Whoever did her hair and make up needs to be fired. It looks terrible. You can barely see her eyes and below that is just a band of... shine. No wonder people were saying she had a big nose if this is the first time they've seem her in years. Whoever did that look messed up big time.

Yikes at her vocals... The new ourselves arrangement is good though. I'm disappointed, for her really, she never seems to be consistent on TV and it always comes with an army of negativity on Twitter ☹

I stan ayu to Mars and back but this was kind of a disaster. She should know how to sing her own classics, and this performance just sounded so bad. I'm sad about it. Also, that ourselves arrangement is trash. She should have revisited some of her own TV performances of the song and just rehashed them instead of this.

Oh God.

I think we can all agree that this performance didn't help her gain any new fans...

^ Yup, that's what i said and still think the same. Maybe if she had warmed up better, it would have been different.
Aside from that she had fun with Yoshiki afterwards too:
https://twitter.com/toshi_juriX/stat...13247960924160

Twtitter haters are so bored lol

I liked both songs, but as they were short versions, in TO BE there was not transition before the "sad singing" where she shouts a bit using fake crying. That's the only thing wich I didn't like, the lack of transition.

I love ourselves but, with this song, I tend to think it should be performed with the same aesthetic used in the PV, never happened, it's a bit weird with that dress or a summer look.

Vocals on TO BE were ok until the chorus, it was just painful. For the new arrangements on ourselves... 90% of time I really dislike whenever she gives old songs new arrangements, but I thought "ok, let's hear it first, then judge."

And it was what I expected: I didn't like them. It's always hit or miss and this time it was a BIG miss, it made the song lose all it's appeal and if she intends to keep this on the tour, then I don't mind watching it again. And the overacting in the last chorus didn't help either.

Overall, disappointing.

this particular performance was certainly a disaster, but we're simply missing the bigger picture: her charisma and talent as a live performer has diminished to the extent that it's beginning to embarass her own fans (i'm embarrassed that she's still even performing on shows like MUSIC STATION that perpetuate the spiritually exhausted J-POP idol-machine)

her live shows have become complete spectacle packaged for sterile mass-minded experiences, she overacts on stage to the point of camp, and vocally she's far from fantastic.

as a fan for nearly 15 years now, my wish is that after the 20th anniversary, she becomes a full-time studio musician. just fucking drop albums, man.

i'm at a point in my life where i don't understand the fascination with live music anymore—what is the draw of a rock concert when music almost always sounds better when studio-recorded and professionally engineered?

totally.

TO BE was fine until the chorus, which sounded raw and as if she didn't warm her throat or what. ourselves was weird too. gyutto shitemitari part was repeated 5 times in total. and the sudden going crazy.. hmm. wasn't bad just.. perhaps, awkward

Ahhh I missed it. Will have to wait for the DL. :(

I was expecting something disastrous after reading the comments, but for me it was so-so.
Her vocals on TO BE were ok, excepting the screaming chorus. ourselves sounds interesting with the new sound, and she's doing fine except again for the screaming moments.
This could have been easily avoided if she wanted. Her voice is not as bad as people make it seem, she had worse moments on MS.

It's times like these that we misses this ayu

Yikes.

TO BE wasn't good tbh, but I loooved ourselves, AND I LOVE "All over the place Ayu" on fierce songs like that! She just should keep it low for ballads imo.

Oh, and f*ck the haters, they are just trash as always!

^soooo you think having an objective opinion, or being realistic, is considered being a hater...?

I mean the nasty ones obviously are. But I don't feel like people who have opinions like me are. Idk, this performance has me stressed out tbh lol

the second ayu pushes out higher notes, she uses her throat to produce the sounds and it just seems like she cant controll it. i mean ourselves seemed to be so controlly and good! to be is a little off, sad for that

i love ayu and her looks, how she performs and what she has accomplished for the very first beginning. i am a hardcore fan, i love her newer stuff shes putting out, but i understand sometimes people talking about her. i mean the nose just defines her face. sometimes im like, oh ayu, youre gorgeous and lovely but that nose looks soo fake. and im not even meaning it bad or negative

I don't like this performance :(. I will upload soon.

She seems to fall into the cliche hole ala Mariah and Whitney. The next time we heard she propbably lip sync her entire tour. As someone mentioned above, it's so embarassing to hear and see that she become what she is now. Compared to her old times where she was busier she still delivered and served us great vocal and image. Now she seem go be taking things too lightly and.... I don't know. It's just sad. I love her so much.

I feel you

This performance convinced me to save money by not going to her tour.

http://i.imgur.com/tUur9Fnl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2zveK7Zl.jpg

She indeed lost her charisma and her overacting just makes her look like a parodia of herself, i agree with people saying it looks like she's trying too hard, even tho they're haters lol If i wasn't a fan i'd also say that it's time for her to retire.
Appearing on tv is not a good idea anymore, it's bad for her image, which is sad.

I've been watching ayuready for the first time and it is as if she is an entirely different person compared to her attitude and character in those days.

I think her stylist did her dirty with the hair and make up, but when you look at the state X are in... she looks pretty damn good. People on twitter just want to put her down though.

Eh not good. Also, Timmy took me out of the moment when I saw him--he didn't fit the vibe at all.

Sigh... good times good ol days...

TO BE probably could have been changed a bit to fit her vocals now more especially towards the chorus. The original as it is kind of requires her to sing out of her nose and she rarely if ever does that anymore.

ourselves sounded nice I think. It'll probably be in the tour with the attention it's getting thus far.

I'd say this is probably a result of not warming up properly and not performing much in the months after CDL. I think she almost always never has proper warmups prior to MS performances which is why they are always so hit or miss. Even when MS appearances were normal for her, the vocals were shaky back then and it's even more obvious now since we only get maybe one a year at best.

And part of the issue is that since she doesn't appear on TV much in recent years and instead tours all the time, she basically goes into live performance mode which doesn't really fit TV as much as it does the stage. The only thing that could help is that if she was told to reel it back a bit since TV performances don't need that sort of exaggerated nature to them or if she got used to doing TV lives again but it may be better to just stop appearing on TV since her presence is already rather small on these sorts of shows. Not to mention that just about all the shows she used to appear on have stopped airing.

To be is not that bad..but also not good..just ok
Ourselves is quiet good..not perfect...but not bad...
Overall.,not the best performance but not the worst performance...6/10

I like both, her vocals won't be better in TV programme, looks like her team isn't responsible for the technical side there and it's always very rough and revealing, I mean, she can't conceal the faults of her voice and technique there, it was so much worse in the past, this isn't perfect, but wasn't a catastrophy at least.

Ayu just needs to understand that her current voice doesn't fit with her older songs. Say what you will but The vocals were horrible.

She still screaming/shouting, but this wasn't as terrible as I've would thought. After seeing some comments, I braced myself for the worst like the time she did evolution a while back. It's not great either. It's probably something to accept her as we move forward. Haha.

It was horrible. As sad as it is, but her vocals were great compared to for example CDL. Furthermore she lost everything that once made her Hamasaki Ayumi when performing.
When I saw the selfie with YOSHIKI posted on facebook I found it cute, because YOSHIKI felt like taking a photo with her and I love him. But already her expression on this photo makes me wanna puke.
Back then it felt as if she was performing just for herself and nobody else and her charisma was amazing. Now it feels as if she is literally screaming "LOOK AT ME!!!!!!11!!!1!!1!!".
I'm a fan for 14 years and I'm honestly grieving for my Ayu fandom.

After listening again to some videos on instagram of the performances, I think that Ayu's voice itself is still quite good. It's the way she sings that makes her sound bad.
Maybe she has just lost too much hearing from her ears?
I may have missed it since I don't understand Japanese but, was there any mention of the upcoming tour and anniversary? It seemed like Ayu didn't promote anything. She simply showed up to sing two songs and that's it.

I think she just needs to ease up on certain things she does when singing notes that she formerly met with the the squeaky nasal voice of the early part of her career but now ends up 'shouting' those notes. I'm sure there is a solution out there but it's really up to her to figure it out.

Lol @ people crying like it's the end of the world for one TV performance


Yep. Ayu's dead. Definitely

Indeed, her performance is really bad on To Be...what a shame ! :( Is she really ready for her future tour ??? I really worry 'cause I'll go to see her in concert, but I hope she won't sing that bad... (I know she's really abble to be better/greater than that !!)

It was a disaster, I can't watch this stopped at the middle of To Be. This year I''ll go to see her live but now...
Of course I'm still her fun but it's painfull watching her today. So painfull because we can't see her like she was in her "old era".
I can't believe that she doesn't know it.

AHh can`t wait to watch this. It`d be nice when she does medleys to incorporate a new song and an old song. These are classic Ayu songs.

I mean... the stage setup was nice, with the chains and the wires and all the things. At least the staff tried.

Wow, I mean these definitely aren't my favourite performances of Ayu's, but I'm sure as hell not writing her off yet! I get too much enjoyment from her music, PVs and performances for that.

The performance was not good guys, don't try to fool yourselves.

It was more or less acceptable until she started shouting at the end of TO BE. Vocals aside, I don't get why she overact so much, with fake crying during TO BE and shaking her head like crazy in ourselves. In concerts with the scenography and background VTRs that try to portray a sad story might be fine but on TV performances it's out of place so it just makes her look ridiculous.

I like watching Ayu on TV shows but I agree with all of you who said that this type of performances worsen her image and japanese people use them to make fun of Ayu. You can have a look at Girls Channel topic about Music Station and see the countless memes...

Her MS performances are sort of always lacking IMO minus like, that Life performance in 2011.

I think she just doesn't do TV enough nowadays to separate live-on-TV and live-on-stage.

I thought TO BE was awful...
But I actually really enjoyed ourselves. I just got done watching this performance too, so it's fresh on my mind. I was sad with how bad TO BE sounded. :(

The dramatism is too much haha she hasnt sound great on TV for like a decade, why would you expect amazing vocals suddenly. Also, the worst she can do is choose a ballad from 1999, she would have done way better with something like JEWEL or Days or even SEASONS, which she has adapted really nicely to her current voice. Also, I couldnt care less about what japanese people think tbh they are extremely ageist and extremely superficial

I disagree. She used to have a lot of really good TV lives.

I kind of liked the end of Ourselves with that new arrangement, wasn't too keen on the rest though.

She seemed to be trying to put too much power into TO BE and ruining it by doing so. If she had kept it soft and gentle throughout it would probably have been ok.

What is disappointing is Ayu was improving her voice a few years ago and seemed to be working with a good vocal coach and it seemed really promising but it has gotten worse again.

I've also been watching quite a few old Ayu lives lately and I miss the way she could be awkward but hold the stage at the same time. Her performances now seem a bit too over acted? That selfie pose with Yoshiki just didn't seem like Ayu to me??

Ayu's got some worse performance than this one. Don't be too hard on her LOL.

I love TO BE a lot but this performance of TO BE is really bad.

I love this version of ourselves but her voice is just ok.

She needs to train her voice again with the previous voice trainer.

Someone needs to send a link of that TO BE performance to Lis Lewis (the vocal coach in L.A that helped retrain ayu's vocals during 2014)

I was talking about the haters on twitter. Talking only about her body, age and blah blah, it's pure hate.

Yes! Sign me up on this petition. Is there a way to mke this possible? I think it all depends on ayu in the end. What if their schedules don't meet. :/

Who the hell cares what japanese people think? As someone said, most of them are superficial, and only care about the looks. Girls Channel are on another level tho, they are just annoying bitter bitches.
At this point, she got nothing to lose. She won't ever sell a lot of copies like in the past, I don't think A BEST 3 would ever cross the 100k mark.
Otherwise, personally I love the dramatic part of her performances. The crazier the better lol Also, for me it's the same Ayumi as always except for the voice, which she struggles so much since becaming half deaf.

This. And how can the opinion of most Japanese people not matter, when it concerns a Japanese artist. :shrug:shrug. It's mean what those haters are saying but still.

I like it too, but it has nothing to do with the overall feeling of the performance? I guess it would've been nice if she performed the original version of Ourselves... This jazzy version doesn't match the stage setup at all. TO BE doesn't as well. It ended up being strange o_o

After a certain point, her MS lives were always kind of middling to me. I'd say it was sometime after 2007 or 2008 where it was more miss than hit. Like she would never sound fantastic at MUSIC STATION but it was never to the point where so many people had complaints about her voice.

Well, the people that are Ayu fans say that it was rather nice while the people that say she's horrible/a hag/whatever else have said the same things for the last 10+ years.

I think she also needs to stop wearing all these cheap looking dresses. For someone who has amazing style off stage I'm always amazed by her lackluster choices for outfit in stage. She gotta improve.

You know, the funny thing is I was already extremely worried about the fragile state of her voice when they announced that the CDM tour was going to be 3 hours long. I know she was just getting better with her techniques at the time as proven by CDL 14-15, but even then you could just hear that her vocal cords were just not up for that level of heavy duty anymore... and then the rest was history.

Like everyone else here, I really can't bear listening to her current live vocals anymore, but I still appreciate her just for the fact that she's written so many songs that have saved me from the darkest periods of my life.

Don't know why this episode of MSte - the entire episode or even Ayu's part itself - isn't on JPopsuki yet... Hmm... (Although there is a download link here on AHS)

I may try to make my verdict after I see it, right now I haven't.

She definitely seems to struggle with stage-appropriate vs. live TV- appropriate and that's one of the biggest issues. With all these MSta performances, she always wears a float dress and it just feels...Inappropriate for the song choices?

That's said, TO BE was good, except the chorus and the verses of ourselves was more enjoyable than when the song was new IMO...but the ending got out of control. Also, with older songs, I think she'd benefit from a heavier backing track, like she used to use. To be honest, her early vocals weren't amazing, but she harmonized with her backing tracks well.

I feel you all. I shivered from the beginning of TO BE chorus till the end of the performance. Also, her dress was so unflattering. I thought she had gained weight until I watched the beginning when she wore a different outfit. She used to be a really good live performance (well probably not vocally), with right choices of make ups and outfits. Being a fan for almost 18 years, it's really hard to cut the bond from her. I don't listen to her new music anymore, but I still have her old songs (up to FIVE) on my iPod. I still watch her old tv performances from time to time (e.g., watching HEAVEN first MS performance and Moments Pop Jam right now). I always secretly hope that she's have a second peak (just like Namie when she went back to the peak with 60s70s80s). It seems like that hope is not going to happen with her current vocal/image. To be honest I think her path is even worse than Seiko (which I wished she didn't follow). She really needs to rewatch her older performance if she wanna stay relevant to the public. I'm really sure that her performance last night will be dissed on social medias. I'm also surprised that 80% of the comments here are actually more negative than I thought (usually some of us would come up with reasons to defend her).

I feel like I'm connected to the old ayu, and I know nothing about the new ayu anymore...

I really enjoyed both performances! I was expecting the worst with TO BE after reading the comments here. She's done way wayyyy worse. I think she actually sounded more than decent.

Like most of you, I too have been feeling so much second hand embarrassment watching and listening to a lot of her stuff for the past few years. This terrible performance and look aside, I don't know what it will take for her to objectively see and hear herself nowadays. Why does she not acknowledge her current vocal limitations and insist on mutilating old songs? Why does she dress and act like a 20 year old now when she didn't act like that when she was 20? I'm sure she can afford a 5 year hiatus to rediscover who she is. Right now its looking like a continuously desperate attempt at relevancy that definitely isn't helping her make her way back into the Japanese public's hearts.

I would say part of the issue is just not appearing on TV all that often anymore so she doesn't really have much of a sense for what to wear and when. However, I don't think she cares much about staying relevant since it's not as though she is showing up on MS all the time. Before this, when was the last time she was on a show like this? Typically it seems like if they invite her to a big special, she says yes. From late 2015 to now, she has had four TV lives, all at MUSIC STATION and all with 3 months between appearances. Once for Ultra Fest in September 2015, once for an MS special in March 2016, again for Ultra Fest 2016 in September 2016, and this last special for March 2017.

I think it feels like even though she's on social media and stuff, these last few years we've seen even less of her as far as music and new content has gone so it's a bit like we lack the connection to her career that we did up until 2010/2011 when she really got into social media and basically stopped being as active as she was with releases and promotion.

Sometimes I imagined Ayu has swapped with another Ayu and the real Ayu is enjoying her luxurious life somewhere on the Earth.

Kidding. I wish she would control her voice and sing more carefully though.

omg thank you for articulating what I've been feeling for ages.

The deeper she goes into her most recent "phase" of "I'm living only for myself instead of what others expect from me", the more disingenuous everything about her seems. The old Ayu was seemingly untouchable in that she was a well-constructed persona, she was all over the media, and everything she touched turned to gold...and yet there was always a vulnerable, relatable quality to her. She's not a talented actress and I think it's very telling that back then, she seemed more natural than she has in years. Now everything seems forced, superficial, and, as another poster said, overly contrived to the point of ridiculousness. It's almost as if there's an (attempt at an) elaborate show to distract you from the fact that, under the surface, there isn't much left. Are we being punked? Of course people grow and change over time but to see someone who has been such an influence in my life devolve to this point actually breaks my heart.

This might seem slightly over dramatic to some (I'm having a bad week; let me live) but this performance really feels like a death knell for my fandom, and I have stanned this woman for over half my goddamn life.

What the fuck is she doing?

That performance was messy as hell. I legit had to pause TO BE once she started screaming the chorus and get up and look away for a second. Embarrassing

I thought I was the only one who thought the dress looked unflattering on her. She should have kept with the outfit she wore in the beginning.

ourselves is good to me, I split it from the medley to make the subtitle.
Hope for her better vocal in the tour.

yes! at first I thought shes going to wear something like that, or something close to what she always wore during her days promoting Ourselves but then she came out with that dress and I was still hoping that she got another layer underneath her dress but NO :no

another huge problem well at least for me that she always looked very different when she appeared on MSta nowadays compared to her look behind the scene/documentary/concert in the DVD, seriously whoever did her makeup didn't do any justice for that. Just look at her recent pics in Italy, she looked totally fine and fresh but not in MSta yesterday. She looked fuller and I can barely see her eyes and that dress with her busty chess made me think she barely or really has a short torso lol, so imagine the public who didnt follow her at all suddenly saw that. Thus the harsh comments and memes on social media meh,

They should see her in Documentary AT16 she looked so good! :grumpy

Agree so much.

Indeed. Still this wasn't her absolute worst. We all remember the butchered evolution performance from 2010/2011 I think where she admitted it was her absolute worst. Then there was a Mirrorcle World/SURREAL performance from 2008 where she murdered SURREAL with vibrato and screaming. This one wasn't bad on that level, but it was far from good. ourselves partially saved it...

Its not her best but it worse when she goes into the chorus. But i think she would get more back lash for not making it :P the music shows are very grudge full when you stop going to them, like when ayu couldn't make one in the past :P I think part of it feels like she just does them as a commitment, maybe its just because she keeps doing her 2002ish songs. She might sound better with her tv lives if she focused on her newer stuff, that her voice is good for. She has a more mature voice now compared to her past, and she cant hit the same notes now, but she can still hit the note/pitch of her new stuff fine. Like if she would sing Your the only one, and sings it like her area tour, that would show her voice training off, and it shows she still has a good strong voice

Ourselves was brilliant! TO BE I could have done without.

Think how different we'd all feel if she'd done FLOWER, a song she's meant to shout. She has plenty of great new songs, something like TODAY would have been so good.

Who picks the songs for these events anyway? Is it a compromise between the show and artist?

The problem is that she doesn't look that bad in normal life. I don't come to Ayu section as often like I used to be, but sometimes I still visit the social media thread to see what she's up to. She can just wear any of those shown in her instagram, and I bet the general public will say those outfits are more relevant then the one she wore last night. And actually most of her outfits on recent MS are unflattering. I feel like she's trying to make them as grand as possible, like she cannot really separate the sense of normal tv lives' outfits from concerts' outfits. (I still cannot forget the hideous outfit she wore when she sang Feel the Love on MS super live).

But you're right. Lately I find that all her tweets are all about her glamorous life, nothing music about her career. Also, I'm actually quite amazed that she can do tours in arenas nowadays. All the artists around her era are doing concerts in halls or even smaller places. I guess her hardcore fans in Japan are really loyal after all.

She just doens't wear tees and jeans on tv anymore. Like I said above, she thinks grand outfits are the best. After I watched last night's performances, I watched her early lives (from her debut to maybe like Love Songs era). I wish she would wear some street fashion clothes on tv. Even if she's wearing pretty dresses, she can make them elegant like the one she wore in HEAVEN (the first MS live). But no she decided to wear that dress, to a point that I think her vocal wasn't as bad as I thought because the dress was quite distracting.

And about her chest... If she wanted to show off her figure in the first place, then she is doing it wrongly. I really think that cutting was not complimenting her body at all. Like you said, My brother even went further by saying that her b**bs cannot fight against gravity. And like you said, that dress made her torso so full. I just don't understand, she had waist in the beginning of the show (as shown by her opening outfit), then all of the sudden she looked like she gained 10 pounds. What was she thinking when she chose that outfit...?

She can still do dresses but something that is not from 90s anymore. Something properly fitted and more luxurious. I commented this long ago, at her level, it's not difficult to loan outfit from famous designers or even custom or whatnot. Look at all the KPOP stars, they are very relevant because what they wear in public when they perform sells as good as their record. So I really don't understand up to this moment ayu still depends on her "designer" to create all these questionable outfits. I mean seriously. She started these "costumes" thingy like around 2005 probably, when she wore that mini floral dress for STEP you in 1726353 colors each live. I watched her 2004 Moments performance and she actually wear different interesting outfits every live. It's such a joy to watch. Now everything is uniform. Like if she like this dress she will have it designed in 100 colors just in case. I come from fashion retail background and trust me, if customers saw ayu wore, let say Gucci, in her tour or live, I tell you, they will visit the shop amd say: I want this top, ayu wore it. Gucci marketing team will definitely promote it as well. She of all people should know how important all these aspects are. Even the Taiwanese singers are being relevant nowadays because they know, music and performance can only get them that far, image is very important.

We may not love Alvin, but you gotta admit at some point he actually made her looked like a Superstar that she is.
She needs talent like that.

And yes, she gotta stop acting princessy cute as it's not relevant anymore.

Its just sad cos I'm really looking forward to this but... well...

Those mini floral dresses for STEP you were actually quite nice. And she did wear different dresses for HEAVEN performances in 2005, so she was still doing great during that year.
And I agree that she can borrow/rent outfits from famous brands. Her "designer" or "stylist" should be fired asap because I don't find any of her live outfits good at all in recent years. The dress from last night alone is enough to dismiss her styling team.

I know it's probably not good to diss her like this. But she was the fashion queen back in her early careers. Almost every Japanese girls followed her styles, and everything she did become trends (fox tail, VISEE make ups, hair styles, out fits, etc.). Even I didn't really like her diva look around 2008 (A COMPLETE era), she still looked glamorous and beautiful. Had she never been a fashion queen, I wouldn't find her nowadays fashion that bad. But her choices and tastes are just polar opposite from the early ayu. Obviously I know people keep changing throughout years, so I don't find weird she has different taste of fashions compared to before. But I never imagined that we would diss her fashion to that far. Just never.

it's so suddenly sad to read all these negative comments here :( usually it was always me saying 'oh I miss old ayu! her old vocals were so perfect and I hate her current vocals' and everyone's here was reacting very good to her new vocals and etc. but now most of people here are not satisfied. it breaks my heart to see her hardcore fans being so negative on her. no, I don't blame anyone. this is just sad :(

tbh I really enjoyed all MSta yesterday. I watched it live and I sang lots of songs along like Ozaki Yutaka's 'Sotsugyou', AKB's old songs, ahh and X JAPAN songs. it was sooooo good! and I was so surprised they ended with X JAPAN not with Johnny's. Oooh it was great! so as I sang along all the songs I barely noticed bad vocals of ayu �� but yeah, I thought that she looked not very good and that the dress didn't fit ourselves and that Timmy was too disctracting. but I enjoyed the talk and how she talked to Yoshiki :)

and the only tweet I remember today is "chemistry, hamasaki ayumi, x japan are on tv right now. is it really 2017?!" haha

they also showed the debut videos. it's sad they didn't show YOU performance! :(

overall I can say I enjoyed it very much. I need to rewatch ayu's performance again.

She doesn't need to even loan the designer outfits, she can buy them or pull them out of her own damn wardrobe. For how good she's looked the last few years the whole outfit/styling made no sense!

ourselves new version is very hypnotic.

Other than Ayu with Yoshiki who goes viral, some pic of Ayu with Naoto are back again.

I'm going to have to watch a HD version of the performances somewhere 'cause I don't really remember thinking much about her outfit at all.

Scrolling through Twitter I think my favourite comment was on the pic with Yoshiki where someone said "Who is the witch to the right?" lol.

She's always had a bit of a disconnect between her street style and her stage style but it is even more evident with how little she appears on TV nowadays. I think she treats each performance like a special occasion (it's almost always some several hour long MS special lately) so she feels she doesn't want to wear something that she'd wear outside normally. Like, when was the last time she didn't wear some sort of flowy dress on TV?

It is kind of a horrible way to go about things but if that's what she wants to do, that's just how things will be. However, I think since her Instagram was the feature when she was interviewed, people should at least have seen or noticed that her style doesn't match up with the "Ayu on stage" and that it's a bit more rough around the edges without the frills or cleavage all the time.

I did think it was odd that she wore that outfit from the ViVi shoot which fit her current style when she came out and then changed to the princess dress. If anything, that's a sign that while she would appear in her street style but then would never perform in it.

Japan iTunes Top Albums

10 Ayumi Hamasaki - A Complete - All Singles (+8)

At least some boost!

because A COMPLETE ~ALL SINGLES~ actually have a discount on iTunes until April 6th...
it's ¥900 instead of ¥2700

from NEWS of her official site

Whenever I see Ayu albums enter top 10 positions I get excited and then it always turns out to be because of some kind of discount.:laugh
It looks like Ayu is getting harder to defend as her weaknesses keep getting highlighted lately.:no
But I don't think it is good to dwell on one bad performance. We shouldn't count Ayu out because she could deliver an amazing vocal performance months from now because that is how she is. Always inconsistent. Going from good to bad, bad to good. It's just got to be her hearing. It must be worse than she lets on. I think it has become more than clear over the past few years that Ayu can't control her singing. That seems to be the best explanation. She can speak fine but when she needs to sing varying intricate notes, she just can't be accurate enough. She just can't help it. So she just tries her best.

Oof that performance. The positive was I liked the new arrangement of Ourselves.

Negative is obviously the vocals. They have not really improved since CDL. She really isn't going to have much of a voice left after this tour. :(

I also thought the emoting in this was over the top (I know she does this a lot), but now it feels more like it's done in order to cover up and to try to distract from and pull people's attention away from the vocals.

Yeah, that was unfortunate timing. X gave an awesome performance and just highlighted a vocalist who is much older, but nailed very tough to sing songs 30 years later.

Yeah, I agree. Aside from the performance aspects that were bad here, the interview and her interactions with Yoshiki were ..... odd. I mean, she has always been a bit of an oddball in the interview portions, but she seemed kind of dazed or something there. I don't know.


Sorry to say it but, she has been around long enough and should be professional enough to know the difference. Like I said, I really feel that she DOES know the difference, but does it intentionally to distract from the vocal parts that she knows she is going to struggle with.

So in some ways she is playing it smart I guess? To an extent at least. It's not smart when you end up getting panned for two things instead of one: the vocals and the overacting.

Exactly. I remember when she performed Boys & Girls in 2009 at Music Fair and she only sang the first lines of each verse like she always does in concerts. The funny thing is it was a TV studio with no audience so she was aiming the mic towards nobody. Who was suppossed to sing back? LOL For me, it was embarrasing to watch.

OMG! I think this was an awkward situation... :shakehead
never heared about this...
Does someone have a video of this live?

Edit: I've found it myself... this is hilarious :roflmao

Jfc does she even review her performances anymore? She really needs to do something to salvage what's left of her voice, whether it be a new coach or someone in her inner circle sitting her down and giving her a reality check instead of just fawning over her every performance which I fear is what's happening atm. What a sorry state of affairs.

I've got the impression that that's what's been happening for several years now. People probably aren't being direct about what the problems are, or maybe she is unwilling to listen. Don't know which it is.

Her voice did get better though in '14/15, and her vocal coach was in America, right? So basically, she needs to move back to America for the sake of her voice. lol

She ever was great vocal wise after getting lessons in New York/America :yes

Maybe this could be a little (just a very little) excuse for the performance on friday?

I absolutely LOVED both performances - it was new to see ayu perform "ourselves" in a dress, though. :laugh but she looked gorgeous, as always! :heart

I rewatched the performances to see if I could see where the disappointment in her vocals is coming from...and I just don't see what's evoking such a reaction. Maybe it's what we're contrasting this performance with? If someone is comparing her vocals maybe with contemporaries like Adele or Beyoncé, I could understand the embarrassment, but ayu has never been a strong vocalist (not even in her prime, honestly). If we're comparing this performance with those that were posted a few pages back from 2000 and 2003...is that really fair? It's been almost 2 decades since those performances. Are we really expecting her to sound the same?

Now, if we're comparing her vocals to recent live releases...I think it's important to remember that her vocals are heavily edited when she releases a concert DVD. You can truly hear the autotune, unlike this Music Station performance. This was her raw, natural voice.

I don't mean to sound like I'm attempting to invalidate the general opinion (because trust me, I'm far from an ayu-stan). I'm just curious as to what was expected and why? What are we comparing this performance with that's giving rise to such disappointment among the fandom? Honest question that I'd like to hear opinions on.

Also, when it comes to ayu's appearance and the way she presents herself...I for one don't really think twice about whether she's trying hard to look like a 20-year old and whatnot, and I guess it's because as ayu stopped caring over the years, I did too. Also, I stopped hoping for her to revert back to the ayumi hamasaki that was deep and hands-on when it came to her artistry long ago. It's been a while since this latter phase of her career began, and I've kinda been able to accept it much more easily than other people, and I think that's due in part to becoming a fan later in her career (just before her 10th anniversary).

ayu looks uncomfortable, nervious and sad the entire show (+ interview)
like trying to control herself for something
why japanese women on tv acts like they are handcuffed in front of a judge or a police officer.

the ourselves part was the best although the arrangement sounds like a cheap unnoficial karaoke file

Yeah, this so much. It was kind of odd.

same :(

Hmmn, let's see. I never expect her to sing good in recent years. She changed her technique (?) after 2008 or so (when she started singing each words out separately, especially at the end of each sentence). I didn't like it, but at least there's no dramatic outburst like now (or rather, she was not that over reacting). And I don't really watch her tour dvd anymore, so I can't even compare her vocal in recent tours with tv lives. I actually compare what she could do back in old tv lives (from 1999 - maybe 2010) with what she has been doing in recent years. I can accept her shaky vocal, as I know that about her ear condition, and her cord has been constantly damaged. In fact, I wasn't totally shivered by her vocal last night. More likely it was the package (vocal + dress + over reacting) that gave me a shock.