Namie is getting a special award from the Japan Record Awards this year. No word on if she will actually appear. Since she is apparently not doing Kohaku, I have a feeling it will just be past clips they have to show; maybe we'll at least get some updated HD past performance of hers or something.

http://www.tbs.co.jp/recordaward/

When is the Hulu doc supposed to start airing?

^It already started airing - I haven't seen any English-subbed videos online though :no.

Yeah the interview is with NHK, I'm really hoping that there will be some english-subbed versions, but unfortunately that seems pretty rare with Namie videos.

If anyone is aware of any out there, can you please share the link? (I'll keep a look out myself).

YESSSS. LS'11 had so many of my favorite tour moments from her. Those 3 songs in particular were sooooo good.

Not to mention that amazing opening movie.

Hi everyone! i think i rarely post on Namie’s thread. Anyway i might be too late but i just noticed how i might be in Taipei around the time she’ll be performing there. Can anyone enlighten me how to get tickets there? If anyone has attended her lives in TPE

Me too, LS11 is my fav :luv2:luv2:luv2

I've attended her past two concerts here in Taipei.

The first one was 2013 where the ticket was sold through FamilyMart. I didn't know Namie's popularity so huge here in Taiwan until I went to an isolated FamilyMart to buy the ticket, while there was already a long line before the machine. (I still managed to get the ticket though, but only terrible angle seat was available)

The second time was 2015 where the ticket was sold online, a friend of mine helped me to get the ticket, I've heard you need to show the same credit card to prove your ID etc.

They still haven't announced her upcoming tour ticket info though, I'm sure it's pretty much the same with the last one, and fans here will be insane to get it :tired her fanbase is HUGE in Taiwan

I finally got around to listening to Finally. I think at a first listen, a lot of people won't like a lot of the re-records. I love them all though because her audio doesn't seem to be altered much from studio edits. This is the real Namie. I've grown to be a huge Namie fan ever since the first live concert I saw of her on DVD/bluray. Its her live performances that has made me grown to love a lot of songs that I never enjoyed when listening to the studio releases. Her voice may not be at her prime as it was 5-10 years back but I love this "unedited" Namie vocals of Finally.

A lot of people on other sites hating because of the song choices of this compilation album and that there are only a mini-albums worth of new songs, but the quality of these new songs are possibly better than any of her recent albums. Not sure you can really count Just You & I and Hope as new songs since they are new OST releases, but In Two, How do you feel now, Showtime, Do It for Love, and Finally are all spectacular. As for the song choices, if they are real Namie fans, they should know that a lot of her songs, while they may be popular to the public she doesn't like a lot of them, and that she never gave a f### about how people perceive of her, so what she gives, we choose to receive. And if you don't like it, then just don't buy it. Its not like its going to hurt her sales, because Finally is ruling Japan right now. All the music stores, Tsutaya, Tower Records, etc, all their workers are wearing "Namie Amuro 25th Anniversary" T-shirts and her posters are everywhere.

In Two.... is just simply perfect. As the final EDM track of her career, she leaves a worthy successor to Alive and Stranger. Clubs in Japan rarely if never play any Japanese music, but I can see Tokyo clubs like Atom or Camelot playing In Two if there are Japanese DJs. Finally is beautiful and so sad to listen to. I hope in her tour she will sing it as the final song in the tracklist, though it will just bring me and everyone else to reach for their Kleenex.

Speaking of the tour, do you guys think if you request for more than 2 tickets, it decreases your chance of winning the lottery? I mean, I'm sure we all have very low chance of winning the lottery in general, but do you guys think requesting more tickets lowers it even further?

^ I would think yes. Honestly, best chance is to just go for single tickets. I couldn't do that though 'cause my mom is a huge Namie fan too. Damn it. lol

As for Finally, after listening to it a few times, I don't like a lot of the re-recordings. Don't hate them, but they sound less "full" to me. Namie's voice has defeinitely changed as she's gotten older. She still has a great voice, but over the last two years in particular I feel that it's gotten higher and less full sounding. Possibly due to age or possibly due to overuse from all the touring she's been doing, as a result I feel that the rerecordings lack some punch to them.

^ I kinda feel the same way for disc 2, but I really love disc 1. Though I feel the mastering of the songs on disc one aren't great and they have a grainy sound. It almost feels to me like they took a rip off the audio from the 5 domes tour and just mastered them, because they're quite similar.

Woo hoo! So glad she's at 1,364,362 total sales now. :) Go Namie!

Thanks all for the info really appreciate it, I'm so late to this - just bought the album and hoping desperately to score two tickets for April in OSAKA. I am so sad to hear she's retiring :'(

Your chances in winning the ticket balloting might be better if you ballot for 1 ticket as the organisers will need to fill up in between seats in the Dome

Then again it's really hard to say cos end of the day , ticket balloting depends on how lucky or unlucky you're

===

https://scontent-sit4-1.xx.fbcdn.net...21&oe=5AAF651C

セブン－イレブン店舗で、限定特典「Finally」オリジナルトートバック」をGETしてね ☆

https://www.facebook.com/NamieAmuroO...267027/?type=3

Man wish the 7/11 stores here would do stuff like this :x

Then again the conbini in Japan & Taiwan are way better than here so , LOL

Daaaaaaaaaamn--just a little clarification on the ticket lottery:

I got my replacement copy of Finally and went to go try and apply for the same date I'd already applied for and it won't let me...you really can only apply once per date even if you've purchased multiple copies of the album. The friend I designated as my accompanying person when I balloted the first time around also won't be able to apply for the same date despite the fact that she has her own lottery code from the copy she purchased.

So I applied for one ticket for the final lol we'll see how this goes

Actually that's a little comforting to know. :)

Yeah it seems like they're doing whatever they can to ensure everyone has a fair shot at getting tickets and that people who have a few hundred bucks laying around can't buy a dozen copies and enter the lottery a bunch of times :)

Hope you and your mom get to go; me and Elin are trying for the June dates!

HAS ANYONE PURCHASED TICKETS FOR HER HK PERFORMANCES BEFORE ? I'm wondering if I could possibly score tickets there easier than in Japan.

My copy of Finally arrived today! YesAsia seem to be delivering quicker than usual lately.

EDIT: Almost finished Disc 1 and loads of thoughts to post but my main one is...why did they hide the guitar in the chorus of I Have Never Seen!? Everything else about the Finally version is great though.

For Asia dates, its probably gonna be a First-Come-First-Serve system. So once the portal opens, everyone is gonna be rushing in to get their seats. There is no balloting and timeframe for this. Once tickets are sold and snatched, then its pretty much a sold-out concert and thats it. Only other way is to buy from resellers (who may or may not jack the price)

Oricon wrote that within 2 weeks , Finally has sold 1.435 million copies

Finally sold about 322K in the 2nd week

https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/210095...?ref_cd=tw_pic

Also since Oricon didn't write anything about ALARM , I assume it didn't (re)chart on Top 10