Translated by CLAUDIA
January 2004

From the second she debuted, we have always been watching her. Amuro Namie. Our eternal muse, and our eternal longing. Her present, past, and future. It all is our history. From a cute personage to a cool one, and now, 26 year old Amuro Namie who is living the present as a sexy woman, it’s all right here!

The Present: ‘Now what I’m 26, I want to be a child, but I think I have to be an adult.’

The Future: ‘I want people to notice that I’m slowly changing.’

The Past: ‘I was just frantic to become famous. After I accomplished my childhoon dream, that’s when the real thing began.’

Q. ‘SO CRAZY’, released in October. For us, that music video was sensational. Within the dance, and the moon was a sexy Amuro Namie.
A. ‘Sexy’ has a nice sound to it, doesn’t it? I’ve…never been told I was sexy until now. (laughter) I mean, I’m 26, I guess I’ve finally grown into someone people call sexy. It took a long time. (laughter)

Q. As she laughs, her smiling face is the same “Amuro-chan” as always. But in the relaxed expression she shows at times, you can feel the womanliness she has at 26, more than ever before. At 26, has Amuro Namie become an adult?
A. I think that 26 is a really ambivalent age. I want to be a child, but I’m 26. I have to be an adult, and I want to be both. I think that’s what’s making me feel mixed about it. I feel like normally, girls worry about which to become. In this line of work, I can make my costumes really cute, or really adult, and make so many different versions of myself, but when I wonder how I would be if I wasn’t in this line of work, it’s kind of frightening. I mean, I feel like I wouldn’t be doing anything, probably. I’m so lucky, and happy to be in this line of work.

Q. It’s been 11 years since her debut. How was the past Amuro Namie?
A. I don’t really look back on the past very much, but back then I was working as hard as I could. I was frantic. I just wanted to debut. At the School, everyone wanted to debut, so I learned how to appeal myself.

Q. That hard work paid off quickly. She succeeded big in her teens. But that feeling of accomplishment was not all happiness.
A. Sometimes, when I accomplish my goal, I don’t know what to do anymore. Because I think that the real thing only starts after [the goal] is accomplished. I don’t think of the hardship up until that point as pain. I think it’s what happens after that that is the problem, and that’s what I worried about.

Q. But it is because she got over that that she is who she is today.
A. I think that you can get over it if you meet a lot of different people, and do a lot of different things. I think that becoming an adult also means listening to other people’s opinions. I used to never listen at all. I used to hate mascara, so I wouldn’t ever wear it, and it’s only in the last 3 or 4 years that I’ve started to wear it. (laughter)

Q. And now the present. She says that the days when she spends all her time recording her album and in rehearsals for her tour are the most fulfilling.
A. I’m trying to challenge myself with as many new things as I can, so I think this is the time when I can make myself as interesting as possible. I’m having the most fun now!

Q. And Amuro-san’s future?
A. I wonder where I’ll go? (laughter) I don’t know. I may be doing something completely different this time next year. Lately, I’ve been thinking that I want people to notice that I’m changing little by little. I want to shed off part of myself. I want to show something different now, the things that I couldn’t do until now, whether it be in terms of singing or dancing, or even fashion and make-up.

New Album ‘STYLE’ Her new album, where she tries out many different genres.
“It’s come out really interestingly. It has a lot of variety, and I think it will surprise the listeners. There’s rock on it, and rap, and completely R&B numbers as well.”

“If I had debuted as a solo artist in the beginning, I wouldn’t be who I am today.”