Hamasaki Ayumi was born in the Fukuoka Prefecture of Japan on October 2, 1978 and was primarily raised by her grandmother despite the fact that she lived with her mother. Hamasaki has said that she was raised in a liberal household, where she was expected to make her own independent decisions without assistance seeing as her mother was frequently out working in order to support the family.
As a child, Hamasaki dreamed of pursuing a modeling career but her wish was not initially granted when she landed herself a position at a local bank. However, during her time at high school she was considered a delinquent due to her dyed hair and her manner of dress, which was considered highly unconventional in Japan at the time. After a brief period, she decided to abandon her education and moved to Tokyo to fully pursue her desire to become a model.
Hamasaki was featured in several low budget dramas such as miseinen and B-movies like Sumomomomomo, but failed to generate interest for a modeling career due to her height. As a result of her rejection, she spent her days wandering the streets of Shibuya shopping and dancing at nightclubs. It was during this time that her future producer Max Matsuura discovered her while she was singing karaoke at such a club.
Matsuura was impressed by Hamasaki's vocal talent and approached her with the proposition of a singing career. She later revealed in an interview that she agreed to Matsuura plans "only because I had nothing to do." Hamasaki was contracted to attend vocal training in Tokyo but she discontinued her lessons when she found the process far too rigid. Matsuura later sent her to enhance her vocal abilities in New York, where she found the more relaxed teaching style of the school to her liking. Impressed by the writing style in Hamasaki's letters to him, Matsuura suggested that she should try her hand at writing lyrics for her own songs.
It was in 1998 when Hamasaki made her musical debut with the single poker face. The single debuted at number 22 on the Oricon charts and sold around 43,000 copies. It was only with the release of Depend on you that she broke the Oricon Top Ten, and with the release of her first album A Song for XX in 1999 she found her first number one. A Song for XX was rapidly certified as a platinum selling album. Hamasaki's first certified platinum maxi-single came with the release of Boys & Girls; it only rose to the number one spot on the Oricon charts a week after its initial release due to Ami Suzuki's single dominating the charts.
Hamasaki's highest selling maxi-single to date has been the rather simply titled A, selling more than 1,600,000 copies. It was in 2000 that Hamasaki's career sparked a seeming "Ayu craze" with her introduction as one of KOSE’s spokeswomen and promoting a brand of their lipstick, leading to a record 500,000 units sold over a mere two days. Hamasaki also became a spokesperson for the telephone company TU-KA and it was at this precise moment that she was at the height of her popularity in Japan.
With the release of her third original album, Duty, accompanied by the release of the limited pressing maxi-single SURREAL and the DVD Ayumi Hamasaki Concert Tour 2000 A, Hamasaki became the first female artist to top all three charts in one week.
The release of M saw Hamasaki taking a more creative role with her music, as it was later revealed that the composer CREA was in fact Hamasaki herself. The year 2001 signaled a controversy when Hamasaki's first best-of album A BEST was placed in direct competition with Utada Hikaru’s album Distance due to a postponed release date. It has, however, been made clear since the incident that it was against Hamasaki's wishes to release a best-of album since she felt that there was a distinct lack of material.
Following the postponed release date of her fourth album I am
, stock prices for avex trax fell, a clear sign of the influence Hamasaki wielded. It has been estimated that around the period of 2000 and 2001, Hamasaki accounted for around 40% of avex’s profit. In December 2001, Hamasaki collaborated with KEIKO of GLOBE on a non-profit single that helped raise money and awareness for the victims of September 11th.
The release of Free & Easy signaled another change in Hamasaki's approach to her singles: this was the first single in years to contain only two remixes alongside the title track. Voyage, alongside the single itself, featured a short film Tsuki ni shizumu which had Hamasaki as the lead. It should be noted that this was Hamasaki's first time playing such an active role since her days as an idol. Voyage also topped the Oricon chart for a total of three weeks, Hamasaki's first and only single ever to have done so.
Her following album RAINBOW came out in the December of 2002 and despite selling over 1,000,000 copies, it was the first album since A Song for XX that failed to sell over 2 million units. The album had a gigantic promotional campaign, where the buyers of the more expensive initial pressing could access a password-only site that featured an instrumental version of the album’s title track RAINBOW not found on the album. Once online, the buyers themselves could submit their own lyrics and suggestions for the song. It is rumoured that over 100,000 people accessed this special website while it was online.
In early 2003, Hamasaki made her European debut with the German trance label drizzly records. Connected was released in Germany, Spain and Belgium with little promotion and mananged to peak at number 18 on the Official Dance Charts in Germany.
In December, Hamasaki released her first mini-album Memorial address. This particular mini-album was unique in the fact that every song featured (aside from the bonus track) had its own accompanying music video. Memorial address made her the first solo female artist to have a mini-album that sold over a million copies.
In 2004, an internal feud within avex trax occurred. A disagreement between Max Matsuura and Yoda, an executive of the company, sparked rumours that Hamasaki and other popular artists such as Hiro, Every Little Thing, Hitomi and Do As Infinity would leave the company and continue elsewhere with Matsuura. With these rumours circulating wildly, avex trax once again suffered as their stock prices fell. Ultimately, Yoda resigned, effectively ending the feud. It was after this incident that Hamasaki announced that she would no longer participate in any major music award events.
Hamasaki's trance series was continued within Germany in March with the single Depend on You and featured remixes from Svenson & Gielen and DJ SHOG. This was followed with the release of Naturally in late October, which included remixes by Wippenberg. The following year saw the release of the final two singles of Hamasaki's trance series: appears and UNITE!.
In late 2005 a noticeable change in Hamasaki's musical style was seen with the release of the maxi-single Bold & Delicious/Pride, which made disastrously low sales in comparison to Hamasaki's other works. With the release of her seventh original album (miss) understood selling 650,000 copies and reaching number one on the World Global Charts, her popularity seemed to have returned.
Hamasaki's 39th single Startin' / Born To Be... debuted at number one and subsequently shattered the record for most number one singles in Japan by a female solo artist, previously held by Seiko Matsuda. After the release of this single she embarked on her longest tour to date: Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2006 ~(miss)understood~ which spanned over three months and had 30 stops.
Hamasaki released her eighth full-length album in November of 2006. Entitled Secret, the album was originally said to be her second mini-album, but official sources verified that Secret would in fact be a full-length venture in October. Hamasaki raised media attention over the music video for the ballad JEWEL, which displayed a estimated $900,000 worth of diamonds, jewels and Swarovski crystals.
Secret is also widely believed to be Hamasaki's most successful international album to date. Not only did the album top the Japanese Oricon, it attained number one status in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and China, widely surpassing that of (miss)understood's success.
In February 2007, Hamasaki released two compilation albums: A BEST 2 -BLACK- and A BEST 2 -WHITE-. The white version of the album contains her more upbeat songs while the black contained her darker songs, plus a new song Part of Me. Both albums achieved number one status, with A BEST 2 -BLACK- selling 470,057 and A BEST 2 -WHITE selling 475,284 copies in their first week respectively. Both albums also dominated the top of the United World Charts as well.
This set another record for Hamasaki as she became the first female artist in 36 years that occupied both the number one and number two place on the Oricon Album Chart. It should also be noted that she is also the first artist to have done the same on the United World Charts.
From March to June, Hamasaki held an Asian tour, Tour of Secret, that took place in Japan, Taiwan, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Due to the high anticipation surrounding her first tour outside of Japan, tickets for the Taiwanese concert sold out in less than two hours, the tickets for the performance in Hong Kong in under three hours and for Shanghai, under six hours.
In July, Hamasaki released her 41st single glitter / fated which featured a short movie shot in Hong Kong. Unlike the short film that accompanied Voyage, the film featured a main male role, depicted by Shawn Yue. The film, Distance Love, was shown in brief clips throughout the duration of the music video for glitter and ended on a cliff hanger, tying into the video for fated which was aired on July 14th.
talkin' 2 myself signalled Hamasaki's lowest selling single since Depend on you, perhaps in part due to the release of the song on mu-mo a whole month beforehand. November signalled the release of the artist's videography in its near entirety for download only. Forty of her music videos charted in Recochoku's Top 100 and only seventeen did not. Her highest downloaded video was momentum, which reached position 6 despite being released a year previously.
In December, Hamasaki followed the trend that has been sweeping the world recently, the artist released her first digital single and reached the top spot on the weekly chart of iTunes Japan Top Songs, Oricon Mobile Full Song and mu-mo Song Download Chart to name a few. In early December, she was announced as the highest earning artist of 2007 and second national best-selling artist of 2007.
At the beginning of 2008, GUILTY was released to the public. As Hamasaki's ninth full-length studio album, it was also her first album on avex trax not to reach the number one spot after two weeks of sales. Hamasaki announced on January 4th through her blog that she had lost all hearing in her left ear due to performing. The artist stated, however, that she would continue performing regardless until she lost hearing in her right ear.
In April, Hamasaki released her 10th anniversary single on April 8th, exactly ten years after her debut, poker face was issued. The single peaked at number one on the Oricon and despite falling to number two the following day, achieved a weekly sale of 146,000 copies. This signalled her 30th number one single, her 18th number one single in a row and, as of May, the highest number of units sold for a solo female artist in 2008.
Hamasaki also embarked on her second Asian tour from April through to June and again from September to October. Alike her previous Asian tour, she performed in Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In addition, she also performed for the first time in Korea and Singapore.
The release of A Complete: All Singles in September to further commemorate her 10th anniversary, ranged from her debut Poker face to her latest Mirrorcle World. According to the Oricon’s Yearly Album Chart, the album became the 8th bestselling album of 2008 and the third highest selling album by a female artist. Within Taiwan, the release became the highest selling Japanese album of 2008. Hamasaki‘s last single release of 2008 Days/Green, signalled another number one hit for the artist.
With the arrival of 2009, Hamasaki was selected to perform the international theme for the release of the movie “Dragonball Evolution,” which aired in Japanese cinemas beginning from March. The single which tied in with the release was entitled Rule/Sparkle and became Hamasaki’s 20th consecutive number one single. This feat also made her the first solo and female artist to achieve such a standing in the history of the Oricon chart.
The same month also saw the release of her tenth studio album Next Level and Hamasaki became one of the first artists in the world to have an album released in USB flash drive format. The album, which peaked at the number one position on the Oricon, set yet another new record for Hamasaki. This artist has become the only musician to have had a number one album for 11 consecutive years.
On August 12th, Hamasaki released her forty-sixth single Sunrise/Sunset: Love Is All, with one of the songs being used as the theme song for television drama “Dandy Daddy?” Once again, the single peaked at number one on the Oricon and became her 44th single overall to peak in the Oricon Top 10. With this came the announcement that Hamasaki now holds the record for such a feat, surpassing the likes of Southern All Stars, SMAP, ZARD and B’z.
Hamasaki’s final single for the year was released on December 29th and entitled You Were…/Ballad . The first song on the single was used as the theme song for the Japanese version of the Disney film “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure.” She also appeared on the 60th Kouhaku Uta Gassen on December 31st, performing the song Rule.
One can only commend Hamasaki Ayumi for her perseverance over the years, particularly in the field that she works in, where faces come and go all of the time. Her endurance and willingness to attempt any art in any shape or form is definitely something to be applauded and with her successful career stretching behind her, one can only hope that it will continue for years to come.
