Puffy Amiyumi

Puffy (パフィー, Pafī?, romanized as PUFFY in Japan) or Puffy AmiYumi is a Japanese rock duo. They are currently signed onto Sony Music Japan. The group continues to go by the moniker of PUFFY in Japan, but in order to avoid legal naming conflicts with Sean Combs, they have adopted the name Puffy AmiYumi outside of Japan. Ami Onuki, whose nickname is "Jane", and Yumi Yoshimura, nicknamed "Sue", were scouted by Sony-affiliated talent agencies and put together in the mid-1990s, and soon Puffy-mania would begin. Puffy-mania reached its peak in 1998–1999, following the release of their Jet CD and the Jet tour. Their first release "Asia no Junshin" sold a million records and their success has continued with several more full-length releases (totaling 14 million sales in Japan). Puffy made their first US appearance as part of Music Japan's "An Evening with Japan's All-Stars" showcase at the 2000 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. After their performance at SXSW, attorneys for Sean "Puffy" Combs sent the band a cease and desist letter asking them to change their name. Their music has been largely a collaboration between producer Tamio Okuda, American singer-songwriter Andy Sturmer, and Ami and Yumi themselves. Ami and Yumi's vocals are likened to U.S. vocal sister group The Roches.[citation needed] They often sing whole songs together with harmonies and their sound borrows heavily from the Beatles and other artists such as ABBA, The Who, and The Carpenters. Both Ami and Yumi themselves have openly admitted that their music is hard to put into just one genre because of the many different influences.