Japanese R&B Singer Namie Amuro

Namie Amuro was born on September 20, 1977 in Okinawa, Japan to a Japanese father and Italian-Japanese mother. She attended the Okinawa Actors School at the young age and made her musical debut as part of a group called Super Monkeys when she was in 8th grade.

The group went through a few member changes as it gradually grew in popularity. It became increasingly obvious that Namie Amuro was the most popular member of the band. Its name was changed to Namie Amuro and Super Monkeys, with Namie as the main act.

Namie caught the eye or prominent music producer Tetsuya Komuro. He took her under his wing and nurtured her solo career. Soon Namie became the bona fide "Queen of J-pop" (J-pop=Japanese pop). Thousands of young girls in Japan copied her hair and fashion sense.

In 1999 she returned to the pop scene, but soon received news of her mother's death. She again took a short break for mourning.

In 2002, Namie fully immersed herself into the Japanese R&B scene releasing music under the psuedonym, SUITE CHIC. Under the SUITE CHIC project she collaborated with several of Japan's popular hip hop and R&B artists. They released two singles, an original album and one remix album before ending the project in 2003.

From November 29th, 2003 to May 15th, 2004 she performed throughout Asia on the "Namie Amuro SO CRAZY" tour featuring BEST singles 2003-2004, where she wrapped it up with 3 concerts in Seoul, South Korea. She was the first major Jpop artist to hold a concert in the country. Currently, she's on the "Namie Amuro Fanclub" tour. Her single GIRL TALK / the SPEED STAR, was released on October 14, 2004.

Recently, She donated 10 million yen to UNICEF to be given to child victims of the Dec 26 earthquake and tsunami in Sumatra. Amuro made the donation after performing at the charity event "MTV Asia Aid" held in Bangkok. Previously, she donated 5 million yen to the Taiwan Child Support Foundation and 5,000 won to the Korea Council of Social Welfare, 1,000 won of which went to help child victims of a deadly train blast in North Korea.