Really? I was really pleased when the dvd came out xD

OUCH. but i dont get the 'her voice dont come out' part. what do they mean by that?

i thought her performance on kouhaku is pretty good...
did she sing that bad? i think she sing RULE very well...
i can't imagine other singer sing that song on the same level as ayu...
her technique is not on the top position, but her emotion on singing is the one that i'm looking for from her...
her voice at CDL is sucks...i know it...not on all part, but its not good, i agree ...especially during rockish part, she struggle a lot..i think the sound system problem at CDL is really sucks too, we hardly hear her voice, they set her mike volume so low....

well...i will continue to support her no matter what...i believe ayu will do something...i thought her December 2009 performance is pretty well done, except best artist performance...

her voice really wasn't that good in the past

I hope she will take it serious and takes vocal lessions or stop to smoke if she does...

I want to hear her with better vocals in the future

I do have to agree with the articles that her voice got worse and her figure isn't as fit as it used to be. (sorry ayu) Her voice is definitely a concern. Although there were a few songs on cdl that she sang great imo (especially teddy bear) but its really obvious she had to concentrate a lot when singing during certain songs (closing her eyes). I also think the rule performance at kouhaku was well done. I really hope she will go train her voice properly if she isn't doing so already. That staff she said knows her vocals inside and out...I really wonder if he's helping or not. The sad thing she's been taking care of her voice last year and its the year that I felt her voice has gone further down. Hopefully her vocals will get better and adopt a better singing style/technique.

I just saw the comparison videos of every little thing. Its sad to see her vocals now...it really reminds me of ayu.

Basically, she's trying to sing, but in some performances it sounds like she's out of breath and can't fully sing the line she's trying to get out. It happened a lot during the Sunrise TV promotion. Also, they could be talking about her "voice" not coming out since she doesn't really sound like she did 5 years ago.

I feel like age might've had to do with that, haha. She's running a lot and exercising so she's probably as fit as she can be at her age. It must've taken her for a loop when she suddenly gained a bunch of weight in late 2006...

i think there are many reasons or factors (whichever you called it) that caused the situation Ayu is facing now. her vocal cords/ voice box is being tired out! she has been working too hard! and if I'm not wrong Ayu tends to fall sick almost every year around christmas time. you can't expect a professional to sing energetically for a few hours, running here and there when they are not feeling well, right?

I'm not trying to defend or what. What I was trying to say is that, many people tend to forget the fact that Ayu is a human. She fall sick, and will need time to recover.
I personally think what Ayu need is a real rest for her voice; have more physical training to improve her stamina or her overall health, and those staff around Ayu who fall sick or got flu to stay away from her for a while.

And, she don't have to stop singing totally, she can cut down on the number of lives she is going to do, or she can just host variety shows weekly and release a mini-album or singles once in a while. Though I know I really love Ayu when she is singing, but it still hurts me (as a fan) to see that she is losing her voice gradually due to lack of ample rest.

I remembered many years ago, there was this great Taiwanese singer called, A-Mei, Zhang Hui Mei. I'm sure many asians know what happen to her voice. She was really a great singer with a great voice. However, due to the fact that she had held too many concert lives, she gradually lost her voice. Now her voice is still very hoarse, despite after taking a long long break. I think that's a real tragedy to any singers. and I really don't wish that to happen to Ayu. =[

thankies truehappiness ^^

this must be truly heartbreaking to ayu.....
and as i was reading these articles, i heartbroken too

well her metabolism plays a factor but also her eating habits...I'm happy she's eating regularly and not starving herself but she should cut back on stuff like bubble tea for example.

Whoawhoawhoa, WAIT.~ Yes, Ayu's voice has not been as good for a while now, but....... A lot of people are mainly critical because of the fact that it's deeper..? Because it's not that screechy, high-pitched sound it used to be?? ._. Ugh...

I just want to say this: her actual singing is WAY better the past few years than what it was in the beginning. WAY. Better.
For those of you who think she's shouting now, that's not necessarily the case. (I mean, there are times where she definitely is shouting now, but that's obviously because her voice is completely worn out. I think that if she didn't scream sometimes, pretty much nothing would come out. So she does it because she literally has to, because of what she's done to her voice...) She shouted more years back, and the first few years of her career she wasn't singing right at all. (You don't have to know anything about singing to realise this --Go watch a live of Depend on you, and then tell me if that's singing, lol...) Also, she doesn't miss as many notes as she did back then, either.
So, the main problem with her voice now is BREATH SUPPORT. She is singing wrong in terms of how she's using the breath. Which, on the good side, technically means she is actually SINGING, not just speaking different pitches. It'll also give her a few notes more of range, at least without becoming nasal, and probably more control, which makes up for lack of volume she'll have.... Too bad that using your breath wrong can severely damage your voice, and can completely mess up how you sing in general.


I realise that many of you may not know how to sing --How to ACTUALLY sing correctly, not just adjusting your voice to fit a tune. So I'll try to explain a little bit, the difference between her singing then and now, and what's wrong.

1. Ayu, before, relied on a type of false singing. She wasn't putting any real support in her voice, so this resulted in one step above speak-singing, if that. The only positive things about speak-singing is that it gives you a very clear, regular speech sounding tone, and that you can get much volume out of it. (Which is why you should only use it if you need mainly volume and emphasis control, like for musical or rock genres, and not range or actual good singing. BUT, even then, there's a correct way to "scream", so that you don't risk causing severe damage to your voice.) Many pop and rock singers sing like this, but when it all comes down to it, it's not "real" singing.
Sure, you can produce the notes, but it often sounds like you're screaming, and your range ends up suffering terribly. If you even try to hit the higher notes, you get an extremely nasal sound (which just happens to be a signature of Ayumi's singing style, right?), because you are actually singing through your nose (which, that is certainly a huge no-no in "real" singing).
If, for whatever reason, you don't believe me when I say that Ayu didn't originally sing at ALL correctly, remember the first year...she had no vibrato, and she was....well, screechy. That's because she wasn't singing. THAT, not now, was screaming...
2. Ayu's problem now is that she's putting too MUCH support into her voice, resulting in the overly-breathy, forced tone you've been hearing recently.
Now, her voice has obviously been wearing down for a while now... And even when it wasn't, the fact that she was singing wrong could easily tell anybody that there's a good chance her voice would become at least a little damaged in the near future... Anyhow, because of the damage, even though Ayu knows how to sing at least somewhat now, it seems she must FORCE it out, because of the damage that has taken place (which, it was mostly from singing incorrectly, but, from what we've seen, could also be from unhealthy foods, smoking, drinking, etc.)... Which is why she's overdoing the "power", and putting much more than what's needed into her singing.... Which, oh no--it's an endless chain, because this will result in even MORE damage. D:
For anybody who doesn't understand how putting too much power or breath into singing can be so terrible, besides the fact that you may sound like you're screaming... Using too much breath means both breathing and using your muscles incorrectly. And obviously, those are the worst things to do when singing. Because, even if you start out with a good range and a nice tone and all that, singing wrong in this way tightens up the muscles, wears them down, and gets you used to singing in ways opposite of what you want. This can very quickly result in you having to literally force the sound out of you (if the damage is severe enough, like Ayu's), because your throat muscles are sore and damaged (which, no matter what, results in air not coming out as fluidly or correctly as needed to sing well - which can affect your range, heavily, too) and because you are developing bad breathing habits (by forcing out the sound--never should you need to force the sound out >_<).


Ayumi's problem is, she doesn't really know how to fall into a nice medium of singing (which, that's actually most "singers" problems, though she takes it to an extreme), probably because she learned to sing wrong, continued to sing wrong, and by then damage had already taken place. So even though she's gotten SO much better in singing, it seems she has never known how to sing 100% correctly, to keep from harming her voice. For a few years (around 2004-2006) she was nearly there, but breath support problems were still evident. (For example, in her 2005 tour [and others, as well, but this is just an example], she often directly cut herself off, or didn't hold her notes. Which may not seem so bad, but this is a horrible habit to get in to, because it screws up your breath support and throat muscles if you don't know exactly what your doing....which, Ayu didn't [and, it seems, still doesn't].)
So, at the core, this has always been a major problem for her, just that now it's taking a huge toll on her voice. :\


And she's only ever sang Boys & Girls HERSELF a few times. >_< Dunno why that, or the fact that Ayumi Hamasaki sings incorrectly, was just brought up NOW. >_____>


Oh, and I would also like to point out:
Everybody is going to need to give Ayumi AT LEAST a few months of hard work and practice before any great improvement will be made, but probably much longer (especially seeing how, to this day, she still doesn't sing correctly). Even then, it will be longer, still, before her voice is fully healed (or, at least healed as much as it can be--if she keeps going like this much longer, I can guarantee permanent damage, if that hasn't already happened).


OH, and why are some of you acting like she's ever been fat???? She hasn't gained significant weight this year, and there's never ever been a time where I looked at her and went, "ew, she gained weight..." There were even times where she looked too skinny! Even for a little Japanese girl... I think it's sad that some people even bring this up. :(

Hmm.. I don't notice any weight gain. She definitely looks a lot smaller than she was in 2008..watching that ASFXX live from a-nation 08 made me realize how much smaller she is now. Her weight does fluctuate a lot though.

Secret era, she really did gain weight. I mean, that was the first, and only imo, time it was really noticeable...I think they're being a little too critical about her weight.

Besides...I think her gaining that weight in 2006 contributed to the size of her breasts seeming to grow :innocent lol

Well this isn't anything new to us, it's a good thing (in a way) that this got published and I am hoping that it will reach her in some way, as she does need vocal training.

I TOTALLY AGREE with you!!!! :yes:yes:yes:yes:yes
She needs REST!!! Give her a break for her voice at least!! :grumpy

and I don't think she is fat too! or gained weight. I think it is more of the clothes she wore that made people to look it as if she had gained weight. I guess everyone should go and look at her in person then you will know why :mischief

It's not so much that she looks fat/like she gained a TON of weight or anything... just that her frame back in 2005 was a little different. It was very petite compared to her frame now. Her face got a bit rounder when JEWEL's promotion came around, and then by the time CDL06-07 started, she'd been exercising and lost the weight that she'd put on during that time. However, since then, I don't think her frame has been as stick skinny as she was in 2005 (and before) since then. Not that I have a problem with her body, since she's fit and fine the way she is now, just that there is a noticeable difference between her body then and her body now. It's mostly around the sides of the chest area (not the actual chest/breasts) and her waist.

In AT08, she wore a sort of schoolgirl outfit and a bit of her waist poking out of the outfit for the first few shows, looking like it was kind of squeezing out. She changed the outfit so that the area would be covered with a shirt before removing it again for the Asian stops when she was noticeably thinner. I'm sure she noticed a bit of a change as well.

She should retire, she is wearing herself out. She'll be a shadow of her self by the end of the year if she continues like this.

Yeah, I don't think that will ever be an option.

If it ever gets so bad (like... REALLY bad) that she has to retire, she will probably do it, but at this point in time I don't think things are so bad that she needs to consider that.

I don't really care about her body but since she's a singer the voice should be superb. Usually a singer should have mainly proper performances with the occasional miss, but with Ayu it has become the other way around (imo). When I listen to other singer I am sometimes surprised by how consistently good they sing just because I am so used to Ayu's on and off voice.

It's so sad since we know singing is her everything, but currently she's no good at it. I know she tries, but going on another long tour isn't going to help.

i don't think she will retire either. she will NEVER.