Quote:
Originally Posted by Polyrhythm
Um no, Utada is the most well known outside of Asia (for Kingdom Hearts and two shetty English albums) followed by Amuro Namie (for reasons I don't really know of). Barely anyone outside of Asia know of Kumi or Ayu.
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But they know about Utada? I don't think so. Utada might've made an effort to break the US market but she flopped miserably. I'm certain that the only people in the US that bought her albums were people who were fans prior to the albums being released and maybe a small number of people who found her through Kingdom Hearts
Quote:
Originally Posted by happiholic★
TBH, this is not an official answer, but just an opinion. I think that Kuu is more popular, as she often performs outside of Japan at Asian music award shows, as well as the concert she held in Taiwan. She wins awards at these shows, too. I haven't seen the same for Namie, but I could be wrong. She was more popular earlier on, and she does have, as said by some members in other threads, the "rejected American demo" sound. American sounding music and image can be very popular.
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Namie does indeed have an urban American sound in her music but I don't think that necessarily means she's more popular. Crystal Kay is more heavy on this image and sound and she's a nobody in Japan and internationally. However I didn't even think about awards and I know that Namie was nominated for World Music Awards (I know those are completely irrelevant but still) and maybe there's more that I don't know of while the only non-Japanese award Kuu received was the 2011 MAMA award for Hottest Asian Artist and that's still not truly international