She was great, love everything about this performance. :)

Reading comments on Twitter there's people surprised by Ayu's voice, they say they didn't remember it that way, also someone said she inhaled helium haha.

If they said she inhaled helium because of THIS performance, they for sure didn't remember how she sounded lol

I don't get all the hate here towards this performance. I just watched it and was waiting for an awful performance vocal-wise but I was surprised because it was SO GOOD! She sounded amazing (not perfect but compared to earlier performances since 2018). Dreamed a Dream was really good and I didn't mind her using cutesy voice in the beginning :) You & Me was same old as always

This forum always surprises me how much tastes differ :yes

Well, I can't claim to be a singer... or even to sound well when singing :laugh

But, when no one's listening... I know that doing that cutesy voice, it's often easier for me to somewhat reach the right notes (especially the low ones) than when not doing that voice. I feel that it's way more stable, even if it's not the way I would normally sing.

As far as I remember for ayu's live performances, I just remember her cutesy voice always sounding "good". I mean, you can think of it what you want, and sometimes, it doesn't fit (like talkin' 2 myself), but she always somewhat reaches the right notes with that voice, compared to her normal voice(s) which can sometimes be disastrous. :yes

Amazing performance, so proud of her!!

She uses cutesy voice for not difficult notes in the first place, so it's not surprising she hits them, but when she faces high notes (they're often in choruses and a lot of them are out of her range) she can't help screaming (and you can't scream in a cute way), because it's easier to reach them like that and probably because of her condition, but it cannot be considered singing.

I thought the performance was pretty good actually. She won't be getting back to 2002-2006 levels ever, and that should be apparent by now. For her NOW, this was a pretty good performance. The only thing I didn't like about it was once again her wearing something that just isn't very flattering on her figure.

You can tell she was actually focusing on her vocals, which is why she didn't move much. So you really can't please everyone. She moves around a lot and gives a "passionate" performance but the vocals suffer. She stands still to help her vocals and then she isn't passionate enough. I'm sure it feels like she can't win.

I also wouldn't be surprised if her not moving as much in performances becomes more standard. As someone else mentioned, she is in her 40s now and looking at this performance, natsu no trouble, and the dance routine in the dreamed a dream video; she seems stiffer than before. We know she's had knee problems. Additionally, pregnancy/childbirth can also effect your joints permenantly.

She most likely is really going to move less over the years... With the right choreography, this is not going to be very apparent to most people, like Beyoncé who dances less than it looks like because she tends to stand still on the parts she is singing, or Madonna that just got hit by age and has less and less complicated moves over the years, but the choreography asures her part looks good in group routines. It also helps that Ayu never really had big choreographies to begin with... There's ways of showing energy without moving around as much anyways.

I tend not to like her TV performances for the same reason pointed out by Summerain, but in the end, it is what it is. I can understand why things were done the way they were and I won't hold it against her lol.

I thought it was cute. Like some others, I really just want different styling. I don't find the outfit or hair very flattering for her. She seems to really like variations of that style though.

Regarding her vocals, I thought it was fine for what i expect from her these days. As Koumori mentioned, it's clear she is suffering some kind of more serious vocal cord damage. It does make me a little sad. I'm thinking it's probably something that's gotten progressively worse over the years, but has been more noticeable since 2018. TROUBLE was the first time I thought the hoarseness was apparent in studio recordings.

The cute voice, as some have mentioned, allows for more control, especially in more subdued and less loud parts of songs. She otherwise struggles even in the lower range and during these quieter parts. I think using the cute voice allows for easier air control (for low and high parts). The throat singing she does (uh uh in DaD) is also a technique that's a bit easier.

As soon as she tries to project more, the loudness/highness tends to turn into shouting, and shouting will also make you go flat more often. She's lacking control (which she won't have in her condition regardless of if she knows how) and shouting turns into the way to force the notes out (while causing more damage).

Sometimes, including on recordings, even when she's not yelling, it almost sounds as if her voice is stuffy. Like she's straight up struggling to get the notes out period. I think about the beginning of the And Then performance at natsu no trouble. It seems to affect her phrasing as well.

Anyway, I won't go on much more, but I think more often about ayu's vocal damage these days than I used to in the past. I can sense she's really trying, but as I'm not a doctor, I have no idea what she should do at this point. Seems she's trying to manage and make things easier for herself where she can. I think Timmy is trying to help her as well. I hope she's taking care in general as she ramps up activity.

There's no such thing as what you're saying. It's just what people say on the internet.

If you can sing in a particular way then it's part of your natural voice. Britney Spear's "baby voice" or "breathy voice" is as much a part of her natural voice as her deeper, more resonant tone. It's the same with Ayumi. The "cutesy voice" is part of her natural tone colour as much as the darker tones.

It's all in how the voice is used and supported as to whether it is sustainable and healthy not whether it's "natural" or not.

Look at a singer like Floor Jansen, she can sing in a dark operatic soprano, a low distorted growl, or a belt. They are all different tones to her voice and none of them are any more or less natural.

The problem with Ayumi's voice is that she has spent years singing without proper support. It has nothing to do with the placement of her voice, just the lack of support with that placement.

It's a pet peeve of mine when people on the Internet say there's such a thing as a natural or unnatural vocal tone because everybody's voice is capable of multiple tones.

Nobody's arguing that everybody's voice is capable of multiple tones, does it mean that speaking like a cartoon character is normal/natural? No. If you listen to voice over actors they often share stories how doing a certain voice puts a strain on their voice. If someone's not comfortable with a certain tone, they don't use it in a regular life, it's not natural to them.
You're describing diffrent styles of singing. Does she alter her tone colour from show to show while she's staying in one style?

Then why does she struggle to maintain the baby voice throughout the performance, switching to her lower voice she's clearly more comfortable with?

I disagree and I think most voice tutors and vocal coaches would disagree with you as well. When opera singers sing they can fill a music hall with their voice above an orchestra without amplification. This is something they can't do with their spoken voice. Does that make it unnatural because they can't do it in their regular life? No.

Singing with a nasal quality (or singing through mask) isn't something people generally do with their spoken voice but that doesn't make it unnatural. What matters is the breath and support. That's what damages a voice.

I'm describing different techniques, yes. But the colour of her voice is altered depending on the technique she chooses because it's well supported.


Because her support isn't good in either her upper register or lower register. Britney hasn't needed to develop good support because she hasn't needed to sing live for considerable periods of time.

Ayumi's problems are probably because she hasn't developed good support, she's overworked her voice, she's smoked and drank over the years, and she hasn't looked after her physical health.

The struggles we hear aren't to do with something being natural or unnatural, they're because of external factors and lifestyle choices.

Do we have any evidence of that? Has she quit?

She is seen with a cigarette in a lot of older tabloids but I think she stopped early on in the 00s and only ever did it socially. Along with that she always drank lots of alcohol like from her mini beer fridge up till the late 00s and then she started to be more healthy maybe in 2009-2010 onward.

Thank you. Very interesting to know. I think she mentioned reducing amount of alcohol consumption or even quitting in one of her posts at some point.