[Dec 2004] Red White Contest - Ayumi’s price tag is the highest!
 

The Red-White “Kouhaku” Contest has always been the biggest hit show of the Japan NHK broadcast corporation annually, held on every New Years’ Eve, this show is famous for its money-drowning strategy which its aims is to get these big stars to perform on the show. There is certainly no exception for the year 2004 too.

According to the newest issue of “Modern Weekly” (Japanese magazine), Ayumi Hamasaki is still among the highest paid singer in the pop music region. Her price tag, as discovered, was estimated at 500 thousand Japanese yen, who is now at the same level of SMAP, whom will be absent for this years’ event. As for Hirai Ken, the R&B singer tops the male singers at 200 grand.

Besides pulling the kings and the queens, whenever any new singers made their debut into the show certainly will enjoy a sudden high degree of fame throughout the new year, for example, this years’ new faces, Otsuka Ai and Ueto Aya, only will be paid at about 100 grand, since they will “gain more in the future”.

In contrast, however, other female singers’ wages for the show seemed lower than others, such as BoA, Nakashima Mika and Kuraki Mai.

Translated by: Isaac Hiew
Date: 31/Dec/2004
Translated from : Sin Chew Jit Poh (local Malaysian Chinese newspaper), Entertainment section, page 11.

Note: This article is currently allowed to exist in Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai Forum ONLY. If you wish to use this article and would like to post it elsewhere or on a printed material, kindly PM me. Thank you.

Cool~!

Thanks for the translation!! ^_^

Interesting LOL Thanks for the translation isaac! I feel sorry for Mika and Mai :(

actually there was an article about this in oriental daily, it tels you the price tags of most of the stars. but i dont think i kept it :(

500,000 yen? That's only like ... 5,000 US dollars. That doesn't seem like a lot there.

Just under 5000 US actually. Around 4.8-4.9K

Thanks for the translation! Nice to know she's still seen as a top star.

Thanks for the translation.

It's a still just a TV show so the wage is low, but she's the top dog and gets good fame.. ok the fame is bit stress because people shrug the Kouhaku more each year.

hahaha Cheap-O-ai-otsuka...

Thanks for the translation!

O.O how much did u expect to get by just singing a song n appearing once in awhile in the show? :lech :lech

I wish I sure could make $5,000 in 15 or so minutes.

...I wonder how much we could get for her on ebay? :D

Interesting... thanks for the translation!

I want an Ayu of my very own. ;.;

thanks for the info!!

wow! thanks for the info~

Thanks for the News and for the effort of translating :)

thanks! that's pretty cool :cool

Thanks! I saw the Red White Contest yesterday on TV! ^__^

ummmmm less than $5000, it HAS to be more than that, come on people! Thanx for the info btw ^o^

wow good news!^^ kool thanks~

oh, wow! That's quite great for ayu right?

Ai Otsuka got paid $1000 to be on it. I think it's a lot, but of course celebrities probably don't...

wew... maybe 48-4900 US$ for 1-2 songs... thx a lot for the info

the news is acutually taking about NHK give too little money to the singer, one dress of ayu surely excess a lot the payment.they also said BoA etc. has tooooo littel money, because they only get a little more than the new one .

Mai and Mika were probably some of the best performers, and Ayu being paid the most, oddly enough I thought she sang the worst! o.o

I thought Mika was going to do well but she RUINED Oborozukiyo ~Inori ;_; I was so sad. Her 'subete's were HORRIBLE it sounded like she was screaming the song.

I thought Ayu's vocals weren't amazing but the whole performance as a whole, totally shined. The costumes and dance was just beautiful and stole the show for me.

Costumes and dance take your attention from the vocals, which are all that matter to me...

^ personally for me, they don't and actually can add something to it

Muah, it doesn't matter how much a star makes to me, as long as they produce good music and stuff I can relate to,.. I'll always look up to them :yes

Is it customary for performers to be paid for these types of performances in Japan? It seems a little unnecessary since the singers get money from lots of other tie-ins, plus the performance is a form of publicity.

i used to watch that show...i wonder if someone could put together a clip of Ayu's singing on that show and upload it on this forum. thanks and thanks for the info.

Same here

I think it's a previlege to just be on the show, especially for newer artists.

Ayu on the other hand could do without the appearance seeing how little she got payed, but I guess she could use some pocket money. o.o

Thanks for the info!
Whoa so the top sellin are SMAP and Ayumi! Poor Nakashima Mika and Kuraki Mai, didnt know that they receive even lower than Ai.
BTW anyone can tell me Ueto Aya name in Chinese?

it certainly is more than 5000 sing dollars... but although u may not feel that its a lot, she is just paid 500 thousand yen for a song only!!!! and thats a lot! :P

Thanks for the translation :)

THANKIES for the information GO AU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe it's a show of gratitude, or that they have a rule (maybe not a written down rule) that performances should be paid.

Every region or industry has their own little something something.

I don't get why people say it's too little! It's 5000 USD for a single song (4mins+).

They do that everywhere though...think about it:

Television runs so that stations can earn money from commercials. To get more money for commercial spots, they have to have a lot of viewers. To have a lot of viewers, they need good content. To have good content, they pay performers and such to make appearances.

Ta-da, we have musicians being paid to attract people to watch this show. :)

Actually I cut some portion of the article, but I can't find the names, since those who got over 1 million yen per performance are those oldie singers. Can you believe that? That is one of the biggest reason of why the viewership rates for this TV show, has has been held for over half a decade is deteriorating rapidly.

To put it in a harsh way, this TV show is going to die, it's struggling for breath because no Japanese youngsters wants to watch old people singing weird Japanese-old style songs.

And the reason why Ayumi got paid so low is because the TV company can't fork out so many money, The sole reason of why Ayu kept performing, is because she did performed in Kouhaku a few years ago, when she was still green that made her fame towards stardom.

In conclusion, ayu owes Kouhaku one too much, that's why she's performing.

That's not true. It's not just young people that watch this show. Lot's of older folks watch it. Probably the reason why more older singers are put on is b/c its mostly older people that watch it. Remember, the Japanese youth pop'n is shrinking while the elder pop'n is increasing.

actually, this show was used to be the tradition that everyone in japan will see that show that night, so, singer will go to that because of music industry in japan always thought joining red white is a tradition that only hit singer are allowed to join.
ayu go there with little payment with these reasons, one is to show that she is popular(although everyone in japan know, it is no doubt),one is that joining the show is a tradition of japan, another reason is that ayu need to appear in a hit tv program to keep appearing before the audience

interesting news
thanks!

thanx for the infor ^^ at least ayu is at the top ^^ tts all i cared about :p

when they show all the people in the present box ayu's in the front row LOL.

But according to my source, the viewership is falling every year.

It is. But that has nothing to do with how much people get paid.

o.o ...ayu must be very rich!

YAAY! Ayu deserves to be the highest paid, and thanks for the translation!

yerah, i love that show... she performed "Moments" last year... my friend said she was really good... i have to watch it this year... i missed it... wah...

Oh I watched Kouhaku! And Ayumi and that very intresting dress of hers... (o-O)....

-Miyo-