[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.

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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^