[Article] Otsuka Ai Gains fame in no time

[isaac hiew]

Otsuka Ai, the new female singer who is now only 21 years old, attends musical instrument classes just like most Japanese kids did when she was still very young. An able pianist, she started to compose music ever since she was only 15. Not known to most people, her pre-debut masterpieces were accounted for as much as 60 songs. When she was 19 years old, Otsuka sent a demo tape “Daisuki dayo” to Avex Trax even although at time she was taking her Kindergarden Tutor Qualification Course. And since then she was taken into the big family.

Otsuka Ai officially made her debut on September 2003 with her very first single, “Momo no hanabira” (The flower petals of peach), while her second single, “Sakuranbo” (Cherry) hovered the Oricon Singles Ranking for 50 weeks.

One really wouldn’t think of her talents and abilities when looking at the sweet-faced honey. Little did they know that not only she composes her own songs, but she writes all of her song’s lyrics as well as mixing which makes her truly a creative female singer; while her fans weren’t solely male based. Her song lyrics mainly focuses on the perspective of young girls about love relationships; the fast paced “Sakuranbo” or the story about a broken heart that has been dumped, “Ponpon” (Bubbles).

Not only that, another value of listening to Ai’s songs is that you will encounter many weird and funny song titles, such as “Kuroge Wagyuu Joshio tanyaki 735-en” (High-class, black fur Japanese cow, salt-grilled cow tongue --- 735 yen), “Strawberry Jam”… all her inspirations and the ideas of her songs were originated from all the common things that a Japanese girl would encounter, therefore she grabbed most of the attention from her female fans with no sweat at all.

Since she is now the heartthrob of the Japanese youngsters, her record sales definitely won’t be low. Her first album “Love Punch” broke 640000 copies nationwide, with a short notice of 9 months, her second album, “Love Jam” took down the first place of Oricon Chart, amazingly broke the total sales record of the first album in just a week.

She was only on the stage for just a year and she already been invited as a guest performer in the Kouhaku last year. She also won quite a number of newbie awards from some events such as Best Hit 2004 Awards, NHK awards and the 46th Japanese Record Awards.

It has been said by the public that she will most likely be the next Ayumi Hamasaki, however, it is certainly true that she is still too green for this but however the Japanese Music Industry isn’t going to be boring when Otsuka Ai is around the CD shelves.

Translated and edited by Isaac Hiew
Translated from China Press
25th March 2005

This article and the picture are for AHS Forum only. If you would like to use this piece of informative material, please ask for permission from me. Thank you.