2/23/2007

Namie Amuro - the dethroned Queen of Pop after her fame was eclipsed by Ayumi Hamasaki. Ouch. But that hasn’t stopped Namie from performing and churning out music over the years. She was noted in her early years for her Westernized dance music and popularized fashion whose followers came to be nicknamed Amurā (Amurer in English). Debuting in 1992 as part of the quintet, Super Monkey’s, she later debuted solo in 1995 to phenomenal success with producer Tetsuya Komuro. Severing her ties with Komuro in 2001, Amuro has reestablished herself as a R&B artist. Her last album, Queen of Hip-Pop (2005) debuted at #2 and has been certified double platinum since its release. She has nine #1 singles, five of which have sold over 1,000,000 copies.

Namie Amuro was born in Naha City, Okinawa, Japan. She is the daughter of Emiko Taira who is Japanese-Italian. Emiko’s father’s identity is unknown. Amuro is the last of three children Emiko had with her biological father before their divorce. Amuro’s parents divorced when she was a toddler.

Amuro got her start when she was discovered by Masayuki Makino, the president of Okinawa Actors’ School, after coming along with a friend who was currently enrolled in the school. It was him who later at the age of 14 placed her in a group called Super Monkeys along with Minako Ameku, Nanako Takushi, Hisako Arakaki and Anna Makino. They left the school and made their major label debut with the double a-side single, “Koi no Cute Beat / Mr. USA” on September 15, 1992 on Toshiba-EMI.

After she got out of the band, Namie became a single artist and a succesful one at that. She took a little hiatus in the year 1998 to give birth to her baby, her fame declined. Mostly due to the fact that she hadn’t done any promotional work and the fact that being married with a kid takes a blow on your music career as you are longer as cool as a young, chic and hip popstar.

However, in 2004 until present, Namie’s stardom is on the rise again and she is back in full force armed with new genres (she immersed herself in R&B in the interim period) and a new look. Read more about it here.

I think her songs are pretty good. Check them out:

Baby Don’t Cry

Can’t Sleep

No

Enjoy!

Source: Wikipedia