Channel-Ai Community Blog - JPop reviews, articles

Bold&Delicious/Pride

December 30th, 2005 by Rinoa · 10 Comments · ★★★★☆

Ayumi Hamasaki, the popular diva in Japan releases her fourth single in 2005 titled “Bold&Delicious/Pride”. With a catchy funky song and a passionate ballad, along with two remixes, Hamasaki has again produced an excellent single full of emotions and energy which has definitely attracted many people’s attention at the end of this year.

Ami Suzuki - A Fallen Idol Rising Again

December 4th, 2005 by Rinoa · 22 Comments

Ami Suzuki, the talented young artist, has gone through a lot of difficulties throughout her singing career. Nonetheless, Ami is definately one of the strongest voices the Japanese music industry has ever heard.

BoA’s “make a secret”

October 9th, 2005 by spellcheck · 4 Comments · ★★☆☆☆

After spending the summer in Korea performing her butt off to promote her 5th album “Girls on Top”, BoA has made her return to Japan with “make a secret”, released on August 31. Before the release of “Girls on Top”, she took some vocal lessons in New York to strengthen and define her voice. Fans have been wondering what BoA could possibly do to top her amazing performances in Korea this year, and this is her answer. …

Ai Otsuka - Planetarium

October 7th, 2005 by eyn · 73 Comments · ★★★★½

Ai Otsuka’s 10th single, “Planetarium”, was released on 2005.09.21. “Planetarium” gained the first place on the Oricon daily single charts on its first day of release. This single also managed to achieve the top position on the Oricon weekly single charts, having more than 121,000 copies sold so far. This is Ai’s first ballad single that has achieved such excellent results, which is quite a feat.

Do As Infinity

September 23rd, 2005 by Jason · 45 Comments

Dai Nagao always held one dream into his heart: to have his own band. In 1999 avex gave him the chance to turn this dream into a reality. Auditions were held, and Dai chose Van Tomiko as the lead singer, and Ryo Owatari as the guitarist. And Do As Infinity (DAI) was born. Their debut was on the 29th of September in 1999. DAI began their performances live in Shibuya with few fans. Later they began to rise up to new heights as the years went by and took the whole of Asia by storm.