Namie Amuro was born on September 20th, 1977 in Naha, Okinawa. As a child she attended Okinawa Actor's School, a talent school that trained young individuals in singing and dancing. She debuted in the girl group, SUPER MONKEY'S (who later regrouped to MAX (5), at the age of 14 in 1992. In 1995, she was picked up to be a solo artist under the wing of Japanese super producer, Tetsuya Komuro. She reigned as Japan's 'it' girl for the next few years until the announcement of her marriage and pregnancy in 1997. She took a year off and restarted her career in late 1998, unfortunately to declining popularity. In 2002, Namie Amuro transformed herself from tired popstar to R&B diva starting with the SUITE CHIC project. The project brought renewed interest in her, and since then her star has been on the rise again.