I thought she did excellent on all the songs, including To Be. Hope she can keep this up!

About the æternal thing:

I don't know what she said in MUSIC FAIR, but the "æ" is "a" and "e" together, but at the same time are two "e"s glued, one of them flipped upside down, inverted, just like the different track list orders.

I think the double reading through different track lists shows how she deals with the same problem (her deafness, her trouble) in different perspectives.

She said something along the lines of “a” (Ayu) is turning it’s back to “eternal”

And that the trick/answer is in the lyrics.

So, she doesn’t need someone for eternity. “Someone” being the subject of the song’s lyrics. (Or what many are saying is Nagase.)

“Need” might be the wrong word. But that’s the gist I got from it.

But basically, it was great, but it’s now a memory.

Here is a link to a twitter thread, this guy is doing an amazing job translating more interesting parts of the interview (and many other things).
https://twitter.com/ayutranslations/...53699161817088

^ I'm so glad they translated those parts, I always like reading about her interviews. Now I'm imagining rice farmer Ayu XD

Thanks for the link!
I see that he posted something about Koda Kumi talking about Ayu on a TV show (he doesn't know which one though), sounds interesting.

Wow, thanks for letting us know - this is a great Twitter account! Definitely going to start following it.

That sounds great.

"When it's just her and the camera, she can get anxious."

That explains a lot about the performance, tbh.

^ Yes, I find this part very explanatory as well. It goes well with Ayu as the artist that is born for stage with real audience, people empower her.

I agree! I wasn't expecting too much but it was a pleasant surprise to listen to her voice, she has improved so much! Oh, and I love your hitomi avatar. :love

didnt really read the other comments but i wanna jump in here saying she sounded amazing.
amazing!!!!! voyage was so perfect and finally so... "effortless" like in the old days.
I am very impressed and so so happy I actually shed a tear of two.
Hope she can keep this up. I knew she still got it in her!

edit: also the way she smiles at the end when finishing the song is so honest and sweet.
It gives me the feeling as if she's thinking she did it good after a long time struggling.
Maybe it's just me tho.

Which is odd because she didn't seem to have a problem with it at all when she was younger.

They mistranslated that pretty badly, actually. lol. She didn't say anything about rice farming. She said she wanted to become Tamori-san, as in the host of Music Station. She kind of didn't understand the question completely and gave an unrelated answer, lol

It’s been years since she’s been on tv. She’ll need time to get used to it.

In later tweets it was corrected.

She's been on TV several times this year, last year etc. Of course not as much as she used to in her heyday though. It's obvious that she is less confident about being able to give a good performance on live TV these days as compared to then. I think that's the difference, not the number of times she is on TV cause you would think after what are probably hundreds of tv lives, you'd be used to it. :)

Yeah I think she is pretty aware that her voice is damaged/she struggles to sing very well live. And she understands the criticism she gets for it.

So it seems like she gets genuinely happy sometimes when she can pull it off. And so it's also not too surprising hearing that she gets anxious without the fans there. It seems to relate to her looking at the background singers as well.

I just watched the show and she looked incredibly pretty! :heart didn't understand much of the interview, but the way she communicates and behaves is so elegant. <3 She sang pretty well overall, I thought there was a bit too much shouting in TO BE but definitely better than her last performance on Music Station.