Ayumi Hamasaki -- YOU

There has apparently been some happy news in the Hamasaki household as of late. From what I've read on Mixi and both J-Wiki and Wikipedia files (with one source being Arama Japan) for singer-songwriter Ayumi Hamasaki（浜崎あゆみ）, she gave birth to a boy at the end of last November, and made the announcement on her Team Ayu fan website on New Year's Day (although I couldn't find it there for some reason).

Remembering Ayu in her halcyon days as the golden-tressed superstar diva of J-Pop with all of those high-tempo chart-topping hits, it's sometimes nice to go back to her very early days when her hair was a bit more of a strawberry blonde and shorter. Not knowing too much of her discography back then, I did find her 2nd single, "YOU" from June 1998.

Written by Hamasaki and composed by Yasuhiko Hoshino（星野靖彦）, "YOU" seems to be an expression of her feelings for that special someone through the good and bad times, and in the end, she wants to continue to support him. Perhaps it's still at the friend stage but would like an upgrade in the relationship.

I'd never heard of "YOU" before although it went Gold, reaching No. 20 on Oricon, or perhaps it slipped my mind since I recollect watching a lot of the "Countdown TV" episodes and seeing a lot of Ayu's hits being featured all of the time. In any event, although the arrangement does include a proud synthesizer and guitar, I like it as a pretty calming and introspective song with that familiar voice behind it. "YOU" was also included on Hamasaki's first original album "A Song for xx" which was released on New Year's Day in 1999. That album hit the top spot on the charts and ended the year as the No. 16 album, becoming a million-seller and earning a Best Album prize at the Japan Record Awards.