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45th Annual Japan Record Awards

01/05/04 (Tokyo, Japan) - The 45th Annual Japan Record Awards Ceremony, equivalent to America's Grammy Awards, announced the top prize Winner for the best artist and song of the year. Winning her third award for the past three years, the Japan Composers' Association awarded Ayumi Hamasaki top prize at the 45th Annual Japan Record Awards. Hamasaki debuted in 1998 and won top prize in 2001 for her ballad Dearest, which was the third ending theme song of the hit anime TV series Inu Yasha. Her fame in the Japan music industry continued in 2002 when she won her second top prize for another ballad Voyage. Continuing to dominate the Jpop music industry, Hamasaki won once again for 2003 with her 31st CD single, No Way To Say.

Other artists that received nominations for the grand prize at the 45th Annual Japan Record Awards included other popular Jpop artists such as BoA and Hitomi Shimatani. Popular boy bands such as Exile, Da Pump, and W-inds also were nominated in the same category. Last year's Best Newcomer Award winner, Mika Nakashima was also nominated, but in addition earned the award for this year's Best Album for her Love CD.

Among other awards presented were 2003's Best Newcomer Award which was awarded to Yo Hitoto, who is of Japanese and Taiwanese ethnic background. Although she had done work on an international basis, she won this award for her Japanese hit Morai Naki (or Sympathy Tears in English). Best vocal performance was awarded to the enka prince Kiyoshi Hikawa for his Japanese enka (folk song) Hakuun no Shiro (or translated as Castle of the White Clouds).

The 45th Annual Japan Record Awards were held in Akasaka, Tokyo and aired on TBS on December 31, 2003.

Interested in Jpop? Check out Jpop CDs available here from Akadot Retail.


Ayumi Hamasaki Image © TBS / Sponichi Annex.
Yo Hitoto Image © Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc.
All images copyright to their respective owners.