Namie Amuro

She initially debuted in 1992 as the lead singer of SUPER MONKEY'S, with fellow Okinawa Actors School classmates MAX as back dancers. After the group disbanded, she eventually had her solo debut in 1995 on the Avex Trax label with the Tetsuya Komuro produced single "Body Feels EXIT", which was an instant hit. The following singles "Chase the Chance", "Don't wanna cry" and "You're my sunshine" all sold 1 million copies during a short period of time. In 1996, Namie released her debut solo album "SWEET 19 BLUES" which sold 3.8 millions of copies throughout Japan and broke sales records at the time. It is the 12th most selling album of all time in Japan. At the end of 1996 she won the Grand Prix Award, the highest honor at the Japan Record Awards, for "Don't wanna cry". She is the youngest artist to have won the award. Then followed the release of the chart topping singles release "SWEET 19 BLUES (single)", "a walk in the park", "How to be a girl" and "CAN YOU CELEBRATE?". The latter became her best selling single and the 8th most selling single of all time in Japan.