Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Jeebus Likes J-Pop Idols (Part 2): Ayumi Hamasaki

浜崎 あゆみ (Hamasaki Ayumi, born October 2, 1978) is an award-winning J-Pop singer. Commonly known simply as "Ayu", Ayumi Hamasaki is one of the most popular and influential Japanese pop singers, and has been dubbed “The Empress of JPop”. She was born and raised in Fukuoka and moved to Tokyo to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Since her debut in 1998 with her first single poker face, she has sold more than 45 million records in Japan alone, with the releases of her eight full-length studio albums, one mini-album, four compilation albums, 41 singles, and several non-studio albums, being the top selling solo and female artist and the fourth top selling Japanese artist in history. With the release of her 40th single Blue Bird, Hamasaki's single sales have passed the 20 million mark, making her the first solo and female singer to reach that milestone.

With the release of her 39th single Startin' / Born to be... in 2006, Hamasaki became the female solo artist with most #1-hits. To date, Ayumi has 28 #1 singles and 39 singles in the Top 10 of the Japanese Oricon charts. She has 16 consecutive #1 singles to date (starting from Free & Easy). Hamasaki is also the first Japanese artist to have her first original eight studio albums top the charts.

TomC

Devil Rays Lose Football Game To Red Sox

Mike Lowell had four hits and Kevin Youkilis delivered a bases-loaded triple during a six-run sixth inning Tuesday night as the Boston Red Sox rallied from a seven-run deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 16-10.

"It didn't start out looking that great; 8-1 is not really the formula," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "But we made them go to the bullpen, and then we made them continue to go to the bullpen. We didn't abandon what we were trying to do, and we were rewarded for it."

Pitching against a team he has dominated throughout his career, Tim Wakefield gave upseven runs in three-plus innings as the Devil Rays jumped ahead. But Boston scored four in the fourth and three in the fifth before taking the lead in the sixth and making it 16-9 in the seventh on solo homers by David Ortiz and J.D. Drew.

Rookies Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia also homered for Boston.

GO SOX!

TomC