Ami Suzuki

Ami Suzuki (鈴木亜美, Suzuki Ami^?, born February 9, 1982) is a female singer, songwriter, actress and dancer from Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

Having been discovered at a Sony Music Entertainment Japan audition, Suzuki was one of the most popular female singers as an idol in the late 1990s.^[1] However, in 2000 Suzuki faced legal problems with her management company. In 2005, she signed onto Avex Trax and released "Delightful", a dance song that reached No. 3 on the Japanese Oricon charts. Her current style of music, similar to electronic, is vastly different from when she first became a musician.

Biography

Early life

While attending high school, Ami auditioned for Sony Music Japan's talent show Asayan, the grand prize winner of which would be rewarded with a contract with Sony Music.

The TV show became very popular and the number of viewers watching it grew and grew as the series progressed; its popularity was such that soon it was aired in other Asian countries. From 13,500 contestants, only five girls were chosen to be in the final round, and Ami won the competition supported by 802,157 phone calls from the audience. She was only 15 years old.

1998-2000

Sony Music signed Ami to the label, and producer Tetsuya Komuro sponsored her on his own sub-label on Sony, TRUE KiSS DISC, with Komuro as writer and producer on all of Ami's songs.

In April 1998 Ami recorded her first song and single "Love the Island". The song was written and produced by Tetsuya Komuro, who was on the top of his career at that time, working with popular singers like Namie Amuro and Hitomi. Sony Music and the government of Japan made a deal for use of Ami's song "Love the Island" as the main theme of the "Guam Island Campaign Summer '98", which campaigned for an increase in Japanese tourism in Guam. The song was well promoted, with Ami appearing on covers of magazines like Young Jump and even traveling to Guam to promote the song live on the local version of the international music channel MTV. The single was finally released on July 1, 1998, and debuted at No. 5 on the Oricon charts, which was good for a debut single. Ami's second single, "Alone in My Room" was also used for the Guam campaign, and also did well, debuting at No. 3 on the charts and selling even better than the first single.

As the "Asayan" show has already ended its run, Ami made her radio début in October 1998. The show was called Run! Run! Ami-Go! (Run!Run!あみ～ゴ!!^?), which topped the radio rankings in popularity. She also signed a deal with the Japanese product Kissmark for advertisements and promotion all around Japan, Asia. Sony began promoting her third single, "All Night Long". The dance song was featured constantly at the most famous discotheque of Japan, Velfarre, and was a big hit. It debuted at No. 2 on the Oricon charts. Later that year, Ami Suzuki won various awards including the Japan Record Award for Best New Artist.

In 1999 it started well for Suzuki with the huge success of her first photo book titled Ami-Go, which sold around 200,000 copies. Later in March of that year, her debut album "SA" was released, becoming one of the Top 10 best selling albums of 1999.

Ami was constantly compared with "rival" Ayumi Hamasaki. The two young female singers were often called "enemies" by the tabloids because they began their careers at the same time and each had potential to be the next "Queen of J-Pop". Both Ami and Ayumi have always denied the rivalry existed. It should be noted that Avex President Max Matsuura who ultimately signed Ami, ending her blacklisting, is also Ayumi Hamasaki's friend and manager, so the rivalry seems to be a friendly one.

At the release of her highly-expected 7th single "Be Together" (which was a cover of TM Network), Ami competed with "rival" Ayumi Hamasaki for the first time for the top position in the charts. Ayumi released her ninth single "Boys & Girls" on the same day. Ami went to the first position at Oricon, leaving Ayumi behind in second.^[2] However, "Boys & Girls" would go on to become a #1 single itself and eventually outsell "Be Together". This was the first time Ami reached the number one position in the charts with "Be Together" becoming one of the most popular songs of 1999. Her next single, titled "Our Days", also ranked number one in the charts later that year, becoming a huge hit in Japan. At the end of the year, Ami released her eighth and last single in 1999 entitled "Happy New Millennium", which debuted at #2 and sold 364,000 copies, becoming Ami's second lowest single in 1999.

By the end of January Ami released her first single in 2000 "Don't Need to Say Good Bye" and debut at #5 due to competition from Ringo Shiina's "Tsumi to Batsu", her another single "Gibusu", Morning Musume's "Koi no Dance Site" and Southern All Stars's "Tsunami".^[3] It became Ami second #5 single during her Sony era. A week after Ami released her second studio album Infinity Eighteen Vol. 1 and sold 1,063,000 copies making Ami's second highest albums rank after "SA" and debut at #1.

As Ami evolved into a more mature artist, she began writing her own lyrics. The first song Ami wrote, with the help of Mitsuko and Tetsuya Komuro, was her tenth and last Sony single "Don't Need to Say Good Bye". The lyrics were influenced by events occurring in her personal life at that time, specifically her upcoming high school graduation.

Three months after Infinity Eighteen Vol.1, Ami released her twelfth single, "Thank You 4 Every Day Every Body" [sic] in the beginning of April and 3rd studio album, Infinity Eighteen Vol.2 at the end of April. "Thank You 4 Every Day Every Body" sold a total of 234,000 copies at #1 and Infinity Eighteen Vol.2 sold a total of 427,000 copies at #2 and also her lowest studio album during her Sony era.

"Reality/Dancin' in Hip-Hop" was Ami's 12th single released under the Sony Music Japan label, on September 27, 2000. It reached #3 on Oricon weekly chart and sold a total of 211,000 copies.

2001-2004

A compilation album of Suzuki's tracks, Fun for Fan, was released on May 30, 2001. It reached #1 position at the Oricon charts.^[4] Ami decided to change her stage name from 鈴木あみ (kanji/hiragana) to 鈴木亜美 (completely in Kanji) to try to make a comeback to the music industry.^{[citation needed]} In April 2004 the singer released a photo book called "Tsuyoi Kizuna" with a CD Single included, published by Tokyo-based Bungei Shunju. She made few appearances on TV shows to promote it, and it sold pretty well despite the low promotion, reaching the No. 1 place of the best-selling non-fiction books. In August of the same year, she released a single called "Forever Love" under her own record label, Amity. The release sold well, ranking #21 on Oricon's General Singles Chart and #1 in Oricon's Independent Singles Chart.^{[citation needed]} In addition, a mini-concert DVD was released. The DVD included the two singles released during the year and was titled 2004 Summer Fly Hight -Ami Shower-.

2005-2006

In 2005, she performed live at the annual festival of her university, Nihon University. At the last performance on Ami's nationwide tour, Ami's Love For You-Live, held on December 30 at Tokyo public welfare annuity hall, the transfer to Avex Trax was officially announced and Ami's return to music after three and a half years began.

On January 1, 2005, Ami's official website under the Avex label was officially opened. The promotion of her first single under the new label, "Hopeful", started as well. The release date was scheduled for February, but was later cancelled for unknown reasons. "Hopeful" was never released as a physical single but was known as the first Avex downloadable ring tone and tune single. Despite of this, a music video for the song was later made with a remixed version by Japanese Trance DJ Overhead Champion; the original version of the song was never released on a regular CD, just on Avex airplay promos.

In March, Ami finally marked her return to the music industry with a "comeback" single (a physical CD single) titled "Delightful", a song produced by German "hands up" trance producer Axel Konrad and whose executive producer was Max Matsuura. The trance song was massively promoted by Avex with a diverse array of releases of the single (CD, CD+DVD, CD+Photobook, CD+Illustration Essay), with a different remix on each version, and also a b-side: a ballad "About You...". The single debuted at number 2 in Oricon's charts its first week and became one of the spring hits of the year. "Delightful" got the 97th place in the Oricon's Yearly Top 500 best singles of 2005.

Her second single under Avex, titled "Eventful", also a dance track, had moderate sales, debuting at number nine on Oricon music charts and it got the 245th place in the list of the top 500 best singles of 2005. Later in the year, "Eventful" won a gold prize for Best New Artist at the 47th Nihon Record Taishou on December 31, 2005. The gold prize is awarded to 10 of the top songs of the year. Other winners of the prize for that year include Ai Otsuka and Kumi Koda.

For the release of Ami's third single, Avex and the artist decided to move away from the dance genre and decided to release a ballad, "Negaigoto". "Negaigoto" did not have achieve much success compared to Ami's previous Avex singles, selling only 22,000 copies and debuting at #13 on the Oricon charts. The B-side included on the single, an upbeat song called "Times", was used as the main theme of a TV commercial of N's Street Online Shopping.

During the same month, her new official "Mobile" (via-cell phone) Fan Club Ami Sapuri was founded, and, on her official website, Ami announced that a live tour for promoting her upcoming album would start in the following months. Later, Ami also participated on the 2005 version of A-Nation, a concert where the most popular artists of Avex Trax get together and sing their hits. During A-Nation, Ami performed her singles "Delightful" and "Negaigoto". This was also the first time that Ami shared a tour and the stage with known rival Ayumi Hamasaki.

In October 2005 Ami released her first studio album in five years, and her debut album on Avex Trax. The album was originally going to be called Hopeful, but ended up being titled Around the World. The album included all the singles that Ami released in 2005: "Hopeful", "Delightful", "Eventful", "Negaigoto" and "Around the World" (the single of this song was released the same day of the album). The album was released in four different formats including a version with a bonus DVD with the music videos. The name of her live tour also was changed from Hopeful Tour Live House Body Shake It! to Around the World Live House Tour. Although the album sales were not too bad, sales did not reach the level of Ami's previous albums, selling only 50,000 copies. Also, it was her lowest debut on the Oricon albums charts at number five. However, album sales were helped by the Around the World tour and "Around the World" had successfully reestablished Ami as an artist once more.

The following month Ami took part on the Japanese 55th Anniversary of Snoopy, officially called Snoopy Life Design Happiness is the 55th Anniversary, by recording a song titled "Happiness Is..." which was sold as a CD Single exclusively at the event, which took place in Tokyo.

2006-2007

On December 7, 2005, Ami released her 5th Avex single, "Little Crystal". The Maxi Single was full of Christmas feeling, including four different ballads by four different arrangers. Two different music videos were made to promote the singles, "Crystal" and "To be Free". This was the first of Ami's Avex label CD+DVD releases that did not include any bonus material. Previously, singles with a bonus DVD included behind the scenes footage. "Little Crystal" had poor promotion by the Avex label for unknown reasons, with only one live performance on Music Fighter and at its release it debuted at #22, selling only 15,000 copies in its first month.

Once she finished promoting her latest Avex album, with her first nation-wide tour in five years, Ami was already recording new material. Just two months and a day after "Little Crystal", and one day before Ami's 24th birthday. "Fantastic", the 6th single, was released. The song was her first to be used as an opening theme on an anime series, as the tune for the TV adaptation of the third season of Blackjack. But just like her previous single, "Fantastic" did not get enough recognition, debuting only at #14 with low sales (only 14,000 copies its first week and only 3,000 more copies its second week). At the moment, the single has sold more copies and did pretty well based on its low promotion and debut. It has outsold "Little Crystal", which at the time was her least successful single.

Ami's first remix album, entitled Amix World, was released on March 29th, 2006. It contained a remix of the song "Around the World" and of every single Ami released off Avex except for "Little Crystal", plus remixes of some non-single tracks from Ami's album Around the World. The remixers who worked on the album are some of the most popular and recognized artists from Japan's dance scene these days. They include Sham-Poo, M.O.R., and Ferry Corsten, who remixed the songs "Around the World" and "Fantastic". However, the release is not expected to be a big success or a chart-topper. At the end of its first week of sales, the album peaked at the #78 position on the Oricon charts, making it Ami's lowest-charting album to date.

Ami's 7th single was a different style: a little far from the previous trance style and more pop in nature. The music producer HΛL was chosen to work with Ami in "Alright!", a single released on May 17, 2006, and was considerably more cheaply produced than her previous works with a cheaper video and just a few performances. In the first week the single did not even sell ten thousand copies, being one of the lowest-selling singles for the artist in its first week. However, the song has since then sold more copies, which can be considered good.

The 8th single released under Avex, "Like a Love?", was released July 26, 2006. The single had caught more attention before its release mainly because is the first composition of J-Pop singer Ai Otsuka for another artist besides herself, and it was expected to sell considerably because of that. It was also the first music work of Ami with another female singer. The two girls met at 2006's a-nation and became good friends. The single debuted at #13 on its first day and quickly fell down the charts. It ultimately placed at #23 and sold just under 9,000 copies its first week.

Ami debuted in the bigscreen for the first time in the movie Rainbow Song, produced by Shunji Iwai, and it was released on October 28. Ami played the role of a girl called Sayumi Kubo (久保サユミ, Kubō Sayumi^?). In her web-diary, Suzuki said that her role in the film is not as major as had been previously stated, but she still considered it a great way to start an acting career. She said that she would like to sing and act at the same time and hopes to achieve that goal.

After a short break, it was announced that Ami would be coming out with new music. She covered two Disney songs, one from Beauty and the Beast and the other was called "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah". These songs were only available on the Disney Music Store Japan's website starting December 20, 2006.

Shortly after the news of Ami's two new Disney songs, it was announced she would be releasing 3 new singles under a new "joins" project. These singles were her first releases of 2007, each one a collaboration with 3 different artists released 3 weeks in a row, starting February 28, finishing with the second Avex album in March 21. The "joins" singles featured the bands Buffalo Daughter, THC!! and Kirinji and received low promotion, and were only minor hits in the Oricon charts. After that, Connetta, her second Avex album, also called the "join" album, debuted at #26 on the Japanese charts, becoming her lowest-selling studio album.

2007-present

Ami's acting career started more seriously: she starred in the live action drama "Skull Man", and also in the Japanese-Korean movie "Magnolia no Hana no Shita de", in which she shot some scenes in New York and Korea. She was also invited for a third time at 2007's a-nation, where she was chosen as the opening act for the whole tour.

At this time she had already recorded a new single, keeping the line of the "join" project, this time with electronic producer and capsule leader Yasutaka Nakata. Her 4th "join" single, and first Avex double A-side single, "Free Free/Super Music Maker", was released on August 22, 2007. For this single's promotion Ami changed drastically her image, from a cute Pop image for a more mature and sexy-erotic style. Her new look was called as "Ero-Pop" by herself and Japanese media, even comparing Ami to singer Kumi Koda.^[5] This single did considerably better than the previous "join" singles, debuting at #32 on the Japanese charts, and achieving more than 8 thousand copies sold, little less than the three previous singles sales together.

Suzuki's "join" single was released on November 28, 2007. It is a collaboration with Aly & AJ on their song "Potential Breakup Song", produced by Japanese DJ and musician Sugiurmn.

Ami released her 3rd Avex studio album (6th overall), Dolce on February 6, 2008.

In July 2008, Suzuki released her first non-joins single since 2006's "Like a Love?", "One", a Yasutaka Nakata-fully produced single.

Suzuki's 29th single, "Can't Stop the Disco", was released on September 24, 2008.^[6][7] Her 10th anniversary album - her fourth album with avex -, Supreme Show was released on November 12, 2008. It contains 11 tracks - including a remix of "Super Music Maker".^[8][9] Ami also starred in an AVEX 20th Anniversary musical, 'kokoro no Kakera'. This is her debut on a musical.

Suzuki's 30th single, "Reincarnation", was released on February 25th, 2009. It was produced by Taku Takahashi of m-flo.^[10][11] Suzuki recorded a song called Kiss Kiss Kiss that appeared on HOUSE NATION new compliation called Aquamarine that was released on August 5th. ^[12] Suzuki's 31st single "Kiss Kiss Kiss/aishiteru..." was released on October 28th, 2009. It was produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka of Fantastic Plastic Machine.^[13]

Legal problems

In 2000 the young singer's career came to an abrupt halt when Eiji Yamada, the President of her production company AG Communication, was convicted on tax evasion charges. AG Communication was avoiding tax by underreporting their earnings, and by consequence were underpaying royalties to artists. Suzuki Ami's parents sued AG Communication for termination of her contract on these grounds, and that association would taint her squeaky clean image. The Tokyo District Court found in her favor, but the lawsuit resulted in Ami Suzuki's blacklisting because of an unwritten rule of the entertainment business in Japan: artists who get into legal disputes with their masters are blacklisted.^[14] In court documents it was revealed that AG Communication was paying her very little to begin with: Despite eight-figure record sales that year, Ami Suzuki earned just $1500 a month at the start of her career, and a minuscule 0.4% royalty rate on CDs, raised to $9780 and 0.55% in 1999.^[15]

Ami was faced with the problem of production companies refusing to sign her in and she tried to make a comeback in the next two years with little to no success. Her relationship with her producer, Tetsuya Komuro, also ceased. Many people were convinced that her chances for making a comeback were nil.^[16] In 2003, Ami finally negotiated an out-of-court agreement with Sony. Her contract with the label was scheduled to end in December 2004 with no singles or albums released after 2001 by Sony due to her blacklisting.^[16]

Eiji Yamada was subsequently fined for his role in the tax evasion. Government officials linked to the scandal included former Education Minister Takashi Kosugi and two other legislators, who allegedly received 34 million yen in unofficial payments for referring AG Communication and other clients seeking tax evasion.^[17]

Particular credit for covering Suzuki Ami's legal problems goes to Music Journalists Steve McClure writing for the Japan Times and Rori Caffrey for the ^[18]. The blacklisting was not discussed in the mainstream Japanese Press, and McClure himself was warned against reporting it.^[14]

Discography

DVD

• 1st Concert Oh Yeah! 1999 (originally her 1st concert, but released in 2005)
• Amigo's Parlor Shake Shake Shake, November 1, 2000
• Ami-Go-Round Tour, December 23, 2000
• Video Clips Fun for Fan, July 7, 2001
• 2004 Summer Fly High: Ami Shower, November 17, 2004
• Suzuki Ami Around the World: Live House Tour 2005, February 8, 2006

Books

• AmiGo, 1999
• Suzuki Ami Sijyo Saikyo Mook Amix (鈴木あみ史上最強ムックamix^?), 2000
• Suzuki Ami Shashin Shuu Ami '02 Natsu (鈴木あみ写真集 亜美'02夏^?), 2002
• Ami Book, 2003
• Tsuyoi Kizuna (強いキズナ, Strong Ties^?), April 25, 2004

Awards

Filmography

Movie

• Rainbow Song (2006)
• XX -Makyo Densetsu- (2007)

TVdrama

• Fukaku Mogure -Hakkenden 2001- (2000)
• Skull Man (2007)
• Magnolia no Hana no Shitade (2007)
• Itsumo Kimochi ni Switch wo (2007)
• Love Letter (2008)
• Oishii Depachika (2008)

References

• ^  Japanese Wikipedia - Biography Reference Materials
• ^  Biography Reference Materials
• - "If at first you don't succeed", Steve McClure, Japan Times, January 16, 2002.
• - "Women whose work is never done", Steve McClure, Japan Times, July 24, 2002.
• "Amigo' Suzuki back in the saddle again", Rori Caffrey, Daily Yomiuri. (Article not available online)
• "Amigo finds friend in Avex", Steve McClure, Daily Yomiuri. (Article not available online)
• [1]

External links

• Ami Suzuki Official Website
• Suzuki Ami Database — Informations (Japanese)/(English)
• Suzuki Ami Live info — Live info. (English)