ayumi hamasaki

Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎あゆみ Hamasaki Ayumi, born October 2, 1978) is a Japanese singer originally from Fukuoka. In her homeland she is commonly called by her nickname Ayu. Since 2001, she has been arguably the single most successful J-Pop singer in terms of sales and popularity. She has an aversion to singing in the English language, and writes her own lyrics. She is one of Japan's most prolific recording artists, having released 26 albums and 54 singles as of January 2005. One reason for this is that her record company releases most of her albums in multiple versions, such as trance remix, eurobeat remix and orchestral versions. Recently she started to write some of her own music with the pen name CREA named after one of her beloved dogs; her single 'M' was the first time she ever wrote music and lyrics altogether. At one point, four of Hamasaki's albums were among Japan's top ten best-sellers. She is also the only individual to win the Japan Recording Award (日本レコード大賞) three years in a row, in 2001 (for "Dearest"), 2002 (for "Voyage"), and 2003 (for "No way to say"). Before her musical debut in 1998 with the single "Poker Face," Hamasaki was a tarento, a kind of Japanese idol who appears in photo-books, TV commercials and so on. Even though her major label debut was in 1998, she released one album and one single in 1995 featuring her song Nothing from Nothing. Her record label AVEX Records also commissioned a series of remix albums called ayu-mi-x featuring DJ's from around the world.

Discography

Japanese Singles

1998/04/08 - poker face - PEAK: 20 - SALES: 43,150
1998/06/10 - YOU - PEAK: 20 - SALES: 78,260
1998/08/05 - TRUST - PEAK: 9 - SALES: 181,820
1998/10/07 - For My Dear... - PEAK: 9 - SALES: 74,440
1998/12/09 - Depend on you - PEAK: 6 - SALES: 131,460
1999/02/10 - WHATEVER - PEAK: 5 - SALES: 189,610
1999/04/14 - LOVE ~Destiny~ - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 648,340
1999/05/12 - TO BE - PEAK: 4 - SALES: 324,500
1999/07/14 - Boys & Girls - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 1,037,950
1999/08/11 - A - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 1,630,540 ^
1999/11/10 - appears - PEAK: 2 - SALES: 290,550 (Limited to 300,000 copies)
1999/12/08 - kanariya - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 289,200 (Limited to 300,000 copies)
2000/02/09 - Fly high - PEAK: 3 - SALES: 299,540 (Limited to 300,000 copies)
2000/04/26 - vogue - PEAK: 3 - SALES: 767,660
2000/05/17 - Far away - PEAK: 2 - SALES: 510,460
2000/06/07 - SEASONS - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 1,367,400
2000/09/27 - SURREAL - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 417,210
2000/11/01 - AUDIENCE - PEAK: 2 - SALES: 292,950 (Limited to 300,000 copies)
2000/12/13 - M - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 1,319,070
2001/01/31 - the other side ONE: Hex Hector - PEAK: 33 - SALES: 9,660 (Limited to 10,000 copies)
2001/01/31 - the other side TWO: Junior Vasquez - PEAK: 10 - SALES: 54,380 (Limited to 55,000 copies)
2001/01/31 - the other side THREE: Thunderpuss / Soul Solution - PEAK: 12 - SALES: 49,530 (Limited to 50,000 copies)
2001/01/31 - the other side FOUR: System F / Vincent De Moor - PEAK: 11 - SALES: 53,840 (Limited to 55,000 copies)
2001/01/31 - evolution - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 955,250
2001/02/28 - poker face - PEAK: 31 - SALES: 23,570 (re-release)
2001/02/28 - YOU - PEAK: 25 - SALES: 36,230 (re-release)
2001/02/28 - TRUST - PEAK: 29 - SALES: 24,470 (re-release)
2001/02/28 - For My Dear... - PEAK: 33 - SALES: 22,270 (re-release)
2001/02/28 - Depend on you - PEAK: 27 - SALES: 28,450 (re-release)
2001/02/28 - WHATEVER - PEAK: 28 - SALES: 27,560 (re-release)
2001/02/28 - LOVE ~Destiny~ - PEAK: 20 - SALES: 39,080 (re-release)
2001/02/28 - TO BE - PEAK: 26 - SALES: 28,850 (re-release)
2001/03/07 - NEVER EVER - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 756,980
2001/05/16 - Endless sorrow - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 765,790
2001/07/11 - UNITE! - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 571,110
2001/09/27 - Dearest - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 750,420
2001/11/21 - Excerpts from ayu-mi-x III: 001 - PEAK: 44 - SALES: 20,560 (Limited edition)
2001/11/21 - Excerpts from ayu-mi-x III: 002 - PEAK: 31 - SALES: 17,810 (Limited edition)
2001/11/21 - Excerpts from ayu-mi-x III: 003 - PEAK: 36 - SALES: 17,350 (Limited edition)
2001/11/21 - Excerpts from ayu-mi-x III: 004 - PEAK: 35 - SALES: 17,180 (Limited edition)
2001/11/21 - Excerpts from ayu-mi-x III: 005 - PEAK: 32 - SALES: 15,650 (Limited edition)
2001/11/21 - Excerpts from ayu-mi-x III: 006 - PEAK: 30 - SALES: 16,010 (Limited edition)
2001/12/12 - a song is born - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 441,410
2002/03/06 - Daybreak - PEAK: 2 - SALES: 178,120 (Limited to 300,000 copies)
2002/04/24 - Free & Easy - PEAK: 1 - SALES: ?
2002/07/24 - }{ - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 1,078,240 ^^
2002/09/26 - Voyage - PEAK: 1 - SALES ?
2003/07/09 - & - PEAK: 1 - SALES ? ^^^
2003/08/20 - forgiveness - PEAK: 1 - SALES ?
2003/11/06 - No way to say - PEAK: 1 - SALES ?
2004/03/31 - Moments - PEAK: 1 - SALES 301,840
2004/07/28 - INSPIRE - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 329,150 ^^^^
2004/09/29 - CAROLS - PEAK: 1 - SALES: 301,280
2005/04/20 - STEP you/is this love? - PEAK: ? - SALES: ?

^ A is a quadruple a-side single (monochrome, too late, Trauma, End roll). In addition, a total of 7 variants of the CD released, 6 of them being limited edition (530,000 copies in total of limited edition variants were pressed). ^^ }{ is a triple a-side single (independent, July 1st, HANABI). In addition, a total of 4 different colours were released, 3 being limited edition versions. To celebrate sales of 1,000,000 for the single, a limited fold out digipack version was reissued featuring all four original covers. ^^^ & is a triple a-side single (ourselves, Greatful Days, HANABI~episode II~). It also featured the 2003 theme song to the A Nation concerts sung by all the performers at the end of every A Nation concert for that year. ^^^^ INSPIRE is a double a-side single (also features a song entitled GAME).