Secret (Ayumi Hamasaki album)

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Secret
Studio album by Ayumi Hamasaki
Released	November 29, 2006 (Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong) December 2, 2006 (Singapore) December 14, 2006 (Korea and Malayasia)
Recorded	2005-2006
Genre	J-pop
Length	55:25
Label	AVEX Trax
Producer(s)	Max Matsuura
Professional reviews
Sputnikmusic link HMV link
Ayumi Hamasaki chronology
(miss)understood (2006)	Secret (2006)	A Best 2 -Black- / A Best 2 -White- (2007)
Alternate Cover
CD-only Cover

Secret is Ayumi Hamasaki's eighth studio album produced by Max Matsuura. It was released on November 29, 2006.

The album includes the two singles: "Startin' / Born To Be...", and "Blue Bird". There was originally wide speculation that a single containing the new track "Jewel" (and possibly another Panasonic promo song, 1 Love) would be released, but the album was confirmed for release instead. In all, there will be 14 songs and 7 PVs and 7 "making of" clips of each of the PVs. The first press includes a promotion poster of the respective version of the album.

Originally, Secret was announced to be a seven-track mini-album. After announcing that Secret is to become a full album on her official website, a message from Hamasaki on her TeamAyu fanclub website stated that, due to the change of plans, she was doing over-time in the studio in order to complete the album on time.

On November 6, 2006, recording for the album was wrapped. On November 7, the tracklist and both the CD-only and CD+DVD covers were released.

The tracklist, aside from the four A-sides released, also contains seven new songs and three interludes - "Not yet", "Labyrinth" and "taskinst". While the singles included in this album are mostly pop-ish, the album tracks are greatly influenced by rock, excepting the ballads Jewel and Secret, the latter of which seems to have been slightly influenced by enka music.

The Jewel PV premiered on November 20, 2006 and is now available for viewing on the Internet. Reportedly, the jewelry in the PV cost over ¥100 million, making Jewel one of the most expensive videos ever made.

Contents 1 Track listing 1.1 CD 1.2 DVD 2 Live performances 3 Charts 3.1 Oricon Sales Chart (Japan) 3.2 Charts Positions 3.3 Charts Positions 4 Singles 5 References 6 See also

[edit] Track listing

[edit] CD

1. "Not yet" - 2:01
2. "Until that Day..." - 4:47
3. "Startin'" - 4:19
4. "1 Love" - 4:30
5. "It was" - 4:09
6. "Labyrinth" - 1:43
7. "Jewel" - 4:16
8. "Momentum" - 4:12
9. "Taskinst" - 1:36
10. "Born To Be..." - 4:52
11. "Beautiful Fighters" - 5:12
12. "Blue Bird" - 4:11
13. "Kiss o' Kill" - 4:39
14. "Secret" - 4:58

[edit] DVD

1. Startin' <video clip>
2. Born To Be... <video clip>
3. Blue Bird <video clip>
4. Beautiful Fighters <video clip>
5. Jewel <video clip>
6. 1 Love <video clip>
7. momentum <video clip>
8. Startin' <making clip>
9. Born To Be... <making clip>
10. Blue Bird <making clip>
11. Beautiful Fighters <making clip>
12. Jewel <making clip>
13. 1 Love <making clip>
14. momentum <making clip>

[edit] Live performances

• March 3, 2006 – Music Fighter – "Startin' "
• March 10, 2006 – Music Station – "Born To Be..."
• March 10, 2006 – Music Fighter – "Born To Be..."
• March 11, 2006 – CDTV – "Startin' "
• June 11, 2006 – Domoto Kyodai – "Blue Bird"
• June 16, 2006 – Music Station – "Blue Bird"
• June 23, 2006 – Music Fighter – "Blue Bird"
• June 23, 2006 – Music Station – "Blue Bird"
• June 24, 2006 – CDTV – "Blue Bird"
• June 25, 2006 – Avex Shareholders Meeting – "Blue Bird"
• October 13, 2006 – Music Station Fall Special – "Jewel"
• November 13, 2006 – Hey! Hey! Hey! – "Jewel"
• November 24, 2006 – Music Station – "Jewel"
• November 24, 2006 – Music Fighter – "Jewel"
• November 29, 2006 – 3,000,000 Choose Best Artist 2006 – "Jewel ~orchestra version~"
• December 1, 2006 – Music Station – "Jewel ~orchestra version~"
• December 6, 2006 – FNS – "Jewel ~orchestra version~"
• December 8, 2006 – PopJam – "Jewel"
• December 22, 2006 – Music Station Super Live – "Jewel"
• December 24, 2006 – Happy X-Mas Show 2006 – "Jewel"
• December 31, 2006 – 57th Kouhaku – "Jewel"
• December 31, 2006 – CDTV Special Live 2006-2007 – "1Love"

[edit] Charts

Secret debuted at the top spot of the Oricon weekly chart with first week sales of 386,280 copies, outselling the number two album for a large 160,129 copies. However, its first week sales are about 263,000 lower than her last studio album (miss)understood showing. This is because the "first week sales" of (miss)understood were actually the sales of two weeks, as Oricon blends the last week of a year with the first one of the following year, making an Oricon Year with 51 weeks only. The same rule applies for the first week sales of her I am... album.

The singles of this album together sold a total of 447,177 copies. The sales of the singles and the album itself combined come to a sales revenue of 1,111,315 CDs sold.

Secret is also believed to be Ayu's most successful album yet in worldwide sales. Not only did Secret top the Japanese charts, the album was an instant number-1 hit in countries as Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong[1], and China.

[edit] Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)

Release	Chart	Peak position	Sales total	Chart run
29 November 2006	Oricon Daily Albums Chart	#1
29 November 2006	Oricon Weekly Albums Chart	#1	665,224	20+
29 November 2006	Oricon Monthly Albums Chart	#1
29 November 2006	Oricon Yearly Albums Chart	#22 (2006)

Date	Title	Peak position	Weeks
31 March 2005	"Startin' / Born To Be..."	#1	16 weeks
21 June 2006	"BLUE BIRD"	#1	13 weeks
29 November 2006	"Secret"	#1	20 weeks

[edit] Charts Positions

Country	Chart	Weeks
		01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
All	Worldwide	2	28
Japan	Worldwide	1	3	6	11	10	10	16	30	39	49	60	68	72	76	78	80	86	88	91	93	98
Hong Kong	Asian	1	3	7	12	17	28	33	25	24	25	20	26	30	27	21	25	20	22	15	22
Hong Kong	Japanese	1	2	2	3	3	6	5	5	10	16	16	9	11	15	17	17	15	18	10	16
Singapore	Japanese	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	3	3	3	2	3	5	4	8	12	12	15	10	15
Taiwan	Japanese	1	2	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	3	4	6	7	4	7	8	13	13	9	14

[edit] Charts Positions

+-still charting

[edit] Singles

"Startin' / Born to Be..."
Released March 8, 2006 Writer(s) Ayumi Hamasaki Producer(s) Max Matsuura	Main article: Startin' / Born to Be... "Startin' / Born to Be..." is the first single released by Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki from Secret.
	Track listing
	Startin' Born To Be… – 4:52 teens (Acoustic Version) Startin' (Instrumental) Born To Be… (Instrumental) – 4:52
"BLUE BIRD"
Released June 21, 2006 Writer(s) Ayumi Hamasaki Producer(s) Max Matsuura	Main article: Blue Bird (song) "BLUE BIRD" is the 40th single released by Ayumi Hamasaki. It was released on June 21st, 2006. This is Hamasaki's 15th consecutive number one single and 27th #1 single in total.
	Chart positions
	#1 on Japan Oricon daily and weekly charts, #2 on Japan Oricon monthly chart. Total sales of 258,566 units sold. Chart run of 13 weeks.
	Track listing
	BLUE BIRD – 4:09 Mixed by Koji Morimoto Arranged by HΛL Composed by Dai Beautiful Fighters – 5:17 Mixed by Koji Morimoto Arranged by CMJK Composed by Kazuhito Kikuchi Ladies Night ~another night~ – 4:04 Re-arranged by tasuku BLUE BIRD (Harderground remix) – 6:24 Remixed by Nish BLUE BIRD (Instrumental) – 4:09 Beautiful Fighters (Instrumental) – 5:17

[edit] References

• United World chart
• Oricon
• Oricon Music Special
• HMV Hong Kong Asian Chart
• HMV Hong Kong Japanese Chart
• g-music charts

[edit] See also

• Tour of Secret