Namie Amuro is a Japanese pop singer and occasional songwriter. In the Japanese press she was referred to as the "Queen of J-pop" before Ayumi Hamasaki eclipsed her popularity in the mainstream pop scene. She is still considered the Queen of J-pop, but with Hamasaki as the Empress of J-pop. She was noted in her early years for her Westernized dance music and popularized fashion whose followers came to be nicknamed Amurā (Amurer in English).