Puffy
Puffy (パフィー, in Japan) or Puffy Amiyumi (パフィー・アミユミ) as they are known in the United States (due to legal naming conflicts with Puff Daddy), is a Japanese pop duo. Ami Ohnuki and Yumi Yoshimura were scouted by two different talent agencies and put together in 1995. Their first release "Asia no junshin" sold a million records and their success continued with several more full-length releases (totalling 14 million sales in Japan). They hosted their own weekly TV show, "Pa-pa-pa-pa-Puffy", with guests such as Lenny Kravitz, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, and rock band Garbage.
Their music has been largely a collaboration between producer Tamio Okuda, American singer-songwriter Andy Sturmer of the band Jellyfish, regular session musicians, and lastly Ami and Yumi themselves. Ami and Yumi's vocals are likened to US vocal sister group The Roches. They often sing whole songs together with harmonies. The songs borrow heavily from the Beatles and other artists such as Abba, The Who and Carpenters.
After 2000 they have been less in the limelight in native Japan with their TV show winding up in 2002. Instead they have set the compass for the USA with promotional tours, releasing previous Japanese releases and now a song from the latest album (2003) features on the animated TV program "Teen Titans". This might be the reason for the increase in English language songs in their repertoire.
In 2004, Cartoon Network announced in a press release that a show featuring the duo, called Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, is in the works for their winter 2004-2005 programming schedule.
Albums
- ami-yumi (1996)
- Jet-CD (1998)
- Fever Fever (1999)
- Spike (2000)
- Nice (2003)
- The Hit Parade - covers of Japanese pop songs from the 1970s and 80s.
- solo-solo (1997) was a 2-CD set, each containing songs performed by one member, and released under their individual names.
