Channel-Ai Community Blog - JPop reviews, articles

Johnny’s Entertainment had always had many of its popular singles written by Swedish songwriters. After Seishun Amigo by Shuji to Akira became a major success in Japan and also a minor hit in Sweden, the company decided to promote itself more overseas. Tegomass was formed to promote Johnny’s Entertainment internationally. In November of 2006, they held a press conference for both reporters and fans, and released a single, Miso Soup, written by Swedish songwriters and sung completely in English. The single debuted at a surprisingly high #12 on the Swedish charts and enjoyed a bit of overseas publicity.

Fujii Takashi is a celebrated icon who has spent years in Japan’s entertainment industry brandishing new acts, running gags and even making appearances in hit movies. It certainly gave a shock to Japan when Fujii made his debut as a singer in early 2000 with the single [Nanda Kanda], which was considerably successful in its own part. Later that same year, he would once again step down from his television performances to invest time releasing his second single [Ai mo Kawarazu].

Hitomi’s 2007 has certainly been yet another hectic years. With two singles and one album under her belt, Hitomi would immediately start working on a summer single. Apparently sales do not equate to Hitomi’s energy since she has been very busy and rather positive, despite the fact that sales kept sliding miserably. In any way, summer was sounding rather promising with yet another change of style. With her stunning looks and her bright personality, Hitomi would yet release another exotic single for 2007.

“FREE” is Erika Sawajiri’s true debut single, which surprised the whole J-Pop fandom. Erika would return with a rock single, with a fantasy theme and reach #1 on Oricon.

Leah Dizon’s second single was described as a “a grooving, up tempo dance song” and became a moderate success to hit off spring 2007.