J : Japan K : Korea T : Taiwan HK : Hong Kong US : United States UK : Britain Ayumi Wins Award for Viewer's Most Requested Artist J Ayumi Hamasaki is proving to everyone that 2001 is her year. Her latest distinction is viewer's most requested artist of the year for this year's Yuusen Housou Taishou Music Award. Other winners include Hikawa Kyoushi for best song and ZONE for best new artist. Coming up in a few weeks will be the grandest music awards (and perhaps the most controverial), the Nihon Record Taishou Awards. Ayumi Hamasaki's Latest Distinction J On Thursday it was announced that Hamasaki Ayumi won the "34th Annual Japanese Record Sales Grand Prix" two years straight. The last person to accomplish this feat. was TRF but Hamasaki was able to do it two-years straight raking in a record 20000000000 Yen. Of course, it helps that Hamasaki Ayumi has released several albums and CD singles in a year but Utada Hikaru still holds the record in terms of money made for album sales. Nevertheless, 2001 has been the year for Hamasaki who will be releasing a trance album in the UK, currently has the #1 single with globe's keiko for the song_nation charity and most of all a rumored engagement with TOKIO's Nagase Tomoya. Ken Hirai To Work With Babyface J Singer, Hirai Ken will work with popular American producer and singer Babyface for his upcoming CD single that is to be released on January 30th. The song which is called "Missin You - It Will Break My Heart" will be composed and produced by Babyface and written by Hirai. The DVD of "Ken's Bary Special 2001" will also be released on January 30th. 10 Fans Fainted at Kang Ta's Fan Meeting K There was a commotion at Kang Ta’s joint fan meeting and birthday party at Seoul’s Olympic Park. During the first session of the KIT fan meeting which started at 4 pm on November 24, Kang Ta surprised his audience when he began to sing an HOT song “Bit.” The crowd most of them HOT fans were so overwhelmed with memories of the former group at that moment that the mostly female teenage audience began to cry to make it a sea of tears. Among the 10,000 fans present about 10 fans fainted. Even though it’s not rare for 1 or 2 fans to faint at fan meetings or concerts in Korea this is the largest amount of faint reports since the ’99 HOT Concert. The 4th session of Kang Ta’s fan meeting the following day November 25 was delayed for 50 minutes due to problems with the big screen set up. That session ended without further accident at 8:40 pm. news source : solid07.net 2001 M-Net Music Video Festival K WAX’s Hwa Jang Eul Go Chi Go was awarded the Best Music Video of the year at the annual M-Net Music Video Festival. Apart from that, GOD's Guhjitmal was awarded as the Most Popular Music Video. The best director award went to Cha Eun Taek. Most of the award winners were chose out of a pool of 5 or 6 candidates. The top 2 awards were each picked out of a pool of 65 candidates. From the results, WAX was the only artist to win two awards at the Festival this year. Here are the results :      Best Music Video: WAX’s Hwa Jang Eul Go Chi Go      Most Popular Music Video: GOD’s Guhjitmal      Director: Cha Eun Taek      Merits Award: Clon      Special Award: No Brain      International: N’Sync’s Pop      Asian Viewer’s Request: NRG’s Bi      New Male Solo: Sung Shi Kyung’s Chu Uhm Chu Rum      New Female Solo: WAX’s Oppa      New Group: Brown Eyes’s Bul Sshu Il Nyun      Male Solo: Kang Ta’s Book Geuk Sung      Female Solo: Kim Hyun Jung’s Ttuh Nan Nuh      Male Group: Shinhwa’s Wild Eyes      Female Group: SES’ Just In Love      Mixed Group: Koyote’s Paran      Rock: Jaurim’s Pa Aeh      Hip-Hop: Drunken Tiger’s Good Life      Ballad: Kim Gun Mo’s Mi Ahn Hae Yo      R&B: Park Jin Young’s Nan Yujah Ga It Neun Dae      Dance: Yoo Seung Jun’s Wow      Indi: Crying Nut’s The Night Got Deeper Ayumi Hamasaki Won Award J Popular idol and trendmaker Hamasaki Ayumi (23) was among one of the three individuals receiving an award from the Japanese Nailist Association on the 18th. Watch this news with Real Player or Windows Media Player. news source : j-ent Avex ladies teaming up for special Avex CD Singles for Charity J Popular AVEX artists such as Hamasaki Ayumi, KEIKO of globe, m-flo's VERBAL, Amuro Namie, TRF, Do As Infinity, BoA, hitomi, Mochida Kaori of ELT will get together to promote their CD singles for charity. The first will be on December 12th featuring Ayu and Keiko, the 19th will feature Koda Kumi and BoA, the 27th will feature Amuro Namie and VERBAL, the next will be TRF's Yuki and the lead singer for Do As Infinity. Then HAL and BALANCe, then hitomi and Mochida will be sold in January. Proceeds will go to charities for worldwide peace and refugee relief. Andy Returns To Shinhwa K Shinhwa becomes a six-member group again when Andy Lee returns to join the group. That night after the performance of Shinhwa's other five members, Andy came on the stage. He received kisses from fellow members and then told the fans that he missed them in tears. Andy will officially resumed his activities through this year's annual SM Town Christmas Album. Ayumi Hamasaki Awarded 'Japanese Glasses Wearer Awards' J Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki was awarded with 'Japanese Glasses Wearer Awards'. This award is given to an artist who looks the best with glasses on. Ayumi Hamasaki went to the ceremony wearing her 1950's style brown sunglasses. Utada Hikaru Opposed US Air-Strikes J Using a message on her homepage, Utada Hikaru declared that she opposed US air-strikes against Afgahnistan. Although she understands US opinion, Utada considers this type of retaliation an attack on human beings. Speed's 1-day Live Concert J The 4 members of former group Speed gathered together and held a 1-day live concert. That night, 24 000 people showed up to hear the four members sang a total of 15 songs. The songs included 'One More Dream' which was specially created for that night. Half of that night's earnings will be donated to the US casualties from terrorism. Tomoya Nanase & Ayumi Hamasaki confirmed as a couple J When Ayumi Hamasaki was promoting a commercial movie, a ring was spotted on her finger. She then revealed that it was from her boyfriend. This started the rumour that she is dating with Tomoya Nagase of Tokio. Recently, they sent statements to the media, confirming them as an item, but denied to having discuss marriage and retirement. Kang Ta's 1st album K Kang Ta becomes the first member of H.O.T to release a solo album. His album, entitled Polaris, is released on August 16, 2001. His album is sold for 150,000 copies on the first day it is released. And by August 25, Polaris has been sold over 600,000 copies all over the world. Polaris also went up to second place best seller over at yesasia.com after being sold for 3 days, leaving SES' album at fourth place.