Translated by duncan
July 2012

“This year is Namie Amuro’s twentieth anniversary…” This news, picked up by all the TV (wide) shows and sports papers, was no little surprise for the GLAMOROUS generation of women. Though we certainly walked together with her, “Has it really been 20 years?”. An original album ‘Uncontrolled’ goes on sale on June 27th, a one night only concert will be held in her old hometown Okinawa in September, then five large dome shows starting from November.

GLAMOROUS. Congratulations on your twentieth anniversary! In this commemorative year, what are you thinking about?

Amuro. I’m really surprised by it, since I never thought I’d do this for so long. But I don’t have any particular eagerness just because it’s my twentieth
anniversary. It will be nice simply to enjoy it. And this year I intend to sing some of the old songs at the live shows. Therefore I’ve been going back and
listening to them, but somehow I feel rather ashamed, of my young voice and the way I sang, but I was trying my best.

G. Certainly the old songs still have many fans. Is there anything that hasn’t changed for you since your debut period?

A. My thought hasn’t changed that “I want to be admired as a singer”. My approach is that if I don’t change then I can’t make progress, that is always my aim.

G. What is your secret to continuing for so long? Was there a ‘jinx’-like object where you said “I must keep to this”?

A. On the contrary, I feel I’ve tried as hard as possible not to keep to things. At times when I get very satisfactory results, “Today’s good thing was…” I’m also thinking “But was it good enough?” and searching for something, worrying if I don’t do this, if I don’t have this, I become more and more anxious. So for me it’s difficult, but I try as hard as possible to be always in the same state, always acting in the same way at full strength only. On top of that, by never being 100% satisfied with things, I feel I have kept going while
gradually aiming higher. Of course there are things that I thought were good, when I realise it’s good then I stop there. I’m always searching for challenges then trying to clear them.

G. What is it that provides the stimulus for you?

A. Well… recently I’m working a lot with younger people. They’ve always been younger than me, but from being the same generation the tour dancers have gradually got younger, I’m now the oldest person on stage. That becomes a great stimulus. Getting such freshness from the youngsters helps me feel fresh. I tend to be confined in my own world, but by being in contact with other people it gets opened up. I’m looking forward to that from now on.

G. Is work enjoyable?

A. I think it gets more enjoyable as you get older. In the old days there were many things that were decided not by me, but now it’s very flexible. I am free in many ways, and my attitude is to steadily increase that if I can.

G. I was given a listen to the album which is released on June 27th. I was eager to hear a woman doing reliably sparkling songs, among which is the song ‘Hot girls’ where you repeatedly sing “Hot girls make the world go round”, these words are exactly the message that GLAMOROUS wants to convey to our readers. For
women it is a very enjoyable song.

A. That’s right. Women are running the world! I can say that, don’t you think? Women variously demonstrating things and doing activities, mistakenly think that if they “become strong” some men will take it badly, but that’s not the case. The truth is that women are stronger than in the past. I think that one way of supporting men is to have a strong presence. Besides, since men become better if they mix with hot girls, however you say it, women always want to shine with self-confidence.

Glamorous generation has been driven by Amuro’s message and Amuro’s fashion up to now. She will surely guide us in the future.