she wouldn't be called ayumi if she has great vocal and sings lives well ^_^

^ I hope you don't consider all of her 400 (concerts not included in this count) live performances bad? :D

Indeed now she sounds like it costs SO MUCH effort. And the result's not too good. She sounded perfect in 2004 and now she's over that. Ever since part of Me she sounds different and I don't like it, ...... everyone else seems to love it ... but, there's also those people that'll go :luv2 at anything she does anyway cos "ayu is their queen" haha.

Wait, what? I'm so confused by your comment. I'm sure not everyone with the name Ayumi is a poor singer.

But after thinking about the topic more, I guess her live singing is always differing throughout each period of her career. Personally, I think she was at her vocal best during the RAINBOW period, at least in terms of TV lives. Her concert lives have been consistently good post the 2000 dual concert DVDs. I rewatched the Together When... performances and though I originally thought her Domoto Kyoudai performance was very impressive, I'm now thinking it was just passable. The other lives weren't any better or worse really. They were all just kind of shaky and particularly unstable by the end where she went to be all emotional but ended up sounding quite off pitch and sharp.

i can bet more then 300 of them are off-key or major pitch-problem etc...

she's not perfect, guys...accept it!

I don't see who isn't accepting that. Hello! Read the entire thread and it's pretty plain to see that just about everyone in here thinks she has had plenty of problems with her live vocals.

i don't know, she was awesome at asia tour @ hongkong...except for secret which she couldn't manage well

I wonder how the other artists in Japan sing Live? Do they always good ? just want to know . . no offense . .. is she the only one who is not good at singing in studio live?
Anyway , i love her tour performances . . . she is my Japanese favorite singer . . :)

^ I think Leah Dizon is horrible live.. same with Kumi, it sounds weird.

Um, I dont see anyone in this thread going "oh she never fails, she's always perfect, why would you think such". Some people just want to think that ayu fans are in denial.

Most realize though, that ayu never wanted to be a singer, never aspired to be one. She is not the best singer in Japan voice wise, but she tries hard and does her best. Then you can't ask for any more. She's come a long way.

I think her lives aren't as great as they were. Well, at least this year.

Honestly, her "Together When..." peformance at DK was horrible. She stuggled, whether or not she was supposed to sing it emotionally or not. At lot of people were also saying how we "talkin' 2 myself" performance at a-nation was flat; one of her "fated" performances was horrible at the low notes. It could be that she's trying to put emotion into everything due to the break-up, but I think it's unnecessary.

Her vibrato, live and in a recording, is becoming horribly and noticably fake. Vibrato is not supposed to come out like that at all; it's not good for your voice at all. Trust me, I've been told.

THANK YOU. *bows down* I am not worthy. I am not worthy ...

There's a difference between saying that she's not perfect and saying that the majority of her singings of off-keyed and having major pitch problems. Most Ayu fans knows that she's not perfect (there will always be fanatics, but that's with every artist).

Personally, I've seen her earlier lives and her vocals on generally flawless. Sure there were a few times when they sound weird, but she's not a robot. Please don't make that judgment about her vocals unless you heard all of her lives.

Well, I guess it depends on taste. Some people like her higher voice, other people like her lower voice, and etc. There are some fanboys/fangirls who will love whatever she puts out, but to be honest, they're still within the minority.

Sometimes, she records the songs "out of her vocal range" (probably because of either really hard strain or long recording sessions; for example- fairyland, momentum, Secret, kanariya), so those lives will sound either really off or too technical. But the case with Together when... is the emotion. It's hard singing a sad song when you're really happy, right?

she did well enough in live shows.. but it seems like she is singing quite low.hmm..

Agreed!

Yeah but Ayu's been doing bad consistently this year. I've tried to think up every excuse I can for Ayu but when it all comes down to it I think it's just that Ayu is not quite the singer she used to be (and please don't 'duh' me because not all of you are noticing this). Yes, there where times when she struggled in the past...but at least she had a lot of good performances as well. But now, she's almost always off-key and her vibrato is over-used. It's almost as if her voice is nothing BUT vibrato. And not only that she tends to yell when she projects on the chorus parts. She's had a couple OK performances but for the most part Ayu has been having a bad year.

Someone needs to listen to the TV versions of her concerts vs the DVD versions. The editing they do on her voice is somewhat embaressing on her part.

i thought her "part of me" performance at music station is one her best performance, i think she sings onkey and really controlled...but i don't know, everybody has their own opinion

not all are perfects

Sincerely her TV performances aren't the same as before :( I don't want to think that her DVDs are edited (Including a-nation) but there is a big difference between TV and DVD performances...

Btw I love the loud vibrato thing :D

^The TV-version of a-nation 07 was great to me