Today are 4 big anniversaries:

-A song for xx turns 20
-I am... turns 17
-(miss)understood turns 13
-Guilty turns 11

(I'm not sure if some singles were released on january 1st)

No singles, only albums. I completely forgot about missunderstood!

I had yet another dream about Ayu releasing music, only this time it was a digital single called "Holla'" as in the slang version of holler.

:S

^ I recently had a dream of Ayu releasing a new album, but it was her covering famous songs of american singers but with japanese lyrics lmao

Found this YouTube channel full of TV Performances: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqL...A4h7byA/videos

Let's watch while we can. lol

The only thing I can say after going there and watching Survivor is...

Why the hell there is capoeira moves on the choreography? xD

Capoeira Ayu? Que aleatório!

Wouldn't it be great if they re-released AT02 and ST02 but PROPERLY EDITED?

One can dream.

I wonder if the local erotic store in my town also saw Ayu's CDL and felt inspired.

it's my channel. it doesn't seem like they're deleting the videos. but oh well, we never know. sometimes they don't let me upload some videos and that's it

Wonderful channel. Could you upload ever free from POWER of MUSIC 2018? :love Onegai :laugh

that was one of the videos they didn't let me upload, sorry :( they blocked it right away.

Oh too bad. Thanks anyway

omg

Impersonations are the highest form of flattery

:roflmao:roflmao
But I think it's kind of weird that Ayu's vibrato is made fun of. To me it just sounds like enka style.

I remember that in 2009 people were so negative about her vibrato that they called it "vibrato of doom". But I was so fond of it. GREEN is my absolute favorite song from that year just because of the way how she was singing back then.

I always wondered which singers influenced her way of singing ? Obviously she was influenced by Keiko from Globe in early 2000 but suddenly she added so much vibrato in 2002 especially with voyage and even more the years that followed... It's definitly an interesting choice she must simply liked that lol

It's quite funny when people try to impersonate her because some emulate the high pitched voice and some the big vibrato lol

I love seeing the vibratto jokes lol I myself also do that vibratto impersonation all the time. iconic af.

I'm just happy that woman decided to parody her look from the CDTV performance from last year and the vibrato from 2008, instead of doing the same 2000 high pitched-short haired Ayu these humoristics do once and again when parodying her.:laugh

I think she's mimmicking her performance on CDTV on 2018 lol She even got the highlighted cheeks right lol

https://www.facebook.com/ayuangel.ne...6263669586764/

That was quick.

Taken down already? :grumpy

Since getting back into Ayu recently, I’m still backtracking to listen to a lot of the material I missed between 2009-2016, and finally I gave the Five EP a listen and WOW... I can not believe I slept on this one. I’ve played it three times through I’m in love with it so much.

I just found this performance on YouTube that I don't think I had seen before:



I'm speechless at how cute she looks here, ugh :luv2

Oh, come on. The first album I ever heard of hers is that old already? :weep

I found out that my file with this show titled SURREAL is actually SEASONS! So if someone has SURREAL in good quality please share




https://i.imgur.com/K3Sh9LO.jpg
is it lyrics on screen?

I now that the month isn't over yet but I think I can name my "Ayu Song For The Month" and it is... Dolls. It just fits my current mood so well. It's not the lyrics that fits but the whole song. To me this song has a special atmosphere that I connect to my love for watching the night sky and hope to see more of the nothern lights on the cold winter nights we currently have here. I would also say that the future breeze Remix also kinda fits in this situation

There is a serious issue that needs to be point out in the world of YouTube. I'm quoting above from the Koda Kumi thread, but this is affecting not just Kuu, but also Ayu as well.

There's something called YouTube Music Premium, which just recently rolled out to Japan, and this is now causing 'geoblock' or 'paywall' issues on J-pop music videos, especially 'full versions' of it. This could be very serious in the long run, and this could affect not just Avex - but other labels around Japan, especially big ones like Sony or Universal... :no

Polsy (YouTube region checker) technically says it's geoblocked outside of Japan, but I'm speculating this is a geoblock-paywall... :no

Yes! Five is a good album. I love all of the songs on here, especially Why..., BRILLANTE, and Beloved.

Side note: I accidentally typed that Five is a good "dinner" instead of album at 1st. LOL I need to get food off the brain.

She looks so tired to me in all her old performances now. Not surprising with how much she was doing, but her more relaxed schedule now shows in her skin/face etc...

Now I finally have MY STORY and I'm in love with it. So many great songs! About You, GAME, my name's WOMEN, Liar... Listening to it without skipping any track makes me appreciate every single song of it...

MY STORY is still the best Ayu album to me.

I love listening to MY STORY from beginning to end, the songs have such a whimsical (I dont know how to describe it) quality to them, it all flows so well and the interludes are some of her best imo.

I think I might be one of the few people that find MY STORY kind of overrated. Don't get me wrong the songs are not bad and I love möst of them but everytime I try and listening to the whole album it starts to get Boeing after the first 5-6 songs. So most of the time I only listen to individual Songs whenever I feel like it.

I don't know why, but I can't help but feel like Ayu's home is tacky af with gaudy furniture :roflmao I really want to see her interior to see if I'm right lol

Same. It's exhaisting to listen to it in full.

I had the same problem with Love songs in the beginning, but I grew to like it that way. But that didn't happen with MY STORY :laugh The album as a whole just doesn't click for me unfortunately

I think there are some pictures of her house floating around... It's not that tacky, but the decoration is a little narcisistic.

you can find some little pieces of her interior here. Behind a lot of dogs.

http://i.imgur.com/ctRHIIGm.jpg http://i.imgur.com/pFcHlEym.jpg http://i.imgur.com/RVe7CUTm.jpg

those birthday photos took at ayu's home
http://i.imgur.com/4lJNudem.jpg http://i.imgur.com/360rQaWm.jpg http://i.imgur.com/23GBBynm.jpg

as for bedroom, at american house it were simple and clean
http://i.imgur.com/awUPHzim.jpg

Yeah, I enjoy My Story but do find it a bit overrated. However all this My Story chat has me all nostalgic. Think I need to listen to it soon!

I wonder if someone would like to translate the Ayu manga "miracle passion", is only in japanese out there, I have good pictures of the whole manga thanks to a twitter user but my japanese is far from being decent, I could do the cleaning and edit the pictures to make them look like scans (or if someone has scans even better lol)

I want new music. @_@ good new music.

My expectations are already too high.

The sad thing is I want an album from hers but I don't feel like she'll be releasing one so soon. A best with a couple of new tracks sounds more possible to me but even that doesn't look too certain.

The thing is, I want a new release from her but I don't know why considering how little I enjoy her newer stuff. I don't mean to say I hate it, but it does almost nothing for me.

I'd like to translate it! My japanese level is not as good as Misachan's, but I sometimes do some translations as a hobby in order to practice.

I'll send you a private message! :yes

Message answered! ^_^

Today is my birthday so I got the "Birthday Message from ayu" from TA except it says "2018 is my 20th anniversary year." so they're basically recycling the birthday message from last year lmao
But well it also says "I'm always me and nothing changes on my 20th anniversary year, I think. lol" so I guess that if we consider her 20th anniversary year to goes from 08/04/2018 to 08/04/2019 it's not entirely out of place lol

The previous quote implies that her 20th anniversary year is only in 2018 though :P

^ were you a TA member last year too? I've always gotten a different message on my birthday, so maybe she doesn't change it on January 1st but on a different day, or even month? lol

^ Yes I was and the message was indeed different :P It's just that last year someone posted about this specific birthday message so I know that this one has been in use for a while lol Maybe she changes it every March or April!

^ It was me, and my birthday is in May. So maybe it is based on her anniversary month?

After thinking about it for a bit I would imagine it'd actually be on the date when TA was established in the first place haha

So, the pv to Summer Diary is really pretty, but ends so dramatically with Ayu doin' her crying face.

Why is that her thing? Crying in her videos and lives. I remember not being able hold back laughter at her Missing pv because of her crying. It just seems....like a very offputting style...

We are the QUEENS intro is SO amazing, I think I will never skip that part whenever I play this song.

After MY STORY, I've been listening to (miss)understood and Secret, these days. In love with them and seriously cannot decide which one I like the most, the three of them are true masterpieces :luv2

And kinda offtopic, I started translating the manga about ayu. Pretty interesting, and looking forward to share it with you, guys :yes So exciting!!

What is this* about? I can’t translate it on my phone...

*https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=2...kyodonews-soci

Someone got arrested for selling fake stickers with Ayu´s Logo

It's「evolution」day today! Even ayu remember this, because she posted evolution lyrics with her photo at instagram

ayu has so many songs and releases that sometimes I feel like every week there's two or three stuff celebrating their anniversary :laugh

^ that's right. Only October is empty, for a long time there was only 1 release - For my dear. Now it also have Terminal.

It makes sence it's empty cause it's right in between summer and winter, so she was either finishing a summer single promotion or just started working in a winter single. And then in the gap between winter and summer there usually was an album with a tour starting right after :P

When do y'all reckon the 20th anniversary tour will be released in any form? I really enjoyed the TV (?) broadcast and would love to own it in DVD form somehow.

Maybe a CD/Blu-ray combo for a new album this year????? MAYBE???? lol

So, I once looked at some Ayu fanart on instagram. It was an account that made a few manga-ish characters of Ayu, most of them inspired by the Just The Beginning Tour. I remember one of them being inspired on a live edition of Trust, when Ayu wears a black short mini dress, black hair-bob wig and sunglasses. I can't find the account anymore. Is anyone following this account or knows about who I am talking? I would love to check it out again.

Thank you! That is it!

I just found one of the most random Ayu related videos out of nowhere!
A guy covering Ayu in a Vietnamese TV Show called "Your Face Seems Familiar" and it's everything!!! He's clearly a huge fan of Ayu and I think he nailed it lol It's from 2016 but I never seen this video being posted anywhere and I had no idea this existed. lol

^ He did nail it, I love that they recreated the whole performance, it looks very well done and he is so cute!

We had the same tv show in France a few years back, french celebrities covering famous singers performances but it was a total flop and the show only got one season, i enjoyed watching it though lol

saw her wishing chinese fans on her weibo, she sounds struggling a bit with her english? other than that already saw comments on fb bout her face

^ Two possible reasons of her struggling :
- This looks like just after a show because she's dressed in ENCORE outfit and has sweaty hair, so she might be exhausted.
- Since she's no longer with her husband she quit talking in english on a daily basis (except with Timmy) so she's lost part of her skills.

The comments don't surprise me because her face really looks plastic in this video lol

yep totally agree and my guess she maybe got the botox shot before the show, dont know but everytime she looked kinda plastic I would ge and watch her show starting 2016 and backwords lol 2015 Cirque de minuit shes so great looking :love 2014 too for the premium showcase

I noticed in the last CDL that her face was very plastic-looking and it really shows when she's smiling, maybe she is having a middle-life crisis lol I honestly do not mind plastic-looking on people in general, I actually like it but in the case of Ayu I honestly don't know how to feel.

For me it looks like video filter

Definitely video filter

I also think is just video filter, even I look with good and "perfect" skin using those lol

It is video filter for sure. Although I must say that I went to her concert yesterday and she looks exactly the same as the pictures that she posts on Instagram and we always think is so heavy photoshopped. I was in shock! She looks very beautiful, not aging at all. But... I really think she went to the doctor a few days before the concert to "retouch" her beauty. And that's alright because she looks stunning and I guess she also feels this way.

I'm sure it's filler and everyone does it lol. Also I'm sure we've discussed the difference that make up can do to a face. :laugh

I listened to LOVEppears today. Obviously Ayu has always sung about love, but so often we associate (to some extent) mentions of lovers/affection in her peak eras with Tomoya Nagase - but didn't she start dating him in the early 2000s? Is it known who she dated before him? Just curious, as some of my favourite lyrics are from Asfxx and LOVEppears.

^
Yes, last week I decided to read each of her lyrics starting with A Song for xx to Trouble!
I really do not feel any change in her personality or in the way of expressing her words; she remains true to herself in regard to this aspect of her career.
I listed 5 themes in her lyrics throughout her career:

1st obviously all forms of love (love, friendship, death, separation and ...), it's so recurrent since the first day ...
2nd her vision of freedom
3rd lyrics on empowering women and Feminism
4th lyrics dealing with social issues
5th lyrics about sex but honestly she did not write much on this subject lol.

I have already read her words in the past but this time to read everything at once I can really tell that she is gifted and poetic compared to a lot of singers...noting that she is nearly never vulgar even about sex she write it in an elaborate maner. To me the quality of her writing talent definitely didn’t decreased like I can read sometimes.

^ How many hours took it to read through her entire discography, though? °-°

She has circa 250 Songs, if you need 3min per Text it would take more than 12h... (i know 3min is a long time... :tipsy)

I honestly don't know why people always say her lyrics would be poetic. Her lyrics aren't poetic at all, especially not when you read them in Japanese. The strenght of her lyrics isn't that they are poetic and in Japan her lyrics never were considered poetic. For good reasons. She is no Bashô. lol
What got peoples attention back then was how raw and honest her lyrics were and how she dealt with feelings like loss and loneliness.
Don't get me wrong, she has a talent to write wonderful lyrics, but her strong point isn't poetry.

Maybe the word poetic is too strong but she sometimes use metaphorics formula that can be viewed as poetic and I'm not pretending she is a poete but to me there is some poetry in the way she express herself in her lyrics.

I don't know, i think shes pretty poetic. Poetry is so subjective.
I know her lyrics were better known for the rawness that she did. It had never been done before, or at least not the way she did it.

But if somebody considered her lyrics as poetic for himself it’s still right.
I see a lot of philosophy in her lyrics. For example the closing line in M:
„Beginnings come easily while endings always have a reason.“
So everyone could see other aspects of her lyric art as the main point.

Of course you can think of her lyrics as poetic if you want, but that implies that she would actually produce poetry, what she clearly does not, since there are still rules what makes poetry actually poetry. Especially Japanese poetry has a very clear set of rules.
Her lyrics are clearly her strong point, but not because they are as poetic as people try to make it look and I don't really get why everyone tries to make it look as if they are poetic. Her lyrics aren't any less interesting when not comparing them to poetry.
To be honest I feel the English translations often sound waaaay more poetic than the actual Japanese original. Maybe this is why everyone compares her lyrics to poetry and thinls of them as poetic, because Western poetry works different than Japanese poetry and when translating most people try to adjust their translations to the customs of the language they are translating into.
She has a lot of interesting thoughts and motives in her lyrics. I just don't think it works to analyse an English translation of lyrics written by a Japanese woman who herself probably never had the intention to write poetry and then to interpret her lyrics in the same way we would have done it in school and call them poetic.
I agree that a lot of the English translations sound kinda poetic, I just don't see any of it in the Japanese originals, simply because her motives and writing style are totally different from what Japanese poetry looks like usually.
In case someone here read her original Japanese lyrics and still thinks they are poetic, I would honestly be interested in an analyses!

I can‘t read or understand japanese. So it really could be that the english translations sound way more poetic. Also I don‘t know much about japanese poetry. So I can‘t check this for myself... As i wrote before I think her lyrics contains a lot philosophy and metaphors.

Okay but where is the Ellen Von Unworth bunny ear photo shoot? I NEED IT

maybe they save it for the easter

I was checking out this wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...tists_in_Japan

And Ayu is the BEST selling female artist in Japan history. Does anyone think she will keep this record FOREVER? The only person I can see breaking her record is Utada Hikaru, who is 14 million behind her. That's equivalent to 28 Utada albums selling 500k.

I never realized how ahead Ayu is compared to MOST singers in Japan. Those golden years of hers really put her way ahead of everyone.

^ didn't AKB48 surpass her? Or was it only in terms of single sales? Or did you mean female soloists?

I actually think the English translations do a disservice to how poetic the original Japanese lyrics truly can be. They often are so dry and “textbook” that they lose a lot of the broad nuances the Japanese terms themselves have embedded within them. Idk, I just feel that Japanese itself can be a pretty poetic language and sound more “elevated” and proper in its patterns of speech than modern day English, albeit to Japanese it might not sound this way because it’s just “normal” for them. But in the literal sense, it’s poetic.

Well technically, but Ayu is still the best selling SOLO artist, AKB48 are a female group so it counts as "female artist" but even so, it took a group of over 130 girls to break Ayu's record, that's how powerful she is :laugh

I don't think from now on there will be a solo artist that can break her record.

Unless they do something regardings streams I think it's not possible either. Physical music releases have been seeling less and less all over the years so I can't see why or how this could change and someone top ayu's gigantic numbers.

Ayu is nominated once again to "The Most Beautiful Asia Faces of 2018", to vote for her just open the Instagram link below and like her picture!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtxkFhSF...GG9Z7Vaer3Y-Rs

^ thats nice after all this time. Epically with a culture that loves the youth.

What even is this award? lol

I always found Ayu's song "Moments" to be one of her most poetic ones for me. I myself write "poetry" but I never call it poetry because I know people would throw knives at me and yell "YOU ARE NOT FOLLOWING THESE AND THESE RULES, YOU ARE NOT DOING EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO FIT INTO THIS LITTLE BOX CALLED POETRY ACCORDING TO ME" so I call them songs without melodies. Sounds better anyway :D And there is a difference between writing poetically and writing poetry. Ayu writes poetically in my opinion, at least from time to time, not always. She doesn't follow any rules and that's why I like her as much as I do <3

you are of course entitled to your opinion, so we agree to disagree. but i find your comment curiously harsh? i can read and understand japanese and i wouldn't cosign that "in Japan her lyrics never were considered poetic". just because her writings don't follow any rules that YOU consider important for whatever reason; doesn't mean it is not poetry or art anymore.

Poetry follows ruels. No matter which language we're talking about. I did not make those. Especially Japanese poetry is very codified and there is not a single song in Ayu's discography that would come close to being a waka, haiku, tanka, shi or whatever. This has nothing to do with what I personally find esthetically pleasing. Her lyrics simply aren't poetry nor art.
I honestly don't understand why her international fanbase always argues her lyrics would be poetry or art and why everyone seems so offended when you say they are not. Using a metaphor here and there doesn't turn a text into poetry.
You don't do Ayu any favours by pretending her lyrics would be poetry, on the contrary, it actually takes everything away from her lyrics that makes them great in the first place.
I never said her lyrics would be trivial or not beautiful or not interesting. Her lyrics are interesting and beautiful in their own right, BECAUSE she never tried to be a poet but simply wrote as honest as possible and in her own words about her experiences.
She has a talent for writing lyrics which really get to you and to talk about different things from a lot of perspectives. I enjoy reading her lyrics a lot and there are only a handful of artists I would say this about. Most artist's lyrics are very trivial to be honest, not so her's. At least not for me.
But me loving her lyrics, enjoying reading them and finding her perpectives refreshing and interesting doesn't make them poetry - and I don't see why a text would have to be poetry in order to be a great one.