Because of her constantly changing image and tight control over her artistry, Hamasaki has become a “trendsetter” and an “icon of fashion” in Asia;[5] her popularity and influence in music and fashion extend to China, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. She has appeared in or lent her songs to many advertisements and television commercials. Though she originally supported this, a 2001 event in which Avex forced her to put her greatest hits album in direct competition with Hikaru Utada’s Distance made Hamasaki reconsider and eventually oppose her status as an Avex “product”.

Since her 1998 debut with the single “Poker Face”, Hamasaki has sold around 50 million records, making her one of Japan’s best-selling singers. Her singles have set records: she is the Japanese female artist with the highest singles sales, most number-one singles, and most million-seller singles.[fn 1] She is also the only Japanese artist to have a number-one single every year for ten years straight and the first to have her first eight studio albums top the Oricon.

Hamasaki was born in Fukuoka Prefecture and raised by her mother and grandmother, as her father had left the family when she was three and never again came into contact with her. Because her mother worked to support the family, Hamasaki’s grandmother became her primary caretaker.

Hamasaki began her modeling career at seven, working locally for institutions such as banks to earn money for the family. At fourteen, she moved from Fukuoka to Tokyo to take modeling jobs under SOS, a talent agency. Although she got good grades at first, she decided that the subjects she was taking were of no use to her; her grades then dropped drastically and she became a delinquent. Her modeling career did not last long; SOS deemed her too short to be a model and transferred her to Sun Music, a musicians’ agency. Under Sun, Hamasaki released Nothing from Nothing, her first album, on the Nippon Columbia label. This rap album, released under the name “Ayumi”, failed to chart on the Oricon; Hamasaki was soon dropped by Sun.

The talent agencies had provided dormitories; needing somewhere to live, Hamasaki began acting in B-movies and television dorama. The projects she acted in, including the B-movies Gakko II and Ladys Ladys!! Soucho Saigo no Hi and dorama Miseinen, were not well-received by the public. Though she had entered Horikoshi Gakuen, a high school for the arts, she left shortly afterward. Dissatisfied with her job, Hamasaki soon quit her acting career as well. When her mother moved to Tokyo, she moved in with her.[9] As she “thought of nothing [to do]” and was neither employed nor in school, Hamasaki spent much of her time shopping at Shibuya boutiques and dancing at Velfarre, an Avex-owned disco club.

At Velfarre, Hamasaki was introduced to her future producer, Max Matsuura, through a friend. Matsuura offered her a recording deal immediately after hearing her sing, but Hamasaki suspected ulterior motives and turned the offer down. He persisted until the following year, when she finally signed on to the Avex label and began vocal training.[12][10] Finding the instructors too rigid and the classes too dull, however,[10] she skipped most of her classes. When she confessed this to Matsuura, he sent her to New York for training. The writing in her messages to him from New York impressed him, and he suggested she try writing her own lyrics.

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Biography Source: wikipedia.org

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Ayumi Hamasaki