Can You Celebrate?

"Can You Celebrate?" (stylized as "CAN YOU CELEBRATE?") is the ninth single by Japanese recording artist Namie Amuro. Serving as the second single from her third studio album Concentration 20, it was released on February 19, 1997, by Avex Trax. Its lyrics and composition was handled solely by Tetsuya Komuro. "Can You Celebrate?" is the best selling single by a female Japanese solo artist, with sales of 2,296,200 copies. Additionally, it is ranked as the 14th best selling single of all time in the history of the Oricon Singles Chart. The song also served as the opening theme for the dorama Virgin Road in 1997, which starred Emi Wakui, Tetsuya Takeda and Takashi Sorimachi. Amuro herself appeared in the opening sequence of the drama, along with Tetsuya Komuro on the piano. The re release of "Can You Celebrate?" as a maxi single in December 1997 was a Christmas gift from Komuro to commemorate Amuro's wedding with Masaharu Maruyama. Featuring remixes of "Can You Celebrate?" as well as a remix of "Dreaming I Was Dreaming", the reissued single charted at number one on January 12, 1998.

When Miwako Kurihara, the executive producer of Virgin Road, asked Komuro to produce the song, she requested that he "write the last and greatest wedding song of the 20th century in the Komuro style." Komuro replied with, "Is there anything else you would like to order? It's easier for me to do what you want if you tell me what you want, rather than leaving it up to me to do it all." So Kurihara asked, "Please make a song that can be played in both happy scenes and sad, tearful scenes." Once completed in the fall of 1996 at Sony Music Studios in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, Kurihara instructed him to redo the composition. In response, Komuro immediately played the piano and explained the expected completion of the song, and the recording was immediately redone and the demo tape was completed in two weeks. Because of Komuro's intention that "the quality of this song cannot be understood with a half baked sound," the entire composition was recorded with a full orchestra, which was unusual for a demo tape.

In Japan, "Can You Celebrate?" was a massive success on the Oricon Singles Chart. It debuted at the top spot of the chart with 828,480 copies sold in its first week of availability, becoming Amuro's highest first week sales for a CD single. The single resided at number one for a second week, selling 460,860 copies. It slid to number 2 during its third week on the chart with 311,440 copies. On its fourth week it stayed at number 2 with 158,900 copies sold. On the single's fifth week it continued to reside at number 2, shifting 116,340 copies. On its sixth week of availability, "Can You Celebrate?" dropped to number four on the weekly singles chart with 80,110 copies sold. After April 7, 1997, the single remained in the top ten for an additional two weeks. "Can You Celebrate?" was Japan's highest selling single of 1997, topping the year end Oricon Singles Chart with 2,223,090 copies sold throughout the fiscal year. The single charted in the top 100 for forty weeks and sold a reported total of 2,296,200 copies during its chart run, making it the best selling single by a female Japanese soloist and the fourteenth best selling single of all time in Japan. The maxi single re release reached No. 1 on the weekly chart on January 12, 1998, with 280,060 copies sold in its opening week. The re released single ranked for eight weeks in the Top 100 and sold 454,020 copies, becoming the 54th best selling single in Japan of 1998.

Amuro sang "Can You Celebrate?" at the 48th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, and then took a year off from her singing career to go on maternity leave. She made a comeback at the 49th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen in 1998, and sang the song for the second year in a row. During her comeback performance that night she was so moved by the warm applause and cheers from the audience that she shed tears during the scene. When Amuro appeared at Kohaku in 1998, the audience rating for each singer was 64.9%, the highest audience rating for a singer in history.

With this song, she won the "Grand Prix" at the 39th Japan Record Awards, her second consecutive award following her win for "Don't Wanna Cry" the year prior. On the day of the event, Tetsuya Komuro came to congratulate her with a bouquet of flowers and also played the piano and sang the chorus in the song. Amuro was so moved that she sang the song with tears in her eyes. Other awards include Song of the Year (Japanese Music Grand Prize) at the 11th Japan Gold Disc Awards.