Hm, I was wondering why she her panel in Vivi is still featured when all her other partnerships have ceased to exist.

I feel like a single friend on the magazine's staff, as much as business connections can be very important and beneficial would not keep her featured for that long, especially if it was detrimental to the business.

Rumors like those about ayu are all so random and I kind of just take them along with pregnancy/abortion rumors etc.

They're pretty similar to the kind of rumors that are spread about different American artists and sometimes seem to make sense, sometimes don't, but you never know what's true. I think people just need to create their own explanations for everything when they don't have the answers.

And considering that she has low popularity and many firmy believed negative rumors about herself in Japan, it seems that many people act that way (and have for some years) been acting that way with regard to ayu when you mention you like her

after a while I come to this thread.

I have the pic of walking out a club with her staffs,can imagine that in my head haha

but then I always not really a fan of these kind of rumours as for me, many other artists/famous celebs did the same things or had the same/even worst than Ayu (if it's true)

why she acted cocky,bitchy when drunk,maybe because all those restrictions from Avex during her peak,than only at the club she could release it all; haha maybe

i can actually kinda see these rumors being true..

she was on her 20s when she got this super popularity, i can imagine that going straight in to her head because it happened so fast

same about that ViVi magazine rumor, she's not that popular anymore

of course i hope there are still other reasons why she can still write deji deji but that's something we will never ever gonna get confirmed

i still love her to death, even if she was cocky af

I think I heard something like that before... Also that she brings her dogs everywhere (tv-shows, interview and shooting) and annoy people with it

we already heard all these rumours thousand times, so I take it as "normal" for an artist,everyone has that kind of story.

yes,she became so famous and rich in her early 20s and I bet if it were me and Im drunk I'd do the same. *cough* Miley and Bieber are worst lol

most important she always treated her fans nicely and I still love and respect her to death :D living legend she is!

Honestly people that say "but she can't sing anymore" just have no idea what they're talking about. 1. she sings a lot better than she used to a few years ago and 2. don't spew bullshit when you dont know. I also hate this whole "still releasing music?" thing I get annoyed when people say that generally. I have this often with my mom when she's like "Oh I haven't heard of XX in so long is this person not releasing music anymore?" And I'll just tell her to freaking google it if she wants to know if that person is still active. I hate to think that most people think like that ugh

Most of Japanese people don't follow her as we do. It's like when someone from my country asks me about a very famous artist and I'm like "does that person still releases music?", but that's only because I don't look them up anymore. Sometimes they even got a top 10 but I had no idea at all. If it's not playing everywhere and on TV all the time people just assume the artist is gone.

My opinion on pretty much everything is: just because you don't care doesn't mean nobody cares. There are people that don't follow any music ,there are some that follow some and some that follow a lot. I'm just thinking let people be fans of whatever they want, people can like what they wanna like, don't laugh at them for it, that's just rude.

People tend to assume that XX does not release music anymore because XX's songs are not heard anywhere.. I happen to have a lecturer who is also into Japanese things and he noticed my 'A' logo sticker on my laptop and told me, "but she hasn't released anything for a long time eh?" I was like, "She is still active and even had 2 albums this year..." and he was surprised.

^
yep. you have to get your face everywhere on the billboards and magazine,play your songs on the radios and tvs,then that is the definiton of "popular" for the casual listener. Normal thing in showbiz.

wow, that's completely different from my experience. While I was living in Japan, whenever I mentioned she was my favorite singer people would be like "oh, she's really famous and popular!" and some positive things about her. I haven't had anyone telling me bad things about Ayu at all. And even my Chinese friends would comment how popular she was in China as well.

Yup!! It doesn't help that when ayu gets a chance to perform on tv instead of promoting new music she sings her old stuff. How are people suppose to know she's got new stuff out there.

^my japanese friends were singing evolution when I first mentioned that I like Ayu and one of them even wanted to watch a concert with me. They're both 22 years old and I was surprised how many songs one of them (the one of them who was watching the concert with me) still knew. I would say up to R'n'RC she knew everything and really liked the newer stuff she didn't heard until then.

:yes Same with my Japanese friends. I'm studying Japanese and when exchange students from Japan ask me why I'm studying it, I always answer that Ayumi Hamasaki is partly a reason for it, because her music made me like the Japanese language so much. Most of them get big eyes and say things like: "Yeah, she is very popular in Japan!". A few of them even listen to some songs from her, but only the older and famous ones like SEASONS or evolution. As for the Japanese I know, they are aware that Ayumi still releases music but they simply don't care anymore.

To all random people that I met she was a singer from the past. When one lady in Disneyland's line asked me what my favourite Ayu song is, I started to sing one of the newer singles and she was like "whaat?", so I had to sing M instead and she quickly recognized it.:-D Some people told me "she used to be huge", but nobody said she's famous now.

Gotta love these Ayu rumours, lol. So many of them are so random it makes me wanna cry. :D

Last year, when my husband mentioned "my wife loves Ayumi Hamasaki" to his Japanese supplier ~ husband & wife, they simple stare at me with disbelief...

I personally feel it's kind of..rude how some people react when you tell them you are a fan of Ayu. Just because she isn't all that popular anymore doesn't mean what she releases now is bad or that she is a bad person? I probably just get offended here because I love her so much, but if someone tells me they like someone I don't like I accept it, but don't give them weird looks, or keep saying or asking things like OH WOW SHE'S STILL ACTIVE?

Seriously this. I find it very juvenile when people do that making you feel almost... "ashamed" for listening to a certain artist. It's childish and unnecessary.