Namie Amuro Goes Platinum Again

Namie Amuro knows how to reinvent herself and is one of Japan’s best “million sellers”

Internationally known Japanese singer Namie Amuro (安室奈美恵) has achieved another career milestone! According to Japanese music & entertainment stats authority Oricon, the super popular diva’ s latest album “Best Fiction” has quickly sold over 1 million copies since it went on sale less than 3 weeks ago. By doing so Namie set a new Japanese music industry record for a solo female artist, reaching the Platinum status (selling over 1 million) while in 3 separate age groups…3 times when she was a teen, then when she was in her 20s and now after she turned 30!

Age 17~19

December, 1995 - Dance Tracks Vol.1 (1.87 million)

August, 1996 - Sweet 19 Blues (3.36 million)

August, 1997 - Concentration 20 (1.93 million)

Age 20~29

February, 1998 - 181920 (1.69 million)

Age 30~

August, 2008 - Best Fiction (1.09 million)*

* as of 8/08

Cover of Namie Amuro’s “Best Fiction”, CD+DVD edition

Namie Amuro still has plenty of pull with music fans both domestically in Japan and abroad. She has come a long way from a cute, trend setting j-pop teenage star singing to poppy tunes and Eurodance music to a sultry and mature single mother who has since switched her focus toward R&B and hip-hop. “Best Fiction” sold another 153,000 copies this past week since being released on July 30th and has so far tallied up 1,092,000 sales. This latest album for the songstress from Okinawa is a compilation of 17 of her best hits and the addition of new hit singles such as “Do Me More” and “Sexy Girl”.

“Best Fiction” is also the first female album to keep the top spot for 3 weeks in a row since Kumi Koda’s “Black Cherry” back in January of ‘07.

Cover of Namie Amuro’s album “Best Fiction”. It’s hard to believe the Japanese mega diva will be 31 next month!

Leah Dizon New Album

Leah Dizon’s latest single “Vanilla”, a R&B inspired party track was released on July 4th

Just when you thought the singing career of Eurasian gravure idol Leah Dizon ( リア・ディゾン) aka “The Blackship of Gravure” was a fluke, she’s back on Japan’s Oricon chart with her latest single “Vanilla”. It was just announced this past Friday that the song will be included in her upcoming 2nd album titled “Communication!!!” due to be released on August 20th.

This time around Leah didn’t just pen the lyrics herself, she’s also taken up the task of song writing. The super hot bikini model famous for her provocative poses says, “I think in order to express what I really feel, I need to be involved with every aspect. I face some language barrier so this is a good way for me to get my point across.”

Leah Dizon will kick off her solo Japan national concert tour in October and commented that she plans to apply what she learned from the live performance she did in Shibuya last year