HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Checkmate! (album)
OR:
Checkmate! (album) on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

''Checkmate!'' is a collaboration album by Japanese singer
Namie Amuro Namie Amuro ( ; ; born September 20, 1977) is a retired Japanese singer. She rose to prominence as a Japanese idol, teen idol, and transitioned into a leading Pop music, pop artist due to her versatility across music styles and visual presentatio ...
, featuring a collection of her collaborations with other musicians released between 2003 and 2011, as well as four new collaborations. The album was released on April 27, 2011, about one month after its original release date, due to
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a  9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...
. Two songs were released as digital downloads prior to the album, "
Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...
" in early March prior to the album's postponement, as well as "Make It Happen" on April 20, a week before the album's release.


Background and development

The album was first conceived after Amuro had finished her tour for her 2009 album ''Past Many of the collaborators on the album worked on multiple tracks. Amuro collaborated with Verbal on five songs: "Wet'N Wild" (producer), "Black Out", "Luvotomy" (rapper, songwriter), "Rock U" (lyricist) and on the hidden track, which is a remix of Amuro's single " Want Me, Want Me" (2005) with additional rapping by Verbal. Ai collaborated with Amuro "Do What U Gotta Do," "Fake" and one of the new songs, "Wonder Woman." Two songs are from
Zeebra , known professionally as , is a Japanese hip hop rapper and DJ who made his first appearance in 1995. Zeebra is a former member of the hip-hop group King Giddra, which also included DJ Oasis and K Dub Shine. He went on to pursue a solo caree ...
albums, "After Party" (2003) and "Do What U Gotta Do" (2006).
Taku Takahashi is a Japanese DJ and record producer who debuted in 1997 as a producer of the hip hop group M-Flo. The group rose to prominence in the early 2000s, with hit singles such as "How You Like Me Now?" and "Come Again." Takahashi was also a member of ...
contributed on "Luvotomy" (trackmaker) and "Rock U" (co-trackmaker). Double, other than the duet "Black Diamond," wrote the Japanese lyrics to "Make It Happen." For "Wonder Woman," Amuro asked Ai and Tsuchiya to collaborate with her, as she wanted to create a strong song with a chorus of female vocalists. Amuro felt that she had worked with Ai so many times in the past that a collaboration with her could not go wrong. "Make It Happen" is South Korean group After School's first Japanese release. Amuro stated that she had taken notice of the
K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...
scene for some time. For the project, Amuro's staff gave her a list of possible Korean collaborators. Due to her enjoying After School member
Uee Kim Yu-jin (; born April 9, 1988), better known by her stage name Uee (; sometimes romanized as U-), is a South Korean singer and actress. She is best known for being a former member of South Korean girl group After School from 2009 to 2017, ...
's performance in the Korean drama ''
You're Beautiful "You're Beautiful" is a song by English singer-songwriter James Blunt. It was written by Blunt, Sacha Skarbek and Amanda Ghost for Blunt's debut album, '' Back to Bedlam'' (2004). It was released as the third single of the album in 2005. In ...
'', she decided on the group. The song was written by Swedish and North American writers
Jörgen Elofsson Kjell Åke Jörgen Elofsson (born 14 January 1962) is a Swedish songwriter. He was one of the writers of the songwriter-team at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm (along with Denniz PoP, Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, Rami Yacoub, Pe ...
, Erik Lidbom and
Bonnie McKee Bonnie Leigh McKee (born January 20, 1984) is an American singer and songwriter. Her debut album '' Trouble'' was released in 2004 by Reprise Records. After being dropped, she took a musical hiatus and established herself as a songwriter. She ...
, and was originally titled "Shallow." The collaboration with Kaname Kawabata of the R&B vocal duo
Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
started when the two became friends after being introduced through a mutual friend. For the album, Amuro wanted to create a dance/song music video with a male artist. While appearing on a music show in Summer 2010 to promote her single " Break It/Get Myself Back,"
Johnny & Associates was a Japanese talent agency formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962, which managed groups of male idols known as The company had a significant impact on pop culture with male idols and boy bands in Japan since the 1980s. Until 2019, the company w ...
idol
Tomohisa Yamashita , also widely known as , or Tomo, is a Japanese singer, actor, and TV host. Yamashita joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates as a trainee in 1996 and made his small acting debut for NHK's ''Shonentachi'' (1998). He made his musi ...
was featured on the same program, and Amuro was impressed with his performance of "One in a Million," which inspired the idea for the collaboration.


Promotion and release

"Rock U" was used in television commercials for the
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
game '' Call of Duty: Black Ops'' from November 2010 onwards, seven and a half months after its release. The song was also one of two songs broadcast exclusively on
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
Japan to promote Amuro's DVD ''Namie Amuro PastCoca-Cola Zero Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, commonly known as Coke Zero, is a diet soda produced by the Coca-Cola Company. The drink was introduced in 2005 as Coca-Cola Zero as a new no-calorie cola. In 2017, the formula was modified and the name updated, the announc ...
'' Wild Race commercial campaign in Japan, the fourth set of commercials to feature Amuro as the spokesperson for the brand, with commercials first airing on February 13. During album promotions, Amuro was also featured as the first spokesperson for cosmetic firm Kosé's ''Esprique'' range. The commercials began airing in late March, and featured "Naked," a song on her first single to be released after the album. "Make It Happen" was used as background music for two commercials: one for Sharp's au 1S05 cellphone, and another for Recochoku. Three of the four new songs on album were released as ringtones prior to the album's release: "Wonder Woman" on February 16, "Make It Happen" on February 23 and "Unusual" on March 9. Amuro was featured in several fashion magazines during album promotions, including ''Gisele'', ''Ray'', ''S Cawaii'', ''Sweet'' and '' Vivi''. On June 25, 2011, Amuro attended the 2011 MTV Video Music Aid Japan award ceremony, performing "Wonder Woman" with Ai and Anna Tsuchiya. This was the first performance of the song, as well as the first performance of any of the new songs from the album.


Promotional singles

"Wonder Woman" featuring singer/rapper Ai and rock musician
Anna Tsuchiya is a Japanese singer, actress and semi-retired model. Since 2005, she is primarily known as a singer.Oricon p ...
was the first song released in promotion of the album, released as full-length a cellphone download on March 9. The song had earlier debuted on radio, during
J-Wave J-Wave is an commercial radio station based in Tokyo, Japan, broadcasting on 81.3 FM from the Tokyo Skytree to the Tokyo area. J-Wave airs mostly music, including J-pop, C-pop, and Western music, covering a wide range of formats. The station i ...
's ''Groove Line Z'' program on February 17. Before the album's release, the song has received mid-level radio play, allowing it to reach number 47 on ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''s
Japan Hot 100 The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and Hanshin Contents Link since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thursday ...
chart. During the week of the album's release, however, increased airplay as well as downloads on
iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
Japan made the song peak at number five. The song received a larger response on adult alternative radio stations in Japan, as shown by the song reaching number 2 on ''Billboards Adult Contemporary Airplay chart, when in the same time period only reaching number 5 on the general airplay chart. The song debuted at number 5 on the
Recording Industry Association of Japan The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include pro ...
's cellphone download chart in the special two-week postponed chart that was released due to the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. All three musicians billed in the song appeared on the cover of fashion magazine S Cawaii's April issue, in promotion of the single. "Make It Happen" was released digitally to cellphones on April 20, a week before the album's release. On RIAJ's digital track chart, the song debuted at number ten. "#1" received a digital release simultaneous with the album's release date, however, "Unusual" was released a week after the album, on May 4.


Music videos

Four MVs for the new songs were filmed, which were released to music video channels in February and March. On MTV Japan, an hour's length episode of ''MTV A Class'' was dedicated to these, which was first aired on March 19. "Wonder Woman" was the first video to be released, and was debuted on Space Shower on February 18. "Make It Happen" was debuted on online streaming service
GyaO! is a Japanese web portal. It was the most-visited website in Japan, nearing monopolistic status. According to ''The Japan Times'', as of 2012, Yahoo! Japan had a footprint on the internet market in Japan. In terms of use as a search engine, ...
on February 17, and was debuted on TV on MTV Japan on February 21. "#1" was first aired on March 9 as a Space Shower exclusive video. A Music video for unusual was made March 9, 2011. It begins with Yamashita Tomohisa in a white jacket then it disappears by its own fire affect. Throughout the music video, Namie and Yamashita Tomohisa dance together, there are affections what make new scenes, the video ends with namie in the white jacket. This video was reported that it was filmed February 28, 2011, to March 1, 2011. The songs "Black Diamond," "Do What U Gotta Do" and "Fake" already had music videos filmed for their respective releases. The music videos for these songs were put on the CD+DVD edition of the album. A music video for "Black Out" was shot in mid February by
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
ian direction tea
Division
but due to the aftermath of 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the music video remains unaired.


Critical reception

Jun Watanabe of ''What's In?'' described the album as "...vividly transmitting artistic power and cool beauty." He believed that the work challenged forefronts in R&B, hip-hop, electropop and rock, without diminishing Amuro's personality. Tetsuo Hiraga of ''Hot Express'' was extremely positive on the album, feeling that it "explodes massively with personality and talent." Hiraga felt that Amuro's music had the ability to make the listener forget Tomohisa Yamashita's ''idol'' status, and to express his "cool and sexy vocals." When listening to Kaname Kawabata's voice in "#1," he could have been fooled that he was listening to American R&B music. Hiraga quoted Amuro on her thoughts on the album, and how she simply said that she "wants to do cool things." He felt like with such pure and innocent sentiment, only the greatest music could be made. ''Listen Japan''s Morio Mori called the four new songs "perfect tunes," and called the album a "project that couldn't get any more wonderful."


Commercial performance

In Japan, the album debuted at number one on physical data provider ''
Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...
''s daily album charts, selling 93,000 copies—85,000 more than her closest competitor,
Hideaki Tokunaga is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter and actor. Although Tokunaga failed to pass the test of '' Star Tanjō!'' in 1982, he debuted as a recording singer in 1986. After he released hit songs such as " Yume o Shinjite" (the first ending theme of ...
with ''Vocalist & Ballade Best''. In its first week, the album debuted at number one, selling a total of 253,000 copies. The album charted at number one for two consecutive weeks. ''Checkmate!'' debuted at number one on ''Oricon'' monthly charts, despite only one week of charting counting to the April monthly chart. The album sold more than double the second place holder for the month, Kazumasa Oda's ''Dōmo''. Halfway through the 2011 Oricon year, the album was the third most sold. On the Taiwanese ''G-Music'' charts, the album debuted at number six, the second highest debut of the week after
Rachel Liang Wen Yin Liang (, Rukai: Leheane Palray; or Rachel Liang born 8 April 1987) is a Taiwanese Mandopop singer. Early life Lian was born in Maolin, Kaohsiung on 8 April 1987. She is of Rukai and Tayal descent. Her parents passed away when sh ...
's third album, ''Soul Mate''. The album debuted at number one on the international sub-chart, as well as the East Asian sub-chart. Many songs on the album have charted on Japanese music charts, due to their release in promotion for either their original works, or ''Checkmate!''. *Charted on monthly ringtone chart


Track listing


Personnel

Personnel details were sourced from ''Checkmate!s liner notes booklet. Managerial *Hiromi Amano – A&R *Shinji Hayashi – executive producer *Shintaro Higuchi – producer *Hisahiko Iida – producer *Takashi Kasuga – executive producer *Rui Maeda – producer * Masato "Max" Matsuura – executive supervisor *Hayato Mori – creative coordination *Hiromi Owada – A&R desk *Michiharu Sato – A&R supervisor *Tetsuo Taira – executive supervisor *Kazumi Yanagi – A&R chief *Rika Yasumoto –artist management *Yuko Yasumoto – production coordination (#1) Performance credits * Ai –
vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
(#1, #5, #8) * After School – vocals (#3) *Namie Amuro – vocals,
background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...
*
Double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...
 – vocals, background vocals (#11) *
Heartsdales Heartsdales was a Japanese-American hip pop duo composed of sisters and , known by their stage names Rum and Jewels, respectively. Yumi was born on December 17, 1981, and Emi on December 4, 1976, in Tokyo, Japan. Their family moved to the Yon ...
 – vocals (#6) *
Emi Hinouchi ; born September 7, 1982 as is a Japanese urban music singer-songwriter. She was formerly signed under King Records' sub-label Venus-B and Taku Takahashi's Tachytelic Records. She is best known for writing songs for Heartsdales and for her ...
 – background vocals (#4) *Daisuke Imai – background vocals, keyboards (#6) * Kaname Kawabata – vocals (#9) *
Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all ...
 – rap (#10) * Minami (
Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...
) – background vocals (#10) * Mummy-D – vocals (#4) *Paul NZA – instruments (#1) *
Shinichi Osawa , also known by his stage name Mondo Grosso, is a Japanese musician, DJ, record producer and composer. Over the course of his career, he has worked in genres ranging from acid jazz to house, with strong influences of underground club music, th ...
 – "Rock" voice (#4) *Marek Pompetzki – instruments (#1) *Chris Rojas – instruments (#9) *
Anna Tsuchiya is a Japanese singer, actress and semi-retired model. Since 2005, she is primarily known as a singer.Oricon p ...
 – vocals (#1) * Verbal – rap (#6, #10) *
Tomohisa Yamashita , also widely known as , or Tomo, is a Japanese singer, actor, and TV host. Yamashita joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates as a trainee in 1996 and made his small acting debut for NHK's ''Shonentachi'' (1998). He made his musi ...
 – vocals (#2) *
Zeebra , known professionally as , is a Japanese hip hop rapper and DJ who made his first appearance in 1995. Zeebra is a former member of the hip-hop group King Giddra, which also included DJ Oasis and K Dub Shine. He went on to pursue a solo caree ...
 – vocals (#4, #13) Visuals and imagery *Mamoru Furumoto – stage set design *Shinichi Mita – stylist *Akemi Nakano – hair, make-up *Takuya Nakashiro – art direction, design *Shoji Uchida – photographer Technical and production *D.O.I. – mixing (at Daimonion Recordings) (#1—3, #7—9, #11) *DJ Ken-Bo –
production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...
(#13) *Double – production (#11) *
Jermaine Dupri Jermaine Dupri Mauldin (born September 23, 1972) is an American rapper and record producer. Raised in Atlanta, Georgia as the son of Columbia Records executive Michael Mauldin, he began his career in music at the age of nine. He discovered th ...
 – production (#10) *
Jörgen Elofsson Kjell Åke Jörgen Elofsson (born 14 January 1962) is a Swedish songwriter. He was one of the writers of the songwriter-team at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm (along with Denniz PoP, Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, Rami Yacoub, Pe ...
 – production (#3) *Chris Gahringer – mastering *Kohei Hatakeyama – Namie Amuro vocals recording (#2—#3, #9) *Daisuke Imai – production, programming (#6) *Ryosuke Imai – production (#11, #13) *Osamu "Shu" Imamoto – engineering (#4), mixing (#10), recording (#10) *Jhett – arrangement, production, programming (#7) *Hitomi Joko – recording (#1) *Takefumi Kanaya – recording (#6) *Shigeki Kashii – recording (#1) *Hyuga Kashiwai – recording (#7) *Ryosuke Kataoka – recording (#1, #4, #8, #10) *Gonta Kawamoto – mixing (#6) *Kim Min Hee – After School vocals recording (#3) *Erik Lidbom – production (#3) *Major Dude – production (#10) *Michico – production, vocal production and direction (#7) *Rie Mimoto – Kaname Kawabata vocal recording (#9) *Chieko Nakayama – Kaname Kawabata vocal direction (#9) *Nao'ymt – production (#2) *Paul NZA – production, recording (#1) *Supa Okuda – Ai vocals recording (#8) *Shinichi Osawa – mixing (at Tomigaya Lounge) (#4), production (#4) *Marek Pompetzki – production, recording (#1) *Chris Rojas – production (#9) *
Taku Takahashi is a Japanese DJ and record producer who debuted in 1997 as a producer of the hip hop group M-Flo. The group rose to prominence in the early 2000s, with hit singles such as "How You Like Me Now?" and "Come Again." Takahashi was also a member of ...
 – production (#4, #12), sound programming (#12) *Take-C for T.O.P – recording, mixing (#5, #13) *Teturo Takeuchi – Tomohisa Yamashita vocals recording (#2) *
Tomoyuki Tanaka was a Japanese film producer, best known as the creator of Godzilla. He produced most of the installments in the ''Godzilla'' series, beginning in 1954 with ''Godzilla'' and ending in 1995 with '' Godzilla vs. Destoroyah''. He was one of the mo ...
 – production (#4) *Tiger – vocal direction (#1, #3, #8—9) *Masaya Wada – vocal direction (#10) *UTA – production (#8, #11) *Verbal – production (#6, #10, #12), sound programming (#12) *Zeebra – production (#5, #13)


Charts


Weekly charts


Monthly charts


Year-end charts


Sales and certifications


Release history


References


External links


''Checkmate!'' official mini-site
{{Authority control 2011 compilation albums 2011 collaborative albums Namie Amuro albums 2010s Japanese-language albums Pop compilation albums Contemporary R&B compilation albums