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Namie Amuro Retirement

Japanese singer Namie Amuro (also known as Amuro Namie in the Japanese style) is retiring. She announced on her 40th birthday last year that she will retire on 16th September 2018, 4 days before she turns 41. One of the most popular J-pop singers with a career spanning 26 years, Namie has the title "Queen of Japanese pop". She started out as the lead singer in girl group Super Monkey's aged 14, before going solo in 1995 with the single [Body Feels EXIT]. Her music catalogue includes 47 singles, 12 studio albums and 7 compilation albums. 

She gave her final concert tour in June at Tokyo Dome and will hold her final concert this weekend. Her  last album was the compilation Finally, released last November, and the final single was Hope. If I find an official upload I'll post it. (Unofficial ones often get taken down).


Namie is one of my favourite J-pop singers. I have 4 of her albums, PLAY (2007), BEST FICTION (2008), Past Future (2009) and _genic (2015). I will miss her music but here's a celebration of her career. :)

First up this is a video showing a selection of Namie's early hits. I haven't heard all of her early stuff, so it's cool to see. :)

 Update 19/11/18: This video is now gone . Here's the video for [Body Feels EXIT] though:

 Note: It seems that the record company Avex have blocked their videos from being shown on third party applications. Seems a bit ridiculous in my opinion, I just want to display their videos on my blog!! Anyway, if you click on the videos you can watch them fine on YouTube. :)
 

Update 2- 27/12/23: Most of Namie's videos have now been removed from YouTube, likely due to her 2018 retirement. It's disappointing, I do think they could leave her music up on platforms. :( It's not just YouTube but streaming platforms too. Apparently, it may be due to contracts being reviewed and deleting duplicate songs. 

There is a YouTube channel called Final Space where you can still find some of her music videos and live performances. I've replaced the videos in my posts where I can. :) 

Here is a video featuring clips of live performances of [Body Feels EXIT]:

 


 

And here is a short TV ad for the single: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahhvJbg1jkM



SWEET 19 BLUES

Here is SWEET 19 BLUES, originally released in July 1996, which was from the album of the same name. It was re-recorded for her 2015 BEST AL [Ballada] album.

Here's a live performance: 

 


 

                                 
You can also watch a video of her performing the song live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYWHmPuRk1w



Can You Celebrate?

Can You Celebrate? was Namie's 7th solo single and is one of her best selling singles. It came out in February 1997, and appeared on her 3rd studio album Concentration 20. The song was later also re-recorded for Ballada, like SWEET 19 BLUES.

25th anniversary Live Edit:




                                       

TV CM for WILD and Dr, from Past Future:
Update: Again the original video is gone (a load of them were deleted and replaced on Namie's channel), but here's a teaser TV spot:  

 


 


                                        

Also you can watch some of the WILD  music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9y-DcLB528
And here are my previous Namie posts on the blog:


Namie's 30th single Can't Sleep, Can't Eat, I'm Sick from PLAY: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/04/weekly-music-video_17.html

Features Want Me, Want Me from Queen of Hip-Pop and BEST FICTION:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/06/j-pop-vs-bollywood.html

60s 70s 80s, Namie's 33rd solo single and first Triple-A side: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/12/namie-amuro-60s-70s-80s.html

Do Me More from BEST FICTION: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/11/weeklt-music-video.html


SWEET KISSES, the other Namie videos are no longer available: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/04/new-koda-kumi-and-namie-amuro-songs.html

Music videos from _genic: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/08/new-namie-amuro-songs.html
 

Revolution with Crysyal Kay: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/10/new-j-pop-crystal-kay-and-namie-amuro.html

Includes Hero, the Japanese theme song for the 2016 Summer Olympics: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/06/new-j-pop-releases.html

Feature's Namie's Just You and I: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/06/new-j-pop-releases.html


Good luck with whatever you do next, Namie! 💓

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