My Experience with Namie Amuro in Singapore

The first person to grace my first ever entry on J-Pop KAMPAI! is none other than our lovely Queen of Hip-Pop, Namie Amuro. After all, she was the reason why I started up this blog, but more on that later.

I won a preorder lucky draw organised by Universal Music Singapore as part of promotion for Namie's latest album, Uncontrolled, here and thus got to be one of the 20 lucky fans to attend the press conference held at the Marina Bay Sands.



I set up this blog because as I had mentioned, I blogged that should I win the preorder lucky draw, I will then open up a J-Pop blog. To be exact, I purchased 3 copies of the album (which amounted to around SGD75), and that is on top of one Japan press copy I had already bought.
Am I a money waster? Yes, I am. This is actually a good thing for you guys, because who knows, if this blog becomes really popular I'll be able to hold giveaway competitions!!! Free shit for y'all!! A distant dream for both you and me. (Oh snap! An Ayu pun!)

Originally the lucky people selected would be able to go for a "meet and greet", but this was quickly changed to a press conference. Oh well, I honestly never expected for autograph signings and things like that. Knowing Namie, I doubt she'll ever do one so I never expected much. I just thought that as long as I got to see her I'll be satisfied already. How creepy does that sound?

Here's a video my friend took with my iPhone when we were waiting for her to arrive at the Changi Airport:

You can actually hear me saying "what the fuck" when she was walking here because she was literally surrounded by a fucking FORTRESS. Media personnel at the front with their cameras up in the air, tilting down at her while security was at her back. You couldn't even see her because she was so tiny.

Nonetheless if you could see she waved at my direction! OoooOOoo! Namie did sign somebody's poster at the entrance so that's a shocker.

The next day I attended the press conference at the 57th level of Tower 3 of the Marina Bay Sands at Ku Dé Ta. The place was actually pretty small and while waiting for Namie to appear they were playing what seemed to be her media press kit on the television.

It was just short snippets of her music videos on top of an English narration of her past achievements over her 20-year career. They also showed the making-of clips for Go Round and YEAH-OH's music videos.

Before she even came out I managed to get a glimpse of her (or rather, her flawless hair) behind a black veil that was somewhere behind the stage. I had a fanboy moment when I saw that and everybody stared at me after which I immediately acted like nothing happened to prevent shit from happening.

After she was fashionably late for like 20 minutes the press conference finally started! We all didn't freak out, but she noticed that I was waving at her and she waved back! :ooooo








The interviewer just asked some really simple questions that she's probably answered many times before though, like how she maintains her beauty, what she thought of her 20 years, what she plans to do for the next 20 years and stuff like that. She also mentioned that she was going to have chilli crab for dinner that night (It's a Singaporean must-try delicacy!) and visit the night safari!


Oh, and when asked what her favourite food was, she certainly wasted no time in saying "fried chicken". Bitch loves her some KFC.

This is a short video of the press conference I took from where I was:

After the press conference which lasted for about 30 minutes, we were also given clear files with the Uncontrolled CD+DVD cover printed on it. I don't have to show you a picture, now, do I? Hahahaha.

I was also interviewed by RazorTV for a video they were going to do regarding the press conference. You can watch me looking very embarrassing. I was so nervous!

Credit: Universal Music Singapore

A few of them stayed afterwards hoping they'd be able to see Namie again and they managed to even take a group picture with her! Unfortunately I was rushing off to school for my Japanese class and I now heavily regret not staying.


Speaking of which, I told my Japanese teacher about it and she was so shocked that she was in Singapore! She then started to sing Don't wanna cry which was hilaaaarious! She then went on to lament about how she didn't get to see Sakurai Sho either when he came here last week to film.


Namie's dancers were also going to perform for "Amuro Night" at a club here in Singapore called Dragonfly at the St. James Power Station just like in Hong Kong.

She was not slated to appear there, but obviously she decided to turn up anyway!

Credit: Universal Music Singapore

(Warning: audio might kill your ears)

Too bad I'm underage and couldn't go. Young people problems, everybody.

I hope Namie had a great time while she was here in Singapore and that she will one day finally perform here! I'm sure the Singapore Indoor Stadium would be ideal since it has a capacity of somewhere between a hall and an arena. I think.


Some local newspaper articles reporting on Namie's press conference:

(Source: The New Paper)

(click to enlarge)

I'm actually inside this article in the small picture below hahahaha. That's my 3 seconds of fame right there.


While this newspaper had a full-page spread, another one had a pathetic, small, obsolete corner with an absolutely irrelevant title:

(Source: The Straits Times)

Sure. Aren't you proud of yourselves, ST?



What would you ask Namie if you got the chance to have a meet-and-greet session with her? I'd probably go blank and ask if Haruto is secretly a girl or something.