to offer hope and companionship to
those frustrated by what they feel is a world with no future, to those who
can't see where they belong.
A Song for XX
This song has special meaning for Hamasaki. She sings of a past self, at a
point when she could not accept herself because of the complex situation
surrounding her parents divorce. "ayu had cut herself off from everything,
shut up behind walls in every directions," she recalls in a magazine
interview, "That I could write and sing such a song made it possible for me to
move forward."
{ There was no place for me. I couldn't find it anywhere,
Unsure I could even count on the future.
Believing in someone only meant betrayal in the end;
only meant rejection someday.
They kept on saying, "What a brave kid you are!"
They kept praising: "How strong you are, not to cry!"
And the more they said these things,
The more even smiling was agony.
I used to thing I was born all alone and would go through life on my own
I thought every day would be that way. }
To Be
"When I stopped to thing what hopes I really cherished, I realized I was
holding out hope for people other than me, in other words for the existence of
humanity itself. The "you" in this song refers to such people, "she explained
in the interview.
{ Everyone just passed by,
They didn't even notice, this hopeless thing,
But you clutched me tightly to you.
People started from a distance, looking puzzled.
But you'd laugh and exclaim, "My treasure!"
How painful it was to protect this,
What have you sacrificed for my sake?
I can't become pure,
But I'II shine in my own special way.
'Cause you were there, I could laugh at anything.
'Cause you were there, I could laugh at anything.
I could cry. I was really living.
Without you, there would have been nothing. }