Asia Blog: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam

This greatest hits album features the following tracks:

1. Wishing On The Same Star
2. shine more
3. Put’ Em Up
4. So Crazy
5. ALARM
6. ALL FOR YOU
7. GIRL TALK
8. WANT ME, WANT ME
9. White Light
10. Can’t Sleep, Can’t Eat, I’m Sick
11. Body Don’t Cry
12. FUNKY TOWN
13. NEW LOOK
14. ROCK STEADY
15. WHAT A FEELING
16. Do Me More (New Song)
17. Sexy Girl (New Song)

I think the airbrushers went a little crazy!

This just seems like the wrong thing to do. Our favorite Sinablog Shanghaiist has the scoop about how Iceland’s famous singer embarrassed herself:

Björk closed out the set with the anthemic ‘Declare Independence,’ chanting the name of a huge piece of real estate west of Sichuan and Yunnan amongst a hail of streamers. [Bjork] shouted “Tibet, Tibet!” followed by “Raise your flag!” towards the end of her final song, “Declare independence.”

Our favorite singer Koda Kumi (倖田來未) has a new album coming out on January 30, 2008, according to JpopCD Art. The album is called Kingdom and will feature the following tracks:

01. Introduction For Kingdom
02. LAST ANGEL feat. Tohoshinki
03. Amai Wana
04. Himitsu
05. Ai No Uta
06. anytime
07. Under
08. BUT
09. Koi No Mahou
10. Aishou
11. Anata Ga Shite Kureta Koto
12. Wonderland
13. FREAKY
14. MORE
15. Black Cherry

Early reviews of the album are positive; there are four reviews on YesAsia already, with comments like, “this is truly amazing. I wasn’t expecting this from Kumi Koda. Completely unexpected, original, and refreshing.” The reviewers are judging based off of samples, but they sound hyped!

Ne-Yo is collaborating with Utada Hikaru on a song called Do You. It was released on Nov 21 to digital outlets in Japan. This is part of Ne-Yo’s worldwide initiative; other collaborators include Natasha Bedingfield (UK), Sarah Connor (Germany), and Mary J. Blige (U.S). Ne Yo sez, “She has great voice and I’m sure it will work perfectly.”

I was originally quite excited; now you can hear the full song on Youtube, still no downloads in US iTunes or anywhere else I looked:

I just wonder, do you ever
think of me, anymore? Do you?

The song turns out to be pretty boring. They’ve done something horrible to Utada to make her sound less like herself and more like a generic female voice. Also, her breathing comes out very harshly on the track. Ne-yo is stilted and unispiring. Well, listen to yourself–I give it a 1/5.

According to Mainichi news, the reason Ayumi Hamasaki and Tomoya Nagase divorced was an abortion Ayu allegedly had:

“Ayu is a formal member of a top Tokyo hospital, which guarantees her absolute privacy, but apparently somebody happened to spot her bawling her eyes out while at the hospital in the spring,” the reporter says. “I have to admit that I don’t know whether the rumor is true.”

If she did become pregnant, her music career would be on hold, possibly forever. And with competition from Koda Kumi, she has to be on top of her “j-idol” game.