Puffy
Tonight, 8.30pm, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
A chance meeting in the cold, lonely halls of Sony Music Japan resulted in two teenage female Japanese singers forming a friendship and musical partnership that now spans 14 years and has won them hordes of screaming fans throughout their home country and the rest of the world.
The dynamic musical duo of Yumi Yoshimura (below left) and Ami Onuki - known as Puffy in Japan and Puffy AmiYumi everywhere else - have for years enjoyed chart-topping success at home and are one of the few Japanese acts to have found fame elsewhere too.
After a live performance at the 2000 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Puffy slowly gained more international exposure, leading to American releases of their earlier Japanese albums. In 2003 the girls sang the theme song to the Cartoon Network show Teen Titans, which used a Japanese and English version of the song. Then, in 2004, the network started airing the show Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, which featured the pair as animated characters. The show was a huge success with children of all ages and ran for three years.
It's been a while since local Puffy fans have seen their idols live on stage, and so a huge turnout of J-pop fans is expected at the Convention and Exhibition Centre tonight when the girls take to the stage.
Speaking before the show, Onuki says: 'We will be singing our most popular songs ... because it's been a very long time since our last live concert in Hong Kong.'
When asked what has changed in the world of Puffy over the years, Yoshimura says: 'We now feel more responsible for the production of our albums. When we first started out, most of our musical choices were dictated by our producers, but on our recent albums we've taken a more proactive role, from choosing the songs to the album artwork.'
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