Ayumi Hamasaki is one of the most influential singer / songwriters in Japanese pop music. She has sold over 40 million records and is considered one of the most prolific of Japanese artists. Her nickname is the "Empress of J-Pop".
Ayumi Hamasaki was born in Fukuoka, Japan on October 2, 1978. She was mainly raised by her grandmother. Ayumi Hamasaki had a liberal childhood, and was allowed to make her own decisions growing up, which caused her friction with her teachers. During her teenage years she began working as a model, frequently traveling between Fukuoka and Tokyo. In the middle of her high school years she changed talent agencies from the modeling-centered SOS agency to Sun Music. She stopped doing as much modeling and focused on acting in television dramas as assigned by her new talent agency, but found this to be unsatisfying.
At the age of 17, Ayumi Hamasaki released her first album, "Nothing from Nothing", a rap album which did very poorly. This caused Ayumi Hamasaki to turn away from music for a time, but she was encouraged to try again by record producer Masato Matsuura, and after a trip to New York which allowed her to try recording at a more relaxed pace, she was emboldened to give it another try. In 1998, Ayumi Hamasaki released the single "poker face", which placed at 22 on the Oricon music charts (the Japanese equivalent to the Billboard music charts in America). "Trust", her third single, was able to reach the Oricon Top Ten. She started to increase in popularity and was able to place at number one on the charts at the beginning of 1999 with the album "A Song for XX". Since then every one of her albums has reached number one, and she has released often more than one a year, including "LOVEppears", "Duty", "A BEST", "I am...", "RAINBOW", "A BALLADS", "Memorial address", "MY STORY", "(miss)understood", and "Secret". Ayumi Hamasaki has sold over 40 million records over the course of her career and as of early 2007 continues to work in music prolifically.