first of all. her vibrato in my opinion sounds great. like someone else said. who cares if its done incorrectly it works for her.its not like shes using some special drug or watever to make her voice sound good and for her to be able to have a vibrato. Whats the point of a vibrato? for songs to sound good right? so if she needs a little help by moving her jaw den who cares? it still sounds great! its like saying that the ppl who nead hearing aids arent really hearing correcty because dey need a hearing aid to help them. u cant call the way they r hearing it fake and incorrect just cuz dey need some help.(im not sure if dat made sense xD;;)

Second. If u dont like the song, DONT LISTEN TO IT! who cares if u cant listen to it? its ur opinion. u dont like the song. Great! den dont listen to it. no one is forcing u.__.;; ok i sound really really dumb but i dunt care xD;; im sry im making a big deal out of this but xD;; dats me!><;; besides, ur making the song sound really bad wen its not! it used to b my favourite song.><;;

Yeah... no matter what.. Ayu's still our Queen of JPop!! Now & Forever always... hehe..

AMEN TO THAT! ^^

You don't have to defend Ayu like it's life or death, we all like her or obviously we wouldn't be here; delirium was just saying that they didn't like a song by her and thought that the song was sung incorrectly, and it's fully their opinion, you don't have to defend it as if it were being slandered

Having had some professional training myself, I have to agree with people who've raised the point that Ayu's singing isn't a healthy style for her voice's continued strength. It really makes me sad to hear her straining and "throwing" the notes out when her voice has become brittle from overwork (when they make her sing too mcuh at the end of the year, for instance.)

That said, I do think she has her own style of vibrato that is closer to the enka style of what is called "delayed vibrato." If you listen to enka performers like Nagayama Youko or Kim Yon-ja, you will hear very similar sounds coming from them. They waiver between notes. Their vibrato is seemingly out of control. I have to say that it was too much for my western ears at the beginning, but I've come to really like it. I'm not sayin that Ayu has the same amount of professional training (enka singers start out as apprentices and really work on the performance and singing because they aren't necessarily idols to anyone) but I think that her vibrato reminds me of a more enka-like sound. Not that this is necessarily what she is going for... I think that it's more suited to a Japanese ear, though. My friends in Japan don't have any problem listening to it and thinking that it sounds okay (even nice-sounding.)Some of my friends say that her new singing voice (with the vibrato) is a great improvement. Some say that they prefer the old Ayu much to the newer voice.

My opinion falls somewhere in the middle. I do think that she has some talent that she has created for herself. Though it may not be the 'proper' way, I think that she has created for herself a very Ayu-rashii way of singing.

If you listen and watch Hikawa Kiyoshi's performances, he uses the same techniques that Ayu does. It was interesting to watch them singing together on her show. He sings with the same rolling, swelled vibrato.

I think Utada has a VERY fake vibrato, it sounds like she's shivering. It's just airy and fake!

Don't you all feel a bit silly going to war over something as little as discussing critique on a singer's voice? Everything said in this thread is tamer than a lap dog, professional and amateur singers are some of the nastiest people I've met in concerning one another. Drugs to create vibrato? :shakehead I hope they start making calculus pills if that's the case! If you xiliration honestly feel this way sure I'll discuss it more but if this was meant to just be an addition to the other posts at the top of this page, it all seems just a bit overboard. "AYU IZ PURFCT LALALA I CANT HEAR U, UR NOT A REAL FAN SOD OFF." Again I'm generalizing, but this attitude just seems really prevalent in any topic that remotely hints of Ayumi not being a goddess who farts rainbows and sunshine. Then other artists people enjoy are pulled in and generally insulted etc etc, it's all really silly.

You brought up a good point Hanabiwings, when I first listened to "Will" I was thinking of how smoothly she transitioned into the traditional singing style and then again, it all seemed perfectly natural for her to do so. With her song "Nothing from Nothing" the rap parts were just torture to listen to, but with her singing in the little intermissions of sorts it was very legato however it sounded like there was some aural tampering in the sound room to create the not-quite vibrato/echo effect.

I didn't bring up Utada to shut out the Ayumi conversation, I brought it up because I honestly don't like Utada's vibrato that much XD

oh my god...this thread make a BIG war...
please be calm and discuss it with big heart to receive other opinions
myself think that her vibrato is really nice...its unique and i can hear it nicely
maybe its wrong but its good..so whats wrong with it?
about utada...i'm totally agree that her vibrato is really plain for me and "fake" but who cares as long as that many fans still like her...

lots of ppl said that Hikki's voice is much better than Ayu's voice..
I also sometimes listen to Hikki's vibrato seems like straining her self up too..
I think Hikki has a fake high-pitch voice... almost all her voice on every songs like that..
and Hikki's vibrato sounds like Ayu's older album vibrato...

If that is what you guys call a "vibrato" then I don't get why some of you are questioning if it's fake or not? If Ayu does the "Ahhh~~~~" then it's not fake. How can a "vibrato" be fake anyway? If someone's vibrato doesn't sound good or even bad, it's still a vibrato and not "fake".

Anyway. You guys ask yourself way too much questions... -______-

o_O This is a weird thread....

Well, while I was never a singer, I did play trumpet when I was younger...and I remember I had trouble learning vibrato so one of my teachers would tell me to use an alternate technique...

So I think Ayu uses an alternate [albeit maybe not a healthy one] technique to use vibrato. Maybe she is not able to use the preferred method of vibrato but she used an alternate way.

Nonetheless, Ayu's voice is still unique and still her own. Whatever she does is up to her...

hmm i sing her songs like she sings it so u mean i have that skill? i have vibrato?? n~ nani wo mitai yo... cos when i sing i dont move my lower jaw like ayu did.. hmm vibrato? maybe... >_<

A vibrato can VERY MUCH be faked. By faked, I mean "not the correct way", or "forced", meaning that it's not a "true" vibrato (and since the opposite of "true" is "false" I naturally used the word "fake").

yeah..exactly like I just wanted to post... :)