Checkmate! (album)
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Checkmate! (album)
''Checkmate!'' is a collaboration album by Japanese popsinger Namie Amuro, featuring a collection of her collaborations with other musicians released between 2003 and 2011, as well as four new collaborations. The album was released on April 27, 2011, about one month after its original release date, due to 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Two songs were released as digital downloads prior to the album, "Wonder Woman" in early March prior to the album's postponement, as well as " Make It Happen" on April 20, a week before the album's release. Background and development The album was first conceived after Amuro had finished her tour for her 2009 album ''Past Many of the collaborators on the album worked on multiple tracks. Amuro collaborated with Verbal on five songs: "Wet'N Wild" (producer), "Black Out", "Luvotomy" (rapper, songwriter), "R ...
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Namie Amuro
Namie Amuro ( ; ja, 安室奈美恵, Amuro Namie, label=none; born September 20, 1977) is a Japanese former recording artist, producer, songwriter, dancer, model, actress and entrepreneur who was active between 1992 and 2018. A leading figure of the Japanese entertainment industry since the early 1990s, Amuro is known for breaking the youthful idol stereotype of J-Pop, changing the fashion trends and lifestyle of women in Japan, her experimentation across music styles, and for her visual imagery in music videos and live performances. Due to her career longevity, resilience, professionalism, efforts behind-the-scenes in the music industry, and her way of life, she is considered a pop culture icon in Japan and Asia. She has been referred to as "Diva of Heisei Era" and the " Queen of Japanese Pop", and has been recognized as having the influence and career impact domestically equivalent to artists such as Janet Jackson and Madonna in Western music and pop culture. Born in Naha, Oki ...
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Ai (singer)
, known mononymously as Ai (, stylized as AI or A.I. ), is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, spokeswoman, and actress. Born in Los Angeles, California, Ai moved to Kagoshima, at age 4. Motivated to become a singer, Ai returned to Los Angeles, attending the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. While in Los Angeles, Ai began her musical career performing as part of a gospel choir at a Mary J. Blige concert and as a dancer for Janet Jackson's music video, "Go Deep". She briefly joined the Asian girl group SX4 in 1999 until she graduated high school. After being discovered by BMG in 2000, Ai relocated to Japan and released her debut album, ''My Name is Ai'' (2001), to very little commercial success. Signing to Def Jam Records Japan in 2002, Ai became the first woman signed to the label. She released two studio albums under the label, ''Original Ai'' (2003) and ''2004 Ai''. With the release of her third studio album, Ai rose to mainstream promi ...
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Black Ops
A black operation or black op is a covert or clandestine operation by a government agency, a military unit or a paramilitary organization; it can include activities by private companies or groups. Key features of a black operation are that it is secret and it is not attributable to the organization carrying it out. A single such activity may be called a black bag operation; that term is primarily used for covert or clandestine surreptitious entries into structures to obtain information for human intelligence operations. Such operations are known to have been carried out by the FBI, CIA, KGB, Mossad, MI6, MI5, ASIS, COMANF, DGSE, AISE, CNI, MSS, R&AW, DGFI, SVR, FSB and the intelligence services of other nations. The main difference between a black operation and one that is merely secret is that a black operation involves a significant degree of deception, to conceal who is behind it or to make it appear that some other entity is responsible (e.g. false flag operatio ...
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Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016. The company was founded as Activision, Inc. on October 1, 1979 in Sunnyvale, California, by former Atari game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for the popular Atari 2600 home video game console. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The video game crash of 1983, in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the expertise of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games and forced the company to diversify into games for home computers, including the acquisition of Infocom. ...
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Tomohisa Yamashita
, also widely known as , or Tomo, is a Japanese singer, actor, and TV host. Yamashita joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates as a trainee in 1996 (age 11) and made his small acting debut for NHK's ''Shonentachi'' (1998) and has been active on Japanese TV since then. Yamashita made his official CD debut as part of idol group NEWS in 2004 and later debuted as a soloist in 2006. He got his successful acting career after an interesting portrayal as Kusano Akira for the hit drama ''Nobuta Wo Produce'' (2005). His biggest break as an actor came in 2006 when he landed his first lead role for popular drama ''Kurosagi''. On October 7, 2011, Johnny & Associates announced that Yamashita and Ryo Nishikido were no longer members of NEWS and Yamashita would be concentrating on his solo projects as actor and solo singer/idol. His solo music label was under Warner Music Japan until 2016. In mid-2018, Yamashita's music label moved to Sony Music Japan; however, Sony only managed Yam ...
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Johnny & Associates
is a Japanese talent agency, formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962, which trains and promotes groups of male entertainers known as . History 1962–1989 In 1962, Kitagawa launched his first group, Johnnys. In its early days, Kitagawa's agency rented an office space owned by Watanabe Productions, operating under its management as well. Six years later, Four Leaves, a boy band created by the agency, became successful. Four Leaves left a lasting legacy to the industry because it was produced as a "Group sounds band that does not play instruments", a product of Kitagawa's taste for emphasizing the attributes, personality and physical abilities of a performer. Since then Kitagawa has formed a number of successful acts, such as solo artist Masahiko Kondō, whose song, , won the 1987 Japan Record Award, and Hikaru Genji, the first Johnny group with three singles on the Japanese Oricon yearly chart in 1988. Johnny & Associates played an integral role in the post-war growth of Japanese boy ...
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Break It/Get Myself Back
"Break It/Get Myself Back" is a double A-side single released by Japanese recording artist Namie Amuro Namie Amuro ( ; ja, 安室奈美恵, Amuro Namie, label=none; born September 20, 1977) is a Japanese former recording artist, producer, songwriter, dancer, model, actress and entrepreneur who was active between 1992 and 2018. A leading figure of .... It was released on July 28, 2010, through Avex Trax. ''Break It'' was used in a Coca-Cola Zero commercial. The song reached number three on Oricon's weekly chart. The single has been certified Gold for shipment of 100,000 copies, as well as "Get Myself Back" being certified as a gold download to cellphones., it serves two lead singles for her tenth studio album '' Uncontrolled''. Music video The music video for "Get Myself Back" features Amuro in several different locations. She first appears on a beach standing ankle-deep in the water. Another location includes standing next to tree, and also in a large grassy field. The mu ...
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Chemistry (band)
Chemistry (styled as CHEMISTRY) is a Japanese pop duo, consisting of and . History They were the winners of the Asayan audition (similar to the ''American Idol'' series) in 2000 organized by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Their first single " Pieces of a Dream" was released on March 3, 2001, and was the best selling single that year (over 2 million). Most of their singles have reached #1 on the Oricon charts; all five albums have reached #1 the day they were released. Their #1 streak was broken by the KinKi Kids' album '' H Album: Hand'', scoring them a #2 rank for '' Fo(u)r''. Chemistry is also known in Korea for the popular collaboration song " Let's Get Together Now," featuring talents from both Korea and Japan and for collaborating with Korean singer Lena Park who appears in the B-side "Dance with Me" on the "Kimi ga Iru" single. On March 6, 2008, Kaname Kawabata married model Miki Takahashi. They met after she appeared in the PV for "This Night." Their single "Perio ...
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Bonnie McKee
Bonnie Leigh McKee (born January 20, 1984) is an American singer and songwriter. Her debut album, ''Trouble'', was released in 2004 under Reprise Records. After underperforming, McKee was dropped by her label and took a musical hiatus before establishing herself as a songwriter. McKee has written 10 singles that have reached number one in either the United States or the United Kingdom, which have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide combined. In 2013, McKee made a return to music with a slew of singles, including " American Girl". She would later independently release an EP, '' Bombastic'' (2015). McKee is particularly known for collaborating with pop singer Katy Perry, and the duo has written the hits "California Gurls", " Teenage Dream", " Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", " Part of Me", " Wide Awake", and " Roar" together. McKee also co-wrote " Dynamite" by Taio Cruz, which became the second-best selling song by a British artist in the digital era. McKee also co-wrote ot ...
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Jörgen Elofsson
Kjell Åke Jörgen Elofsson (born 14 January 1962) is a Swedish songwriter. He was one of the writers of the songwriter-team at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm (along with Denniz PoP, Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, Rami Yacoub, Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Herbie Crichlow, Jake Schulze, Alexander Kronlund and Alexandra Talomaa) where he made successful songs such as Britney Spears' " Sometimes" and " (You Drive Me) Crazy". He is also known for co-writing hit songs like Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)", which was nominated for Song the Year and Record of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards, as well as Westlife's "Fool Again", "Unbreakable", and "Evergreen". Early years (1978-1998) Elofsson grew up in a small community called Skälderviken, outside Ängelholm in the south of Sweden. His father was not very present in his life and was a workaholic and alcoholic. His mother was a homemaker. Eloffson has explained he inherited the tendency to worry ...
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You're Beautiful (TV Series)
''You're Beautiful'' () is a 2009 South Korean television series starring Jang Keun-suk, Park Shin-hye, Jung Yong-hwa of CNBLUE, and Lee Hong-gi of F.T. Island. The series follows fictional musician band, A.N.JELL, and how the relationship between its members changes when a girl posing as her twin brother joins the band. It aired on SBS from October 7 to November 26, 2009, for 16 episodes. Synopsis Ko Mi-nyeo (Park Shin-hye) has lived at an orphanage with her twin brother, Ko Mi-nam, since childhood after their father died. Years later, Mi-nam becomes a music idol and Mi-nyeo lives in a junior nun dorm to fulfill her dream of becoming a nun. One day, Mi-nam successfully auditions for and wins the "A.N Entertainment" vocal auditions to join the musical band A.N.Jell. However, he must leave for the United States in order to correct his botched plastic surgery. Mi-nam's manager, Ma Hoon-yi (Kim In-kwon) approaches Mi-nyeo and requests her to pose as Mi-nam for a month till he recov ...
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K-pop
K-pop (), short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. It includes styles and genres from around the world, such as pop, hip hop, R&B, experimental, rock, jazz, gospel, reggae, electronic dance, folk, country, disco, and classical on top of its traditional Korean music roots. The term "K-pop" became popular in the 2000s, especially in the international context. The Korean term for domestic pop music is ''gayo'' (), which is still widely used within South Korea. While "K-pop" can refer to all popular music or pop music from South Korea, it is colloquially often used in a ''narrower'' sense for any Korean music and artists associated with the entertainment and idol industry in the country, regardless of the genre. The more modern form of the genre, originally termed "rap dance", emerged with the formation of the hip hop boy band Seo Taiji and Boys, in 1992. Their experimentation with different sty ...
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