Ayumi live performances and singing...
 

Personally, i think she is an amazing live singer plus, she makes great performances. Example, A MUSEUM was definitely her best vocals, from what i've seen and heard. Everytime she sings 'forgiveness', she's just... wow!

Some of you think she's not so much of a great live singer, but i think she sings really well compared to any asians (even americans) singers. And, she's one of the only asian singer to write her own song and to actually sing live in shows. And that's TRUE. I've seen plenty of asian shows and concerts and it's amazing how every chinese singers liysings well.

Especially JOLIN. I've seen one of her latest performance (where she wears the exact same cream-colored dress as Ayu's, by the way). It's funny because she was singing (well lipsynging) and the beat came out and she started dancing. But the things is... the vocals was still going on and we could still heard her singing but she wasn't singing. LOL.

Anyway, all that to say that Japanese fans shouldn't be dissapointed in Ayu. Her vocals has became so much better than in the older days. We should all appreciate the fact that she actually sings for real for us. She does have an amazing voice.

She do GREAT at the Asia Song Festival.

What are your comments about this?

I don't think she's that great of a live singer... but at least she does sing, and not lipsynch. Idk, I thought A MUSEUM had really, really bad vocals. I've said it before, I think her best tour vocally is CDL 2000-2001. I guess it's all a matter of taste though. I'm surprised she can still stay on-key being partially deaf...

Have you ever heard Chihiro Onitsuka or MISIA sing live?

I don't know them. :no

The thing is, Ayumi's music is not centered around her voice. It's more of the overall effect of the voice and the music and the arrangement for her unlike Misia and Onitsuka. There songs are more minimalistic (compared to Ayu's) and their voices are more emphasized. Ayu is decent singer technically but the appeal of her voice lies more on the emotional impact of it.

Although she can give some bad live performances (which i think is due to her trying to force her voice to sound like someone else) she gives wonderful ones often (eg I am... in Arena Tour, Duty in Dome Tour, Surreal in Dome Tour, etc)

i think her perfomance was quite good already~~~!
but i know still have other singer better than her~~!!

Yep, she rocks.

I like the little minor imperfections of a live recording... it sounds more... live :) I like watching her concerts because of this. It's like getting to hear the singer talk in a way... I dont know what I'm trying to say... I guess Ayu sounds so real when she sings live.

I agree. There are many many singers out there who, to me, don't value the importance of being able to sing LIVE. I find alot of them actually lip sing and it dissapoints me. But when I hear Ayumi sing, her gestures and the voice does not sound like the original. When I hear her mistakes, I know for SURE she isn't lip singing. And sometimes that reassures me. Ayumi is able to sing LIVE and I think it's amazing.

well... dunno... but i think ayu is great... some other artist too.. but maybe ayu isnt the best performers for live :D

The thing good about ayu's live is that she sings it truthfully with her feelings. Sometimes, you cannot deny that she does go very off tune; but I also have to say that her recent lives has indeed improve.

However, I also learned that she did some lip-sync in arena (umm which year? the recent release one) which sort of disappoint me >.< I'd rather she sing off tune den pretend she's singing :)

I don't think it really matters how WELL you sing, it just matters WHAT you're singing. Ayu may not be the best singer in the world, but she is one of the best songwriters who sing her own songs WITHOUT lipsynching.

i think it does matter how well you sing and what you sing because if you sound crap then ppl wouldnt bother to listen to your lyrics

to me when she sings live.. is good enough for me to sit there and listen to her sing ...

but the main reason why people go to concerts..are
1.see their singer perform
2. not listen to something recorded from studio but the actual singer voice

am i right or wrong...?? if not people wouldnt even bother to go to any singer concerts when they can just listen to them on CD...i would like to add dont compared (ayu) a singer whos always releasing and doing many lives and concert with 1 who hardly is busy..not saying this cause of (BrightLight)but ayu should be compared more with the type of singer she is

is there even a solo singer in japan that can match up with ayu?? in being always busy?? appearing alot on tv having many lives and concerts?

ayu looks really tired ... i think she needs a rest...people needs to understand her voice must be tired also... we talking here 6 long busy years of non stop releases/lives/concerts/

I agree - Ayu is one of the few artists who sings most of her songs live. At least she's honest enough to say 'this is my voice, and this is what you get", and doesn't enhance it with electronics to make it sound like something it isn't or lip-synch. There are too many extremely weak singers here who have their voices electronically enhanced to make them seem like they've got talent... it's pathetic and irritating. At least Ayu has worked on improving her vocals rather than cover up her weaknesses.

Another thing. I think a lot of people here judge her performances by how closely it matches the CD recording which i think is wrong. Her heartplace and her Surreal performances never sound like her CD and i think those are her best ones.

Like HANABI from Stadium Tour 2002 is much better than the album version. I love the performance, but hate the recording.



Ayu's performing has gotten much better. 2003 wasn't a very good year for Ayu performances. 2000 had some really incredible ones.

I think Ayu's voice is sort of hit and miss. I've seen some amazing performances from her, but also some that were pretty bad. I thought Arena Tour 03/04 was wonderful vocally, yet a lot of the live performances of CAROLS were pretty off key. I appreciate the minor imperfections because it reminds me that Ayu is not perfect, but when things get too far off key, it does bother me a little. That said, I still think she is an amazing live performer and I think the fact that she DOES sing live says a lot! As someone said before, it's kind of like "this is me, this is my voice." I respect that. I'd rather hear a few mistakes than know she is lipsynching.

Agreed! :)

Yeah she's not the best vocalist but at least she's keeping it real by singing live most of the time than lip synching, so I gotta give her credit! :)

I agree about the fact that some people compare her live singing voice too much with her cd singing voice. You have to remind that the voice is almost always edit for an cd. Plus, if Ayu was about to sing her 10th song on a concert, she can't sing perfectly since after 10 songs, you get pretty tired and you need to breathe a little bit!

Ayu has done some medium performances, but that's only human. She can't be perfect all the time. But i do think that she sings better and better and get even better vocals now.

a lot of times i actually hope that they'd just record her live, unedited singing, and make official albums out of it. i seriously think that for a lot of the songs, she sounds stronger, better, thicker, and more emotional LIVE. i am... is a great album, but sometimes i find the vocals to be too thin. they did too much editing there...

Live Recoding ablums? I think some artists has tried that.

Many artists have released live concert albums.

I think Ayu a brill live singing in most of her concerts and lives. Ok there was the odd time were she sounded abit off due to a cold etc.. cough cough CDL 02- 03 :rolleyes. Anyways she sings her own lives which is good and i agree with Hiro about "I think a lot of people here judge her performances by how closely it matches the CD recording which i think is wrong". If ayu sang the song 100% totally like the cd verson then each live performance would sound the same :think. I tend enjoy her songs more when she changes them a little from the cd verson, ie How she add that entended bit on the end of No Way To Say lalalala laaaa la la etc....

she may not be the best... but i know she is the most sincere singers on earth!! who would have say so many thank u in one concert and cry at the end of their concert not that none would cry but how many will definitely cry everytime, not like normal singers who just sing and dance like their pvs on concert .... yah whatever...
as long as she sings from the bottom of her heart every concert =)

I was in band, and our teacher would always remind us that on max, we would only perform 70% of our capabilities on stage. The studio is a lot different from singing on stage. You just stand and well, sing. No distractions, the environment doesn't change.

On stage, you ahve tens, hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands eyes watching you, flashing lights, fog effects, dancers all around you! It's a lot harder. Even when you do practice, it is very different from the real thing!

Ayu's singing has gotten a lot better recently. CAROLS, Moments, No way to say were all performed very well. I think that has to go along with experience and confidence.

I especially love how Ayu changes the songs just a little live. The la's in No way to say :D:D

ayu doesnt sing well every time. in the countdown 202-2003 tour, the 'connected' performance was so so bad. i guess thats why she never sang connected again. but i guess, at least we know she is trying to sing live. when the vocals sound exactly like the album/radio vresion, there is no point of seeing them live.

Connected was sang in 2001-2002 countdown live.

She was sick again, I am pretty sure?

Her vocals aren't the best, but I love her energy and her clothes are really great.

A Musuem some of the vocals were horrible on there. May I saw Surreal was bad

^^ I think she has very powerful singing voice though. LOTS of emotion =D

NOBODY'S PERFECT!!!
But for me....ayu is still the best...OMG can you imagine how she can make agood vibration in every songs she sings????? IT'S REALLY ABSOLUTELY GREAT TO KNOW THAT SHE IS A REAL IMPROVED SINGER!!!!!! she NEVER EVER lipsinging in every live performances.....OK let me tell all of you...compared the voice from concert tour part 2 when she sings A Song for XX with the A museum/DOME TOUR 2001/CDL 00-01....you wii understand what we can learn from her MATURITY. at last...SHE IS STILL THE BEST FERFORMER EVER

The best thing in Ayu is that she sings live, not playback! 10 points for that. I'd be really dissapointed if I went to my favorite artist's show and he/she'd sing playback. Like Britney spears, she sings all her shows playback! And she sucks! (and I hate her voice!)

There'd be no point on going to see a show if the songs are always performed the same way than on the cd. That's what you pay for when you see something new. Think about it! Let's say you'd go to see this one artist, let's say 5 times. And all the shows would be the same. That would be so boring!

Ayu rules. She comes up with new things AND sings LIVE!

ps. hope u got some sense out of this... :D

she didnt sing connected in countdown 2002-2003 :rolleyes it was on 2001-2002 and i thought it was pretty kool.. :luv2

the vibratiion to me is anoying she not that great singer.. im sorry :( dont hate me because my opinion.

I think Ayu should dance more.

we won't hate you for this, it is YOUR opinion and you have the right to say what you think.

i love the vibrations though. ayu rocks!

She may not be the best singer, but she's a great performer :)

ayu does lip-sync. a lot of times when she has to dance, she lip-syncs. a lot of artists do that. i usually skip those performances haha. but her real LIVE singing is full of emotions indeed. she's one of the BEST performers. i love her stage presence!

there are singers who sing better or have better singing skills than ayu, but they aren't necessarily great performers. for example, i love misia's singing. but... her concerts are oftentimes hard to watch. she just doesn't have the stage presence. i actually have a few of her concert dvds, and i have to say that she is a really amazing singer. but i've never wanted to keep watching them... on the other hand, i watch ayu's performances almost everyday.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
YOU ARE PATHETIC :eviltongu

Well if she'd dance more, she'd propably sing even worse... It takes a lot to sing and dance at the same time... She would have to do the singing part playback..

yup, that's why britney spears lipsings all the time... because she dances all the time.

Namie sings and dances at her concerts its I think its difficult to do both but she tries just like ayu tries her best at concerts.

Britney sings always playback. Why? Because she can't sing!

Ayu has proved us that she can sing with some great shows where she sings LIVE! And the bad LIVE shows tell us that she's just a human... But she should always rest well before a live gig. Her voice needs it. You should stress your voice too much, ya know.

That, i don't agree. She may not have a great voice and she doesn't sound like Whitney Houston, but yes, she CAN sing. She just doesn't have the powerful type of voice. Everybody can sing, but not everybody have beautiful voices.

Stop flaming. it's called opinions.

as do i :D

this isn't something to get bent out of shape over...

Well, there's more to performing than singing. You have to know how to handle the crowd, Ayumi clearly demonstrates her ability to do so. Her vocals aren't bad live. I like her better live because of the edited instrumentations and the emotion that goes into her performance. I definately think she's a great performer.

I agree with what someone said about her performances being a "hit or miss." That's pretty accurate. She either sings great, or sings badly. Like touchedstar said, her performances of CAROLS weren't that good... but if I recall, I think at her Countdown 2004-2005 when she performed it, it was a REALLY good performance. She hit the high notes and very well.

I've noticed that Namie is an excellent singer and dancer. Always on key and everything. But... she doesn't really put much emotion into it.

I'd rather have Ayu sing moderately and with emotion, than sing perfectly without it.