Next in the line

I've done a quick search of google for Se7en however I haven't found a comprehensive website which depicts his life so I would postpone Se7en's post until later though he is one of my favourites, I will probably have to go to others though like Se7en I have found little on F.I.R. aswell so I don't know which artist to go to it'll probably end up to doing some artistes I like less(however I still like them) but very famous!

BoA Kwon

BoA Kwon

Born: November 5th 1986

Origin: Guri, South Korea

Years Active: 2000-present

Labels: SM Entertainment, Avex Trax

Selected Discography

Listen To My Heart: 1st Japanese Album - 2002

Sold: 932,200 copies in Japan and 13,000 in S.Korea.

Certified: 3x platinum

Oricon top 200: #1

Valenti: 2nd Japanese Album - 2003

Sold: 1,249,000 copies in Japan and 18,000 in S.Korea

Certified: Million

Oricon top 200: #1

Love & Honesty: 3rd Japanese Album -2004

Sold: 654,000 copies in Japan and 20,000 in S.Korea

Certified: 2x Platinum

Oricon top 200: #1

United World Chart: #1

Outgrow: 4th Japanese Album - 2006

Sold: 428,000 copies in Japan and 22,564 in S.Korea

Certified: 2x Platinum

Oricon top 200: #1

United World Chart: #2

Made In Twenty(20): 5th Japanese Album - 2007

Sold: 349,000 copies in Japan and 16,645 in S.Korea

Certified: Platinum

Oricon top 200: #1

United World Chart: #1

ID; Peace B: Debut and 1st Korean Album - 2000

Sold: 218,000 copies in S.Korea and 13,000 in Japan

Korean Top 200: #10

No.1: 2nd Korean Album - 2002

Sold: 572,000 in S.Korea and 14,000 in Japan

Korean Top 200: #1

Miracle: 2.5th Korean Album - 2002

Sold: 327,000 in S.Korea

Korean Top 200: #4

Atlantis Princess: 3rd Korean Album -2003

Sold: 343,000 in S.Korea

Korean Top 200: #1

My Name: 4th Korean Album - 2004

Sold: 217,160 in S.Korea

Korea Top 200: #1

Best of Soul: 1st Japanese Compilation Album -2005

Sold: 1,099,720 in Japan and 38,000 in S.Korea

Certified: Million

Oricon Top 200: #1

United World Chart: #1

At 13 with two years of training behind her BoA released her debut album ID; Peace B. The album became a success for this child star reaching the top 10 charts and selling more than 210,000 copies. SM Entertainment seeing her success decided to arrange for her music career in Japan with Avex Trax. Her first major success in Japan was her single Listen to My Heart reaching 5th on the Oricon charts and selling 180,000 copies. Her album with the same name was released in 2002. It debuted at #1 on the charts staying there for a total of 91 weeks selling over 1.3 million copies worldwide. After this album she released her second Korean Album No.1. This is her most sucessful Korean album to date selling over 572,000 copies which spourned a mini album "Miracle" selling 327,000 copies. To further solidify her amazing career she won the Artiste of the Year in South Korea, the youngest to receive this award.

Vanlenti became her next success in Japan peaking at #2 and selling over 200,000. The album reached #1 and sold over 1.25 million copies in Japan this makes her the highest and fastest selling Asian foreigner in Japanese history. The tour was subsequently sold out in Osaka and Nagoya in 15 minutes. The album became on of Japan's top selling albums of the year. Her Third Korean Album Atlantis Princess sold over 340,000 copies and won multiple awards.

She later released successful singles like Shine We Are! (#2) and Mily Way (#2). She released her third Japanese album Love and Honesty selling 650,000 copies selling near 1 million copies worldwide. Boa's fourth Korean Album My Name was a mark of aldulthood and sold 202,000 copies winning her, her second Daesang Awards at the 2004 MKMF Awards for "My Name".

In 2005 she won the Best Female Artist at m.net Music Festival. Her 15th single finally garnered her a #1 hit on the Oricon Charts making her the fifth non- Japanese singer to have a #1. Though make a secret was not as successful it still peaked at #3.

Outgrow became her fourth Japanese album and debuted at No.1 on the Oricon charts with 220,000 copies. At the end of 2005 BoA became the only foreigner to perform at the NHK Best Singers Contest for four years which would also be a tremendous achievement considering her age. Winter Love became BoA's second #1 single in Japan also marking her 20th birthday.

Though Made in Twenty (20) gave her her lowest first week sales she still debuted at #1 on the Oricon Charts.

A-mei Chang

A-mei Chang

Born: August 9th 1972

Origin: Taitung, Taiwan

Instruments: Guitar & Drums

Years Active: 1996-present

Company: EMI Taiwan

She is commonly named as a diva of Mandopop and known as the "Pride of Taiwan"

A-mei is a descendent of one of the Puyuma people one of the largest tribal groups in Taiwan. A-mei was interested in music since a young age and enjoyed performing in public. She was later discovered by Chang Yu Sheng who started her career as a singer.

In the beginning in 1996 many were attracted to this new singer who had begun her career singing with established artistes Chang Yu Sheng singing "The One I Love THe Most Hurts Me The Most" aswell as the theme song for UFO Radio Station. Her debut album "Sisters" attracted a lot of attention and immediately became a succes topping th Taiwan IFPI for 9 weeks and selling in excess of 1 million copies in Taiwan.

In June the next year she released her second album Bad Boy which emulated her debut albums success by topping the IFPI for 9 weeks and overselling it's predecessor, reaching 1.38 million copies in Taiwan, this amount of sales led A-mei to achieve the second highest selling album in Taiwanese history (Just a year into her career).

In 1998 she began her tour and later in the year was invited by Japanese TV NHK to perform in the prestigious annual ceremony "Asia Live Dream". She released her third album "Holding Hands" in October which was also well received by the public. Her next album "Can I Hug You, Lover" also became a hit seller winning many awards.

In 2002 A-mei released the album "Truth" with this album she finally won the award of "Best Female Vocalist of the Year" award at the "Golden Melody Awards" after being nominated for four years the win boosted her efforts into returning to the market.

In 2004 she again won the Favourite Artist: Taiwan at the MTV Asia Awards.

A-mei in 2005 was also the ambassafor of World Vision Taiwan. Later in the year she was invited to the Golden Horse Awards as a guest performer, at the event she amazed everyone with her rendition of classical film tunes.

In 2006 she released "I Want Happiness" which was an immediate success. In September at the MTV Mandarin Awards she was honoured with the title of MTV's Legendary Diva's.

Her latest album "Star" sold over 1 million copies emmulating the success of her most recent albums. She will be holding another Tour later expected to go on until 2009.

Future Plans

Like with my TV Series Blog I also have future plans for this blog to. I am going to carry on with the Artiste profile section and hopefully by the end of January I can really start adding all my favourite artistes e.g. A-mei Chang, Se7en, BoA etc. these will be the first on my list to add. I'm also thinking of adding maybe MV's onto this blog of my favourite artistes so you can see how good they really are. Even later on I will start adding poles onto the blog and of course I'll start properly designing it once I have time as at the moment it's just a place for me to write!

Rain

Rain (Jung Ji-Hoon)

Born on: June 25th 1982 (25)

Country: South Korea

Occupation: Singer, Actor, Model

Years Active: 2002-present

Labels: JYP Entertainment

Selected Discography:

2002: Vol 1 Bad Guy, 143,414 (Korea)

2003: Vol 2 How To Avoid the Sun, 166,731 (Korea)

2004: Vol 3 It's Raining, 202,76 (Korea)

2006: Vol 4 Rain's World, 108,179 (Korea)

Rain was interested in R&B and Hiphop since a teenager and decided to form a boy band called "Fanclub" however they disbanded soon after. After the disbandment Rain was left in the hardest time in his life where having no money he had to take care of his sick mother and younger sister. Rain still had the dream of becoming a singer and though many thought he had the potential didn't decide to take him on. Finally JYP entertainment took him aboard. In 2002 he debuted with the successful album "Bad Guy". Later on he starred as the leading character in the drama series "Sang Doo! Let's Go To School" (I will be posting about this soon on my other blog). With both of these becoming a success showing his great versatility he began to draw a huge amount of fans and released his second album "Ways to Avoid the Sun". In 2004 he took time to star in another successful drama "Full House" becoming one of the highest rated Korean dramas of all time. This garnered him a Best Actor Award at the KBS Awards.

Rain's third album "It's Raining" was an international success with over 1 million copies sold over Asia. It topped charts in Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea. This success allowed him to open his first concert "Rainy Day" which was sold out in the first day. In 2004 Rain won many awards throughout Asia and became the first Asian to perform in the 2005 American MTV Video Music Awards. In 2005 Rain went on his Rainy Day 2005 Tour, going to Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong. All venues were sold out in a day with special mention to his Tokyo stop where all the tickets were sold out in 30 seconds.

His US concert "Rainy Day New York"in 2006 was sold out in a few days after being ranked second in Time Magazines most influential person of 2006. With Rain's contract ending with JYP Entertainment in June 2007 he has been talked to be joing Star M and rumours up to 10 Billion Won signing fee have been circulating around the business.

Ayumi Hamasaki

Age: 29

October 2 1978

Years active:199-1995, 1998-present

Label: Avex Trax

Selected Discograhy:

A Song For XX: First proper album staying on the Oricon album charts for 63 weeks aswell as selling a total of 2 million in the whole of Asia.

Loveppears: Ayumi's second album in a year selling a total of 3 million in Asia (2.5 million in Japan) combined with all the singles releases this selected track of songs garnered more than 7 million sales.

Duty: Sold 3.5 million in whole of Asia becoming her best selling album in Japan with 3 million.

I am: Ayumi's highest selling album to date with 3.75 million in Asia as well as a total sales including singles of 8 million.

(miss)understood: First album of Ayumi's to reach No.1 on the United World Chart garnering her sales of near 2 million.

Secret: Her most recent album selling in total of 2 million in Asia.

Best: Ayumi's first compilation album released in 2001 topping all charts and selling over 4 million copies.

Best 2 White: Ayumi's first compilation album to reach the United World Chart No.1 spot with sales of near 1 million.

Super Eurobeat presents Ayu-ro mix 2: Ayumi's first No.1 remix album selling near half a million.

Selected Singles:

Love ~Destiny~: Ayumi's first No.1 Singles selling over 600,000.

Boys & Girls: Ayumi's first singles to sell over 1 million.

A : Ayumi's first singles to reach in the top 3 of the yearly top singles at No.3, selling 1,670,000.

Seasons: No.5 single in year end sales of 1.3 million.

M: Selling 1.319 million and was the second best single of the year 2000.

Evolution: Her best song in 2001 reaching 7th and selling just under 1 million.

H: Ayumi's first single to be the best song of the year in 2002 selling just over 1 million.

Heaven: Ayumi's most legally downloaded song at 1.58 million.

She is dubbed as the Empress of J Pop, born in Fukuoka. Since her debut she has sold more than 45 million records in Japan alone making her the best selling female artiste in Japan's history aswell as the fourth best selling artiste in Japanese history. Her 40th single garnered her a total sales of 20 million in singles alone making her the first solo artiste to achieve that. To date all of Ayumi's albums have topped their charts being the only Japanese artiste to do so. She has the most No.1's out of all Japanese female artistes with 29 out of 39 since Startin'/ Born to be.

Ayumi left school at 15 because she didn't want to see that life again, it took a long time afterwards for her career to take flight. In 1998 she released her first single which she states she really dislikes maybe because her grandmother who took care of her died shortly before the release. In 2000 with the release of Duty, Ayumi Hamasaki Concert Tour 2000 and Surreal made her the first artiste to top three charts in the same week. At the end of 2000 she released M which became her fourth million selling single. In 2001 her rivalry with Utada Hikaru went to full flow where both of them released an album at the same time, both Utada and Ayumi's album were massive hits both selling in excess of 4 million becoming the No.1 and 2 album of the year however Ayumi believed she shouldn't have released a "Best" album so early in her career.

In 2003 her single & became her last single to sell over 500,000 to date. Her first mini album Memorial Address however made her the only female artiste to sell over 1 million in a mini album. In 2004 after a feud in Avex Trax she decided to stop participating in major music awards. In 2005 her 38th Single made her match a record that Seiko Matsuda was holding and that was most No.1's by a solo female artist: 25, she would eventually break that achieveing 29 to date. Hamasaki's 7th album (miss)understood also became her first album to reach the World Global Charts No.1 spot. Her 40th single Blue Bird outsold her competition in a single day garnering her 27th No.1. Hamasaki in 2006 filmed the MV Jewel which used near a million US dollars of crystals and diamonds making it one of the most expensive MV's. Though Secret is by no means her best selling album she gained the most international success with this album topping most worldwide charts.

Her first tour outside Japan garnered success for her where in Taiwan tickets for the concert were sold out in 2 hours, less than 3 hours in Hong Kong and six hours in Shanghai, the three places that it was held. In the concert at Hong Kong many famous musicians attended including Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Joey Yung & Eason Chan. A Best 2 the black version and white version were also successes topping the oricon charts aswell as being No.1 and No.2 respectively both also came third and fourth in the year end album sales. The two albums made her the first artiste in 36 years to place 1st and 2nd on the oricon charts and she became the first to do so on the United World Charts. In 2007 her No.1 glitter/fated tied her in another record of most consecutive years with No.1's (9) tying with Akina Nakamori who is now inactive. Her most recent single talin' 2 myself became the lowest first week sales since Love ~Destiny~ however still garnering her a No.1.

Because of the difficulty Ayumi had in her early years she has now been able to write emotive lyrics as all her songs are self written, she tends to write more about self-doubt, loneliness and hope instead of love which works better for the younger generation. Seasons one of her singles in 2000 won the Best Lyrics Prize at the Japan Record Awards.

With all the awards and records she has achieved she deserves the name of the Empress of Jpop.

Joey Yung

Joey Yung

Born on June 16th 1980

Record Label: EEG

Singer since 1999

Selected Discography:

EP1 Joey - Double Platinum

Who Will Love Me - Platinum

Love Joey - Double Platinum (Best Selling Album of 2001)

Solemn on Stage - Platinum (2002 Top Ten Best Selling Albums)

My Pride - Platinum (2003 Top Ten Best Selling Albums)

Nin9 2 5ive - Double Platinum (2004 Best Selling Studio Album)

Give Love a Break - Double Platinum (2004 Top Ten Best Selling Albums)

Love:Joey:Love - Double Platinum (2005 Top Ten Best Selling Albums)

Ten Most Wanted - (2006 Top Ten Best Selling Albums)

When she was 15 she begun singing with Go East after participating in many singing competitions. Her contract ended after one song leaving Joey to go back to school. Later on she became the pupil of Roman Tam the godfather of Cantopop. Her first EP garnered her success with EEG selling over 130,000 copies and stayed on the charts for 23 weeks. In less than 2 years she produced an album which won best selling album of the year. In 2003 with her song My Pride she won the best song of the year as well as garnering her first best female artiste of the year in all 4 award ceremonies, the second youngest to do so aswell as the Media award for most awards won by an artiste in a year! In 2004 she took this title again!

In 2004 the albums she has sold accumalated to more than 5 million copies sold, a great achievement for a Hong Kong artiste (HK has a population of 7 million)

She still garners these types of awards every year and is definitely the reigning Cantopop Queen of Hong Kong!

New ideas

From today on I will be posting about various artistes on this blog. It will be a facts list of some of my favourite artistes so you can get to know them better. It's not a daily or weekly thing it's just when I have spare time so check in every so often for them!

Artistes

This year has been a year for listening to new artistes and here are a few I should recommend to people who are interested:

BoA - Korea's highest selling artiste only at 21.

Recommended albums: All of them but the newer one ares Outgrow and Made In 20.

Namie Amuro - Formerly the favourite Japanese female artiste until Ayumi Hamasaki

Recommended albums: Her best is definitely "Play".

Hins Cheung - A favourite of the Chinese market

Recommended albums: His new album Ho ai which I think translates to Deeply in Love is very good.

Ayumi Hamasaki - Japan's highest selling female artiste

Recommended albums: All her albums are very good but the newer ones include A Best Black/White and Secret.

Sherman Chung: Hot New artiste under EEG

Recommended albums: Her dbut album Good Girl is very good.

Kary Ng - Former member of Cookies

Recommended albums: Her first album had a few good songs but her newest album In Control is better with many good songs in the list.

A-mei Chang - Taiwan's Queen of Music

Recommended albums: I like her newest album Star and there are two fantastic songs in there.

Joey Yung: Hong Kong's favourite female artist

Recommended albums: All her albums are excellent her newest being Little a mandarin album but Jump Up 9492, Close Up and Ten Most Wanted are also quite recent.

Leehom Wang: Composer slash singer of Taiwan

Recommended albums: Chang My Ways

Jyongri - Close To Fantasy

Jane Zhang - Update

Landy Wen - Heatwave

And for some English audiences I have...

Kelly Rowland: Former member of Destiny's Child

Recommended albums: Her album Ms. Kelly is definitely not a letdown to her first and her compatriot Beyonce.

Hot Albums

I have some really good albums to suggest for listening these include:
Sherman Chung - Good Girl
Hins Cheung - Ho Ai
BoA - Outgrow
Ayumi Hamasaki - glitter/fated
Namie Amuro - Play
Joey Yung - Little Little
Leehom Wang - Change My Ways

Music of Japan

I'm starting to really like Japanese music, some of my favourites are Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro and Utada Hikaru. For those of you who know about J-pop I know they are the best ones but it doesn't matter as long as you like them right! Oh and Korean music is good aswell.

Yumiko Incident

I'm very sorry for Yumiko Cheng, another incident in a year. Hope she recovers from this blow and start making music. For those who don't know what happened lets just say it was a wadrobe malfunction.

First Music Post

I love music, many styles of it but maybe less of the hard rock, heavy metal thing but generally I love all kinds of music. As I'm Chinese I also listen to Asian music like Cantopop, Mandopop, Jpop and Kpop aswell as R'n'B, Pop, Hip Hop, Rock etc. I'm a R'n'B person, I like the soothing vocal pieces. Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, Joey Yung etc are some of my favourite artistes. Through this blogs I'll be talking about latest news about Music or Artistes. If you like Tennis you can also go to my other blog http://tennischenman.blogspot.com/.