Julianne Hough

Julianne Hough is an American professional ballroom dancer and country music singer. She is most-widely known for her repeated appearances on ABC's program, Dancing with the Stars, which she won twice. She earned a Creative Arts Primetime Emmy nomination in 2007 for her choreography. ABC's 20/20 called her one of the "very best dancers on the planet."[1] Julianne's brother, Derek Hough, is also on Dancing with the Stars. Hough was signed to Mercury Nashville Records in December 2007. Her self-titled debut album was released May 20, 2008, debuting at 1 on the Billboard Country Album chart and 3 on the Billboard 200. This season Hough was partnered with Cody Linley.

Hough grew up one of five children from an LDS family in Salt Lake City. Her brother Derek Hough is also a professional dancer. She has three sisters named Sharee, Marabeth, and Katherine. All four of her grandparents were dancers, and her parents met while on a ballroom dancing team in college in Idaho.

Her formal training began at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, Utah, where she danced with Josh Murillo, among others, in Latin Ballroom; she began dancing competitively at nine. Her parents sent her and her brother to London for a year later to live and study with their coaches, Corky and Shirley Ballas, and to spare them the strife of divorce.The Ballas' helped tutor the two Hough children alongside their own son, Mark, while schooling them at the Italia Conti Academy. They received training in song, theatre, gymnastics and many forms of dance, including jazz, ballet, and tap.The three children formed their own pop music trio 2B1G when Julianne was twelve,performed at dance competitions in the U.K. and the U.S., and showcased in a UK television show.At fifteen, Julianne Hough became the youngest dancer, and only American, to win both Junior World Latin Champion and International Latin Youth Champion at the Blackpool Dance Festival.

One of her earliest professional experiences was as an assistant choreographer on Gwen Stefani's Wind It Up music video.[citation needed] She was also featured in two television commercials and was an extra in an episode of Cold Case. She was also one of the "Million Dollar Dancers" in the short-lived network television game show Show Me the Money.

Hough's big break was when she appeared in the fourth season of the U.S. version of Dancing with the Stars, a televised ballroom dance competition. In her first season, she won with her partner, Olympic gold medal-winning speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, making Hough the youngest professional dancer to win on the program. On November 27, 2007, Hough and her partner, two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves, became the winners of Season 5. Hough returned for season 6 with radio host/comedian Adam Carolla, but they were eliminated in the fourth week. In July 2008, Hough was nominated at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in the category of "Outstanding Choreography" for her Mambo "Para Los Rumberos" on Dancing with the Stars,but lost to choreographer Wade Robson.

Hough's first country music single "Will You Dance With Me" was released to iTunes and Wal-Mart in May 2007 to raise money for the American Red Cross. The song peaked at 100 on the Billboard Pop 100 chart.She later signed with Universal Music Group Nashville.

Her self-titled debut album was recorded in Nashville and produced by David Malloy, who has worked with Reba McEntire, Eddie Rabbitt, among others. Hough's album, which met with mixed reviews,[13][14] debuted at 1 on the Top Country Albums chart on May 31, and also peaked at 3 on the Billboard 200.[15] Hough's second single, and the first to be released to country radio, "That Song in My Head" debuted on the Country charts in March.

Liv Rundgren Tyler

Liv Rundgren Tyler

Liv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's frontman, Steven Tyler and model, singer Bebe Buell. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of fourteen, but quickly decided to focus on acting. Her first notable role was appearing alongside Alicia Silverstone in the music video for Aerosmith's song "Crazy" in 1993.

At age seventeen she made her film debut in the 1994 film Silent Fall. Following her performance in Silent Fall, Tyler starred in her breakthrough performance in 1996's Stealing Beauty. In 1998, she starred opposite Ben Affleck in Armageddon, which became a summer blockbuster. Tyler then went on to portray elf princess Arwen Undómiel in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. After a brief hiatus she returned to acting, starring in the horror-thriller The Strangers and portraying Betty Ross in The Incredible Hulk.

Tyler was born Liv Rundgren at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York.She is the first born daughter of Bebe Buell, a model, singer, and former Playboy Playmate (Miss November 1974), and Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith.Her maternal grandmother, Dorothea Johnson, founded the Protocol School of Washington.Her mother named her after Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann after seeing Ullmann on the cover of the March 5, 1977 issue of TV Guide.At birth, Buell claimed that rock star Todd Rundgren was Tyler's biological father.Tyler discovered her true parentage at age nine.She discovered that she was Steven Tyler's daughter after meeting him and noticing a resemblance she shared with his other daughter, Mia.When she asked her mother about the similarity, the secret was revealed.The truth about Tyler's paternity did not become public until 1991, when she changed her name from Rundgren to Tyler, but kept the former as a middle name.Buell's alleged reason for the initial decision was that Steven was too heavily addicted to drugs at the time of her birth. Since learning the truth about her paternity, Tyler and Steven have developed a close relationship.They have also worked together professionally, once when she performed in Aerosmith's video for "Crazy" and again when Aerosmith wrote and performed many of the songs in the film Armageddon, in which Tyler starred.

Tyler attended the Congressional School of Virginia, Breakwater Elementary and Waynflete schools in Portland, Maine, before returning to New York City with her mother at the age of twelve.She went to York Prep in New York City for Junior High and High School, graduating in 1995. One month later Tyler set off for Italy to star in Stealing Beauty.

Starting a career as a model at the age of fifteen, Tyler appeared on the covers of magazines and starred in commercials.[1][5] However, she became bored with her modeling career less than a year after it started, and moved into acting.[5] She never took acting lessons.[6] Tyler first became known to television audiences when she starred alongside Alicia Silverstone in the music video for Aerosmith's song "Crazy" in 1993.[1] Between the period of 1993 and 1996, she starred in seven films.

Tyler made her film debut in Silent Fall in 1994. Following the release of the film, she starred in Heavy in 1995; the filming of which was delayed until she became available.By the age of nineteen, she had already starred in several successful films, including her breakthrough role in 1996's Stealing Beauty directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, the cult classic Empire Records, That Thing You Do! which was written and directed by Tom Hanks, and Inventing the Abbotts in 1997.

Tyler at the San Diego Comic-Con International Convention in 2007In 1998, she co-starred with Ben Affleck in Michael Bay's Armageddon, which raised her profile amongst cinemagoers and was coincidentally released on her twenty first birthday.The movie included the songs "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" and "What Kind of Love Are You On" by her father's band, Aerosmith.Tyler has also starred in Onegin in 1999, a film based on the 19th century Russian novel by Alexander Pushkin, in which she portrayed Tatyana Larina and co-starred with Ralph Fiennes.She later appeared in two films by legendary director Robert Altman, Cookie's Fortune (1999) and Dr. T & the Women (2000).

Natalia Vodianova

Natalia Vodianova

Natalia Vodianova was born on February 28, 1982.She is a Russian model.Born in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia's fourth largest city), Vodianova, nickname 'SuperNova', had a difficult childhood. Her mother's abusive boyfriends and a tight financial situation dogged her throughout childhood. Having helped her mother with her fruit stall business from the age of 11, Vodianova moved into her own apartment with a friend at 15 and started her own fruit-stall business. She was thus able to help out her sisters, one of whom is disabled.

At age 15, Vodianova enrolled in a modeling academy, and started going to castings. A scouting agent from Paris told her that she could have a great future if she learned English quickly. Convinced that her life would change for the better, Vodianova learned English in three months, moved to Paris and signed up with the Viva agency at age 17. Soon, Gucci made her the new face for their perfume line. After working at more than 40 runway shows, she was hired to appear in Calvin Klein's spring show. Around this time she also made a brief appearance in Roman Coppola's film CQ, with Billy Zane.

Vodianova has done campaigns for David Yurman, Louis Vuitton, L'Oreal, Marc Jacobs, Miss Sixty, Pepe Jeans, and Calvin Klein's collection and his fragrance, "Euphoria".

In July 2007, Vodianova was featured the cover of American Vogue as the solo subject, a considerable feat during an era that relies heavily on celebrity cover subjects to push sales. She first appeared on the cover along with eight other top models in September 2005. The only other models to have singularly graced the cover of US Vogue in between those two issues have been Linda Evangelista and Liya Kebede.

According to Forbes, Vodianova is ranked as the seventh highest-earning model in the world after Carolyn Murphy, Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, Heidi Klum, Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen. Her earnings for the past year were in the order of $4.5 million.

Her husband is British real estate heir, Justin Portman, a half-brother of the 10th Viscount Portman, son of a Viscount and Scion of one of Britain's wealthiest real estate families, owning swatches in London. The couple had their first son, Lucas Alexander, on December 22, 2001. On September 1, 2002, Vodianova and Portman married in a lavish ceremony in Saint Petersburg. Their second child, daughter Neva (named after the Russian river Neva) was born on March 24, 2006, weighing 7 pounds. She posed with her baby in Vogue. Her third child, a boy named Viktor, was born on September 13, 2007; Viktor is named after Natalia's grandfather. Vodianova's husband and children often travel with her.

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Michelle Rodriguez

Michelle Rodriguez

Michelle Rodriguez better known as Michelle Rodriguez, is an American actress, known for starring in films such as Girlfight, The Fast and the Furious, Resident Evil and S.W.A.T. as well as her role in the television series Lost.

Rodriguez was born in Bexar County, Texas, the daughter of Carmen Milady,a native of the Dominican Republic, and Rafael Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican who served in the US military.She has a total of ten half-siblings or siblings. She was raised by her devoutly religious maternal grandmother and was brought up in her mother's Jehovah's Witnesses religion. Rodriguez moved to the Dominican Republic with her mother when she was eight and lived in Puerto Rico when she was 11, later settling in Jersey City, New Jersey. She dropped out of high school but later earned her GED. Rodriguez briefly attended business school before quitting to pursue a career in Hollywood.

Having run across an ad for an open casting call and attending her first audition, Rodriguez beat 350 other applicants to win her first role in the low-budget 2000 independent film, Girlfight. Rodriguez's performance as Diana Guzman, a troubled teen who decides to channel her aggression by training to become a boxer, was recognized by both critics and audiences, but despite major industry buzz of a possible Academy Award nomination, she did not receive the Oscar nod. Rodriguez did however accumulate several other significant awards and nominations for the role in independent circles, including major acting accolades from the National Board of Review, Deauville Film Festival, Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards, Las Vegas Film Critics Sierra Awards, and many others. The film itself took home top prizes at both the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals.

In early 2000, Rodriguez broke off a near engagement to a Muslim boyfriend, citing opposition to religious requirements he demanded of her, which included covering herself completely.At one time, Rodriguez dated her The Fast and the Furious co-star, Vin Diesel.In 2003, Rodriguez was photographed sharing a kiss with Kylie Minogue's boyfriend Olivier Martinez and the two were later spotted partying together on on Puff Daddy's yacht in the south of France.

In 2006, she "had her eye on" Irish actor and S.W.A.T. co-star, Colin Farrell.In July 2006, Rodriguez told UK's Cosmopolitan magazine that she was not gay, but had "experimented with both sexes.In November of 2006, her openly bisexual Bloodrayne co-star Kristanna Loken's comments to The Advocate were widely interpreted and reported by the media as an admission that the two were in a relationship.Asked about the relationship in April 2007, Kristanna Loken said, "We're great friends. She'll always remain a great, close friend of mine. I'll always love Michelle.

In early 2007, Rodriguez was again photographed with Olivier Martinez. This time the two were seen dining together at Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles where Martinez was staying, with reports claiming she didn't emerge from the hotel until the following morning.In June 2007, Curve ran a cover describing her as a "bad bi girl" and considered by many to be trailing an interview in which Rodriguez would out herself Rodriguez never even did an interview with the magazine however, and therefore in response used her blog to express her feelings on the issue. In the July/August 2007 issue of Curve, editors responded to her criticism by stating: "If you read the article, you will see that the author did not, in fact, 'out' Rodriguez; rather, the article stated both that Rodriguez has never publicly come out' and 'Rodriguez has said she is not a lesbian.

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Stacy Keibler

Stacy Keibler

Stacy Keibler is an American actress and former professional wrestler and valet for World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment.

She began her professional wrestling career as a part of the Nitro Girls in WCW.She quickly moved on to a more prominent role in the company as the manager Miss Hancock .As Miss Hancock, she was known for doing table dances, her relationship with David Flair, and a pregnancy angle.After WCW was purchased by WWE, she moved to the new company, taking part in the Invasion storyline and managing the Dudley Boyz.Keibler also managed Test and Scott Steiner. Before her departure, she was affiliated with Rosey and The Hurricane and nicknamed Super Stacy.

Keibler was a contestant on the second season of Dancing with the Stars, where she placed third.She has also appeared on other American Broadcasting Company (ABC) shows such as What About Brian, George Lopez, and October Road. In addition, she has done modeling, appearing in both Maxim and Stuff.

Keibler is also known for her forty-two inch long legs.She has been known as both "The Legs of WCW" and "The Legs of WWE".During her time on Dancing with the Stars, she was nicknamed "The Weapon of Mass Seduction" because of her dancing skills and long legs.

Keibler began watching wrestling with her boyfriend at the time, Kris Cumberland.In late 1999, Keibler entered a contest held by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to find a new member of the Nitro Girls dance troupe.In November, she defeated 300 other girls for a spot on the dance troupe and $10,000.Her winning routine was watched by 4.4 million viewers.Keibler performed dance routines every week on WCW's flagship show Monday Nitro under the name Skye.By 2000, Keibler was appearing on WCW as a Nitro Girl, attending school full-time, and cheering for the Baltimore Ravens.

She soon accepted a larger role and became a valet using the stage name Miss Hancock,briefly serving as an associate for the tag team of Lenny Lane and Lodi dubbed "Standards and Practices".Despite wearing business suits, her character was known to climb on top of the announcers' table and dance sensually.It was also during this period that she began using what would become her trademark ring entrance: slowly putting her forty-two inch legs through the second tier of ropes, pausing to let the crowd momentarily see her underwear.At 5 feet 11 inches, Keibler was one of few women in professional wrestling tall enough to step over the middle of three ropes that surround the ring.

For a brief period, she dated David Flair, who was already involved in an on-screen relationship with Daffney. This led to Keibler's in-ring debut at the Bash at the Beach in a Wedding Gown match, which she lost after she removed her own gown.Hancock next briefly feuded with Kimberly Page, but the storyline ended abruptly when Page quit the company.Keibler and Flair then began a feud with the Misfits In Action stable, including a mud wrestling singles match against Major Gunns at New Blood Rising.During the match, she was kicked in the stomach, and she revealed herself to be pregnant the next night, beginning a new angle for herself and Flair.Two proposed endings to the storyline were for either Ric Flair or Vince Russo to be the father of her child.The angle, however, ended prematurely, as she revealed the pregnancy to be false, broke up with David Flair, and was taken off of television. When she returned, she was known by her real name on-screen.

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Mandy Moore

Mandy Moore

Mandy Moore is an American pop singer, songwriter, actress, and fashion designer. She grew up in Florida and came to fame as a teenager in the early 2000s, after the release of her teen-oriented pop albums So Real, I Wanna Be with You, and Mandy Moore. Moore has branched out into a film career, starring in 2002's A Walk to Remember and later appearing in the lead roles of other movies also aimed at teenage audiences. Two of her later films, American Dreamz and Saved!, were satires in which Moore portrayed darker characters than in her previous roles. Moore's private life, including her relationships with tennis player Andy Roddick as well as with actors Wilmer Valderrama and Zach Braff, has been much discussed in the media. Moore's fifth album, Wild Hope, was released in 2007.

Moore was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, the daughter of Stacy, a former news reporter who once worked for the Orlando Sentinel, and Don Moore, a pilot for American Airlines.Moore's father is of Irish and Cherokee descent and her mother is of English and Jewish ancestry.Moore has two brothers, Scott and Kyle; she grew up in Altamonte Springs, Florida, outside of Orlando, moving there shortly after her birth because of her father's job as an airline pilot.[5] She was raised in the Catholic religion and attended Bishop Moore High School,a Catholic school in Orlando, as well as Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs.

she was also encouraged to perform by her maternal grandmother, who was her inspiration.Some of Moore's first public exposure occurred when she sang the national anthem at several Florida sporting events. She subsequently came to the attention of the head of A&R at Epic Records after his friend, a FedEx employee, overheard her as she sang at a recording studio.She was then signed to a record deal with the label.

Moore toured with the Backstreet Boys throughout 1999.Her first album, So Real, was released in December that year and reached #31 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart.At the time of the album's release, reviewers considered Moore the latest in a series of heavily-marketed female singers described as "pop princesses", akin to Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Jessica Simpson.Entertainment Weekly's review noted that Moore's songs, revolving around "not-yet-experienced love", were performed with "suffocating professionalism", and that the album's ballads were "nauseating".Moore reached mainstream radio later and at a younger age than Simpson, Aguilera and Spears had, and was initially not as successful as they were, although So Real was certified platinum in the U.S. in early 2000 and sold nearly one million copies.Moore's debut teen-oriented pop hit single "Candy", which Yahoo! Movies described as "strangely provocative",peaked just outside the top forty on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold.The single was more successful in Europe especially in the UK where it reached number 6. All Music Guide noted the single was "mediocre" and "typical", containing lyrics that described love "in terms of sugar treats".The video for Candy features a "blink and you'll miss it" cameo from a young Scarlett Johansson, as a girl on a swingset.

Moore released I Wanna Be with You, a re-worked version of her debut album, in May 2000.The album, which was mostly completed with synthesizers, bass, guitar, and drums,comprised new songs alongside tracks and remixes from So Real. Several reviewers criticized it on the basis that it was a remix album and not a true follow-up,with All Music Guide writing that its style was "trashier, flashier, gaudier, and altogether more disposable" than its predecessor.

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Isabeli Fontana

Isabeli Fontana

Isabeli Bergossi Fontana was born in Curitiba 1983, Paraná, Brazil. In 1996 she made it to the finals of the Elite Model Look Contest when she was just 13. The following year she moved from Southern Brazil to Milan, Italy, to start her modelling career. In 1999, at the age of 16, she appeared in the Victoria's Secret lingerie catalogue. This created a huge controversy as Victoria's Secret had earlier stated that its policy was not to sign models younger than 21 years old. However, the publicity generated by this proved beneficial to Fontana and she quickly rose to fame. Soon after the Victoria's Secret shoot, she was signed by Versace, Ralph Lauren and Valentino. She has modelled for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Marie Claire, ELLE and Vogue.

She was married to model Álvaro Jacomossi but they divorced in 2004. Their son, Zion, was born in 2003. Fontana married actor and model Henri Castelli on December 10, 2005 and their son, Lucas, was born on October 23, 2006 in São Paulo. Fontana and Castelli are separated now and are in the process of divorcing.

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Denise Richards

Denise Richards

Denise Lee Richards is an American actress and former fashion model. She became famous in the late 1990s, after a string of films that highlighted her sex appeal, including Starship Troopers, Wild Things, and The World Is Not Enough.

Richards was born in Downers Grove, Illinois,the daughter of Joni, a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. She has one sister, Michelle, and grew up in both Mokena, Illinois and Downers Grove, Illinois. She graduated from El Camino High School in 1989, Oceanside, California. As a child, she was a 'tomboy', the only 'girl on the baseball team.

Before she was an actress, Richards was a fashion model. Richards spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in lower-budget films and TV shows like Saved by the Bell, television movies, and guest starring in episodes of several television shows. Her first starring role in a wide theatrical release was Starship Troopers in 1997, which was followed by her role in the moderately successful cult film Wild Things in 1998.

Richards was cast as the geo-physicist Christmas Jones in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, which had a high box office gross. Though she considered her role "brainy", "athletic", and having depth of character,she was criticised as not credible in it.[5][6] Her outfit, which often comprised a tank top and shorts, elicited comments.She was ranked as the worst Bond girl of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008,[8] and was chosen as "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 1999 Razzie Awards for the role.[9] In addition to her film work, Richards made regular appearances in the situation comedies Spin City, Two and a Half Men, Friends and Seinfeld. She also starred in the short-lived UPN series Sex, Love & Secrets in 2005. Throughout the early 2000s, Richards appeared in several film roles which both parodied and utilized her image as a sex symbol, including Valentine, Undercover Brother and Scary Movie 3. In December 2004, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine. Richards also posed semi-nude for the July 2006 issue of Jane magazine to raise money for the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation. In 1999 she ranked 9 in Maxim's 50 Sexiest Women and in 2001 she was voted 2nd in FHM's USA 100 Sexiest Women, 5th in FHM 100 Sexiest Women and 19 in AskMen.com 50 Most Beautiful Women.

In March 2005, Richards filed for divorce from Sheen.The couple briefly reconciled and were seeking marriage counseling to mend their relationship. However, on January 4, 2006, Richards' representative announced that she was continuing with the divorce, and she later sought a restraining order against Sheen, citing his alleged death threats against her.Richards briefly dated Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora shortly after their respective separations from Sheen and Heather Locklear, ending what Locklear had considered to be a close friendship.she has also been linked to actor John Stamos, whom she dated during her teenage years.

On April 19, 2006, Richards filed formal legal papers asking for divorce from Sheen under the laws of the state of California.In her court filing, Richards alleged that Sheen's behavior was increasingly erratic, making their marriage impossible, and that she feared for her safety and the safety of their daughters.

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Bianca Beauchamp

Bianca Beauchamp

Bianca Beauchamp is a Canadian fetish and adult model, known for her glamour and latex modeling.Beauchamp was born in Montreal to a French Canadian father and an Italian mother. She was named after Bianca Jagger.

At age 18 she met and began to model for Martin Perreault, a photography student and waiter. While continuing her modelling, she studied French Literature and Teaching at CEGEP. She began a teaching internship at her former high school. One of the teachers discovered her website and she was pressured into closing the site during her internship, but she re-opened it afterwards. The move caused further controversy, but Beauchamp refused to back down and left school in favour of her modelling career.

Beauchamp underwent two breast augmentation surgeries to increase her cup size to a 32DD. She dismisses criticism about the implants, deeming it hypocritical to applaud people for improving their intellects while condemning them for improving their bodies.

Beauchamp has become successful in latex fetish modelling, appearing on the covers of publications. Marquis magazine's issue #32, features Beauchamp wearing a black, latex catwoman outfit and holding a riding crop. Beauchamp also writes a column for Bizarre magazine and, in January 2007, became the first model to have appeared on its cover for six issues. Her photos have also been in several Playboy Special Editions and on the cover of Book of Lingerie. She has also been on the cover of Playboy's Girls of Canada calendar twice. In partnership with her website and Ritual Entertainment, she portrayed the character Elexis Sinclaire for the video game, SiN Episodes.

In 2006, Beauchamp announced the release of a Bianca Beauchamp - Fetish Sex Symbol which focuses on her modelling career as a latex fetish model.

In 2007, she agreed to team up with Hype Energy to represent the brand on Canadian F1 Grand Prix in Montreal.

In 2007, she released her film Bianca Beauchamp: All Access, a reality-documentary directed and edited by her partner Martin Perreault. The 85 minute film was Premiered at Fantasia Film Festival in July 2007 and issued as a 2-disc Special Edition DVD in September 2007. The film was acquired by distributor HALO 8 Entertainment at the Fantasia Festival and is slated for a wide release in North America on January 29, 2008.

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Ayumi Hamasaki

Ayumi Hamasaki

Ayumi Hamasaki born October 2, 1978, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and former actress.Also known as "Ayu" to her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the "Empress of pop" or "the Empress of J-Pop" due to her popularity and widespread influence in Japan.Born and raised in Fukuoka, Hamasaki moved to Tokyo at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in entertainment. In 1998, Hamasaki, under the tutelage of Avex CEO Max Matsuura, released a string of modestly performing singles that concluded with her 1999 debut album A Song for XX. The album debuted atop the Oricon charts (Japan's primary music charts, similar to the Billboard charts) and held that position for four weeks in a row, establishing Hamasaki's popularity in Japan.

Since her 1998 debut with the single "Poker Face", she has sold around 50 million records, making her one of Japan's best-selling singers.With the release of her thirty-ninth single, "Startin'/Born to Be...", in 2006, Hamasaki became Japan's female solo artist with the most number-one singles. In addition, the release of Hamasaki's 2008 single "Mirrorcle World" made Hamasaki the only Japanese female artist to have a number-one single every year for ten consecutive years.She is also the first Japanese artist to have her first original eight studio albums top the Oricon charts,as well as the Japanese female artist with the most number-one singles, most Top 10 singles, highest singles sales, and most million-seller singles (this record for most million-seller singles is shared with band Pink Lady and fellow J-pop singers Namie Amuro and Hikaru Utada.

Hamasaki began her modeling career at the age of seven, modeling locally for institutions such as banks to earn money for the family. At the age of fourteen, she moved from Fukuoka to Tokyo to take various modeling stints as well as acting jobs in such productions as television dramas like Miseinen and b-movies like Gakko II and Ladys Ladys!! Soucho Saigo no Hi. She did not meet with much success in these endeavors: she was deemed by her talent agency as too short to be a model, and the projects she acted in were not well-received by the general public.Although Hamasaki originally got good grades, she eventually decided that the subjects she was taking were of no use to her; consequently, her grades dropped drastically and she became a delinquent.

As her modeling and acting endeavors met with little success, Hamasaki's talent agency decided to repackage her as a singer; her first professional musical endeavors were in the rap scene. Nothing from Nothing, her first album, was released in December 1995 under the Nippon Columbia label. When the album failed to chart on the Oricon, the label dropped her.Shortly afterwards, Hamasaki left high school; with no job, she spent much of her time shopping at Shibuya boutiques and dancing at Velfarre, an Avex-owned disco club.

At Velfarre, Hamasaki was introduced to her future producer, Max Matsuura, through a mutual friend. Matsuura offered Hamasaki a recording deal immediately after hearing her sing, but Hamasaki suspected Matsuura of ulterior motives and turned the offer down.Nonetheless, Matsuura persisted in offering her a contract until the following year, when Hamasaki finally signed on to the Avex label and began taking vocal training.Finding the instructors too rigid and the classes too dull, however,Hamasaki skipped most of her classes. When she confessed to Matsuura that she had skipped the classes, he sent her to New York for training. While there, Hamasaki corresponded with Matsuura who, impressed with her writing, suggested she try writing her own lyrics.

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