Star's answers have intensity but are lost in translation

Dubbed the Mariah Carey of Japan for her multi-octave voice and R&B songs, Misia (Misaki Ito) dropped into town on Thursday to promote her first concert in the city, on October 4. However, as is sometimes the case with foreign artists, a lot of details seemed to be lost in translation. The Japanese star kept her big voice muffled during most of the press conference at club Volar. When she did reply, it went through a maze of tongues. Cantonese was the language of most inquiries. The MC would translate them into Putonghua for Misia's official translator, who then relayed them to her in Japanese. But often, the singer's long responses would be rendered into a very brief single sentence. Who knows if it actually matched her Japanese answers?

How does she feel about her 10-year career? 'I have a new single out soon and I'm looking forward to meeting and working with new artists.' Huh? The only thing that might have been her actual words was a two-minute Putonghua address she made at the start. 'I am really happy to have my first concert in Hong Kong in October,' Misia stuttered. 'I hope the concert will be one big party for people to share my music and joy.' Let's just stick to communicating by music, then. Tickets for Misia's Discotheque Asia 2008 Live at the AsiaWorld Arena are available at HK Ticketing.