Pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki was born on October 2, 1978 in Fukuoka, Japan. Hamasaki's mother encouraged her daughter's acting skill from an early age and by age 12 Ayumi was appearing on TV dramas as child actress. She grew up listening to the likes of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, recommended by her older brother. With no particular aim in life, she was hanging around in her late teens, when she was introduced to a producer of the Avex label at the Velfare disco in Tokyo, who was impressed with her singing potential.

Hamasaki was duly signed and her '98 debut single, 'Poker Face' was a moderate hit. She released as many as five singles in a few months, which helped her debut album 'A Song For Xx' debut on top of the chart. Her follow-up 'Loveppears' and 2000 'Duty' repeated the success, while she continued to release a string of singles. Among the many hits from that period were 'Boys & Girls', 'A', 'Seasons', 'To Be', and 'Endless Sorrow'. In 2001 she released her first greatest hits album, 'A Best', her biggest record yet, which sold four million copies in the first week of release.

Hamasaki's next album, 2002's 'I Am …', which featured a duet with Keiko (Globe), found the singer pushing the envelope of her artistic potential. A number of hits followed, including the only platinum single in 2002, 'H'. Her fifth studio album, 'Rainbow', which hit stores in December 2002, did not wander far from Hamasaki's usual sound. 'A Ballads', a collection of her ballads plus a cover of Yumi Matsutoya's 'Sotsugyo Shasin', was released in early 2003.

Hamasaki is enjoying a string of Japan chart-toppers that help establish her as one of the most successful female solo singers of '00s, along with Misia and Hikaru Utada. Unlike other young female pop singers, Hamasaki has been writing lyrics for most of her songs. In addition to being a trendsetter of the fashion, she writes many songs to illustrate the alienation many girls feel, with her discerning, plain-spoken lyrics.

The singer is also hugely popular in house music clubs where incredibly uptempo remixes of her smash singles have taken on lives all their own. She's been the subject of a huge number of remix albums, including Avex remix series of 'Ayu Mix', 'Cyber Trance Presents' and 'Super Eurobeat'.

Ayumi Hamasaki' is set to issue her latest and sixth studio album, 'Memorial Address', which will be bundled with a bonus DVD featuring video clips of each of the set's seven tracks, the first of such packages by Japanese artists.