So I finally got the time to check out an interview with Ayumi Hamasaki.

I’m almost ashamed to admit this, but I’ve been avoiding Ayumi Hamasaki because of her popularity. I do that with American artists as well. I looked at her as a pop star and nothing more. Though I watched her interview with CNN on a special “Japan Now” thing.

I never realized how honest she was and how sincere she was. I think it’s amazing how she admits that she’s childish and how she’s sometimes selfish.

I got a good look into her different fashions and hairstyles and looks. I really appreciate her attitude towards being famous, it’s really a realistic look at it, which is hard to find. Before she started singing she prepared herself for losing friends and people changing their attitudes towards others and how she needs to be sincere in her music. She prepared herself for whatever outcome may happen and she knows that even if she’s having downtime, she’s always Ayumi Hamasaki, and her fans see her as Ayumi Hamasaki, so it’s her job to stay herself, because she’s Ayu no matter where or why. She talks about how she needs to be true and that her music sells because it has no lies in it, and it’s very honest.

She says she doesn’t need a vacation because working hard on her music makes her the happiest. Throughout the interview she switches between English and Japanese, and I’m amazed with her English, I didn’t realize how much English she knew and how understandable it was, it’s was really amazing. She switched into Japanese because it’s an interview and can’t obviously express everything perfectly into English, it’s just how it works, also some words are in Japanese that are difficult to translate into English (even for professional translators).

With that, I’d like to apologize to Ayumi Hamasaki and all of her fans because she clearly didn’t need negative judgement from an ignorant person like me, who saw a face, only listen to about 5 songs, then judged her.

She says she does her music with lots of emotion, and that’s why people like it because it brings a sort of empathy to the fans, and I must admit, when I finally listened to a song that I liked (not that she’s short on good songs, but because she has so many songs it’s hard to find the right ones because even the best musicians make flops) I must admit I did feel empathy, and even more so after reading the translation of the song. And I always feel that for an artist to stir emotion in another person, just by having that person hear or see whatever their art may be, that is a sign of accomplishment. I take photographs and I use photoshop and I try to create something real and something that can stir emotion in other people. So from artist to artist, I wouldn’t be able to help but respect her, even if I had only heard that part.

For those who would like to see the interview I’m talking about you can see it on Youtube, it’s in 3 parts, here is the first part