Japanese Media Addresses Ayu's Voice
 

It seems like her recent TV appearances, and I could say Countdown Live has made a big impression on the media about her voice, and it's not a good thing. I will put two news articles that talk about her voice, and public reaction. The original Text is in the quotes

Kouhaku's, which reached it's 60th broadcast, top batter of the night was the impressive Hamasaki Ayumi, but no one could believe the sound they heard from her voice. She had just finished apologizing for the performance the other day where her voice didn't come out, but her singing voice this day, as an artist was also a "..." kind of feeling.

It seemed that this top batter was forcing her voice out of her, and if we say it directly, it was hard to listen to. However, if she doesnt use this voice, would her voice be able to come out?

From before, people have been saying that "her voice won't come out" or "that singing voice is so awful," to the point where even her fans have been saying "I didn't even think her voice went this far" after her voice didn't come out on live broadcast.

They put her in a time slot where ratings don't matter, which made us think that the era of Hamasaki Ayumi is finally and truly over. The only saving grace was that EXILE performed right after her. The fact that these famous singers were partners and did not abandon her was the only appealing factor.

However, if we listen just to this day's voice, there was already no trace of the Singing Queen of the past.

What in the world has happened to Hamasaki Ayumi? From the succession of programs where her voice doesn't even come out, to the outrage from her fans online, Hamasaki Ayumi looked back, and apologized and confessed on her blog that this has truly been her worst as a singer.

The circumstances on the Music Festival, in which Hamasaki Ayumi sang the huge hit "Evolution," were a little different than the high pitched and strong voice that had mesmerized audiences before. Her voice didn't come out, as she turned her back to the camera... and after, with an expression of a painful smile, she shouted "I'm sorry."

"I can't say any excuse. Anyways, it's very regrettable."

She wrote about the experience on her blog on the 16th, apologizing to fans, saying that "As a singer, in my opinion, it was my worst. I have no excuse, and I'm really sorry. My training isn't enough, and I really need to get serious." and, "I have to sing these songs, I have to transmit these songs. That is the meaning of my existence, and I want to continue working hard so I can have a stage where I can be at east and have fun."

But more, being told that "Ayu's voice won't come out" started MORE than a year ago.

On Yahoo's Q&A site, a huge shock has spread. A question asked recently was "When I see Ayu recently, it's so painful. What does everyone think?" "When I listen, I even get painful."

These were the answers that followed.

"When I listen, it's painful. It seemed like the chest would be hurt."
"It seems like, when it comes to her voice, and even her figure, she isn't making any efforts to improve it."
"I think she should go overseas and start from 0, with her voice training. If she doesn't..."

And these kinds of worried voices, but also strict opinions came together.

Checking the video site Youtube, we inspected the Boys & Girls performance at Music Fair 21 in 2009, comparing to the time Boys & Girls was put for sale, and we saw that half way through her singing style looked so painful, and of course, didn't come out. Half way though, the back chorus starting singing the main parts, which was an unexplainable development. Those who watched the show said "Her voice is dead, right?" "She could sing this in the past, but now, she can't even get her voice to come out." "It was a laugh when the main chorus started singing the main", with the remaining impressions stated in a similar fashion.

What in the world happened to Hamasaki Ayumi? Is it the influence of her ear problem? We asked this question to Avex Management, but we have yet to receive the reply.


----


It seems so dire right now... I hope she will listen to everything!!!

http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/4529063/
http://www.j-cast.com/2009/12/22056824.html

"It seems like, when it comes to her voice, and even her figure, she isn't making any efforts to improve it."

Oh.

It's definitely not good to know but maybe this will serve as an eye-opener for Ayu and she will actually do something about it.

that's quite the mean comment eh lol.

but I have to agree... her voice is really getting worse over the years. I rewatched CDL 09-10 a few days ago actually, and her vocals is just not cutting it.

I mean, I understand that some fans are like "she's trying her best" or "she can't hear anything in her left ear" but honestly, her singing now isn't JUST about being off-tune, it's about the tone of her voice sounding so... sorry for the lack of a better word, horrible.

She REALLY has to take a break and use that time to receive PROPER vocal training from ground zero. And stop drinking and smoking if you do Ayu cos it really isn't helping at all...

Many of us here thought it was just a few people on this forum complaining about her vocals, but even the Japanese themselves have raised concerns about her vocals... it's not just us being picky, it's a fact.

:(

I hope everything goes well for Ayu...

OH WHAT!!? NOT ANOTHER KIND OF CRITICISM!!!???

Now what's this all about? I know Ayu's 31 years of age, and now all of a sudden, why in the world are we having criticisms with Ayumi Hamasaki!? And it's all after those rumors about the drug scandal?

I don't know how to say this, but I think this is kind of in one way or another kind of unacceptable - this is why I even called up Sayuri Sugawara as a possible replacement for Ayu - I think Ayu has got to take a break, but with the fact that the possibly-long Arena Tour is coming up for Ayu, I think there might be more bad news out here...

can't agree more that her voice is getting worse ...but its kind of worrying though for her career

its good that they are bringin this this thing to avex

man this is depressing...
I know her voice is not as high pitched as before...but I still like her current more mature voice...

Wait a minute... Why is J-CAST even calling an inquiry to Avex? I'm really wondering about this...

THIS.

We can live without a tour. We can't live without Ayu.
Take a year off after the new album, Go and retrain your voice and the tour chould start in 2011. Or late 2010.

This is extremely sad news. I hope that instead of feeling depressed by it Ayu feels inspired to continue and do as they advise. She really does need to seriously address her voice.

It seems like now that Ayu's not making smart decisions very much...

if they're bringing this up to avex, then I hope she finally realizes the seriousness of this and hopefully avex schedules singing lessons for her.

sigh, i kinda agree, pretty much all her lives lately are so bad, esp her voice. and also, i think she gained a little weight, but shes fine i guess... :shrug

In my opinion, waterballoon, I hope avex get her singing lessons outside the country where she isn't known. We all know Japanese vocal coaches will probably suck up to her.

Hopefully Avex can try to re-manage Ayu and just become another great singer like the good old days - maybe just like what JAL (Japan Airlines) is about to do today: going into bankruptcy and move into corporate rehab...

I was watching Memorial Address from 2007, and I thought her lives in 2007 first half were somewhat good, and she could still sing Memorial Address well, and even Glitter... but after she broke with Nagase... everything has gone downhill... why?? I wanna know why...

I totally agree. Ayu can live without a 40 date tour. She's not gonna go bankrupt if she skips one!

But there's no point in continuing to tour if she isn't going to fix her voice. It's not just not enjoyable to listen to anymore; it's HARD to listen to. I would have no problem if Ayu spends the rest of her career fake crying, wearing tacky costumes, and letting Shuya flail, as long as she fixes her voice before it's too late (if it isn't already. :()

Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to be too concerned with it or the fact that ANOTHER really intense tour is just gonna make the problem worse...

Yeah, I'm really wondering... Maybe breaking up means she just goes on her own, and apparently she's kind of struggling here if she goes on her own - maybe she might need to work together again...

And now, all because of that, the world of Japanese pop has kind of been tarnished...

I have to agree with some of you - that she should take a break and retrain her voice or I think she may lose it for good :(
However her lives in 2009 weren't all horrible in my opinion... but definitely not great...

Music Fair is not a concert, Music Fair is for a musicians performance. And many people who watch Music Fair don't know about the way Boys and Girls is performed, because they dont watch her concerts. Anyways, the main reason for criticising Boys and Girls is that she couldn't even sing it, that her voice wouldn't come out...

Yeah hopefully she would be "shipped off" (lol) to another country. Maybe she would find new inspiration overseas as well. :)

This. The "fall" seems to start from about talkin' 2 myself. Maybe she has resorted to more drinking and smoking (if she does) after her break up to "calm" herself down or to stabilize her emotions.

People have different ways of their own to overcome their obstacles and all. Ayu is a strong woman, but I always the break up couldn't be "gotten over" so easily... it's the emotions... the most tender emotions of a human being after all...

You're wrong though, there's many instances of Ayu performing Boys & Girls and singing every part.

She most definitely has sung Boys & Girls as a whole especially when it was first released. Kouhaku 1999 was a good example I guess.

yes I know :dead2 I'm sorry I will just delete my posts
I just wrote it in the heat of the moment without thinking is all :(

Yeah, I had heard that people in Japan thought her voice was so bad lately that it is showing up in some articles and all over internet message boards as well of course.

This has been going on since late 2006, but got especially noticeable this year and last year.

Hopefully she will actually listen to this and do something about it.

However, I think it is very impossible for her to rest. If she wanted to rest, she would need about a year to recover her voice back under this circumstances. Nevertheless, her fame might drop at the same time due to the lack of activities.(Just like Namie when she stopped working to be pregnant). As a result, she would get the same circumstance where her sales would decline tragically. That might explain why she doesn't want to rest now.

oh no, I hope ayu's career is not over...please no

That's true, I hope she'll REALLY take this issue seriously from now on.

I agree, during A BEST 2 promotion, her voice condition was quite good (some Dearest and NEVER EVER lives for example were quite impressive. Now I can't picture her singing NEVER EVER like that at all).
Then with Talkin' 2 myself, her performances went bad.

I don't think Ayu's career will ever be "over". As she's said before, if she cannot go on singing, she will continue writing songs/composing for other artists. Though I really do wish Ayu would take some time off to rest as well. She really needs it. Her voice isn't horrible to listen to for me, but it's not as good as it was even in 2006-2007.

When I saw CDL 09-10, I'm sorry but when she was grunting through About You, I kind of felt bad because she sounded...tired, or not into it. She should go back to New York for training and just relax at a spa somewhere for a few months, rejuvenate and get back out there kicking butts! :D

I think everyone forgot about the new album that came out.... she sang beautifully... She can do less concerts but still come out albums...

I just think she is tired... remember PCDL09 where she hurt her wrist? she contiinued her performance... These are things fans forget about her will to sing and her heart for fans...

now she is sick for a long time... since 12th Jan she is having flu... usually flu will heal within 1-2 days... from this I presume her body is starting to reject the stress beginning with her vioce...

So please understand her :) Ganbatte na Ayu...

A studio recording is nothing like a live concert. Of course she sounds much better in studio recordings, but it's still kind of apparent that she has trouble even in studio recordings.

And um... I don't think we've even heard her live since January 12th, so that has NOTHING to do with her voice being bad since t2m/decision was released. @_@

well, looks like ayu has to start voice lessons and practice on her vibrato

well, i agree somewhat. it's a bit of a complicated issue though isn't it?
ayu said while recording the 10th anniversaries of TO BE and LOVE ~destiny~ that she WAS AWARE of her voice changing, and that she would try and improve blahb lah or whatever, and then at least we knew she knew her voice was like that?
second, honestly at least her recorded songs don't sound like her live, not to be rude. if the who anniversary had that ugly vibrato, NEVER would i listen to it.

but now, they are hating for the wrong reasons. OK YA, her voice changed, but the issue isn't why she can't sing her old hits well. if her voice changed then duh LOL no **** her voice won't match it like it used to. the ACTUAL issue is why her voice has become the way it is, and it is a bit nice that people are acknowledging it? ehhh i guess

but WHY do japanese people insist on being so god dam critical. like come on CHILLL, if i was ayu i would read this, get sad, then think it's unfair.

all in all, i think her voice thing is an issue live now, especially since it seems to be especially bad live now. back in 2006, it was still enjoyable, but sometimes listening to her is a bit ridiculous. but songs like dearest and voyage are being BUTCHERED and to be honest, if ayu were to comment i would love to hear her take on why her voice is like this

LOOOL sorry SO MUCH writing but YA i've always wanted to hear actual reports on her voice because sometimes i think "honestly can they NOT hear the difference??" LOL so yaaa that's my opinion '-___-

Woah! More drama! AHS was really needing it! :B

Where were these bashers in 2008 when her voice really was not her best. Excluding the evolution performance, her voice has been the best its been in the past few years.

She just needs to take a 3 month break or something. Go to a rural place or go to an exquisite spa/hotel. Go take vocal lessons. She needs to do something about her voice.

This...
She was never an amazing singer to begin with... She is having problems with her deafness what makes her vocal technique that was never great suffer a lot more than usual...

She knows about her voice for sure. She talked about it in recent Magazines, and said she is very regrettable about the way she passed her time when not singing in the past, and she is frustrated when her voice doesn't work the way it should work...

But I'm still worried that maybe she won't do anything about it. When I watched CDL... I couldn't stand any longer... I don't wanna ever listen to Pride, Because of You, and Inspire like that again... if she can't sing right on the next tour... really, what's the point???

I disagree very much... she sang amazing during 2002 (except Arena Tour) to 2006, and then it just started fading, but with some great vocals for A BEST 2 promotions, and then it got so bad.

If it was a deaf problem, she would just be off pitch a lot... but the QUALITY of the voice is much different, much deeper and hoarse... it's not good right now!

I guess since I'm a fan I'm used to her voice and have low standards for her live vocals and cut her slack because of her ear problem, but to other people they just hear it and are like "wow this is so bad". But I watch her lives for the entertainment and her personality/stage presence more than her live voice because I never thought it was that great (she has her moments though) so it really doesn't bug me as much as it bugs other people. As long as she still has her stage presence and still makes great songs and never sings Dearest how she did at AT08 again I'll be satisfied.

I agree with this. Her voice now is far from amazing and she has moments where she sounds completely terrible, but I notice an improvement from the last few years, especially CDL 07-08 and AT08.

Wow now this has gotten really big. I hope Ayu does listen and do something now. The fact that she makes news with this shows how much she is being looked upon even to this day. And with more improvement, I think she'll be again to capture attention again.

FIGHT AYU!

You know what, here's something in a nutshell:

GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD, AYU AND AVEX!!! That should be a way to resolve issues here...

Sorry, but i found her voice amazing from 2002 to 2006 I beg the right to disagree... on TV she only sounded good (and "good" doesn't mean "amazing") from 2005 to abest 2 promotion IMO, having some impressive performances here and there... After she discovery her deafness, her vocal quality really got worst, but it getting better again since she started promoting Days... it still is far from perfection, but she will not recover her vocals from day to night, or in 3 months, or in 1 or 2 years of hiatus having vocal training...

Maybe to begin with they meant something like this

I can't honestly say I disagree...because it's true =[ I still think she has the ability though...she surprises with performances like A Song For XX @ a nation's 08 and 09.

Well that is your own opinion... about what sounds "good" and what sounds "amazing."
Maybe you forgot the Music Fair in 2003?? It was the best she has ever done...
Anyways, it's your opinion, so you can think it like that...

Anyways, I do agree she has gotta improve her vocals and rest for a few times... I am waiting for the day that she can sing fully again.. ._.

Strange, I didn't think she sounded that bad at Kouhaku, the performance identity linked was much worse and that was 2002. Either way, rest up Ayu!

maikaru
Some songs on Music Fair were good, but this don't make her other lives from as 2003 good...
Even if she goes for vocal coaching, if she needs to re-learn how to use her voice and her ear all over again, it will take more than 1 or 2 years...
And even with voice post deafness, she has some very good (and some of her best) vocal performances:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8SL-...eature=related (Yeah, it's the dvd, but the tv version is as good)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyTeswlUbf8

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/pdA7262pvRQ/

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/4oqrQFt5xmM/

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/6JcSzjoEc58/

I thought CDL was a bit of an improvement vocally... there were some off moments like Because of You and Pride, but the concert as a whole wasn't really that bad. She was holding back on the vibrato and songs like teddy bear were just fine. She always seems to have one song where she completely somewhat butchers vocally in the TV version (06-07 had Free&Easy, 07-08 had SURREAL, 08-09 didn't really have anything that bad, 09-10 had Pride/Because of You..) so it's not like it's anything new.

I think she really is trying to fix things, but she's not going to be able to just train for a few days and then magically get better, you know? We'll see with the start of AT10 if she's been working hard to recover. (This seems all too familiar to me... 2006-2010 seems to be repeating the same pattern of opinions every year...) IIRC, she did quite well at the start of AT09 after a lot of people doubted that she could do it or not. Also, Mirrorcle World at Kouhaku in 2008 was much worse than the Rule performance last year so what gives? It is a little weird that she's got this sort of "out-of-breath" sound to her vocal lately, but it seems to be a combination of her not using a nasal voice anymore/her voice naturally deepening along with some unknown factor affecting her voice. I wonder if it's much harder for her to control her deeper register?

She's never been the greatest vocally, so sometimes I wonder what people are talking about, haha. But her best years imo were during the era of her talk show where she would have a new song to sing every week... there were some amazing performances between 2002-2004, but since then things have kind of gotten back to the way they were before 2002, if not a little worse sounding since her singing voice is much deeper than usual...

I have to say "Oh my goodness" at the way she'd sing Boys & Girls during lives back then... it really was a bit of a chipmunky vocal back then. I have to admit that her 2005 voice was rather strong and audible without the out-of-breath feeling, but there were are pitch problems present that she generally has always had at TV lives.

Hm, listening to an AYUREADY? performance of RAINBOW and comparing it to the CDL07-08 version, you can really hear how different her vocal was 7 years ago. But then again, she was constantly singing on a weekly basis (I think...) so that could kind of be a sort of "vocal training" that isn't as strenuous as say, touring for 30+ dates. She doesn't do that badly at CDL07-08, but there are points where she obviously goes off in the latter half of the song. Perhaps it can be blamed on the ear issue, as it had just happened a week (or less?) before... -sigh- I have faith that she'll be able to get out of this, but I disagree that "A BREAK AND VOCAL LESSONS" are going to simply fix everything. She can't just press pause on her career, and I think we all know that. If change is going to happen, it will be gradual if she is pushing on as usual with touring and doing her job as a singer. I have faith that she will be able to fix whatever's making her voice go wonky, because I believe that she can do it.

artists will always have bad publicity, and ayu will always have, her voice has been going down a little but that's because how much she is singing and it does go better when shes rested (though her voice has been bad in the past before but it goes better), though I think there a little harsh on her and she apologized, she just need a little rest and I dont get why they keep saying shes finished, every year its this, shes no longer new and the latest rage yes, but she wont be going anywhere, anytime soon. At this point in her career, its her long term fans which support her and she has a lot, this is just a story to grab peoples attention, though they cant judge her on one performance for the year and say shes finished

^Yeap... every year there is tons of articles predicting the end of her career...

somehow in the past years i had a feeling like ayu doesnt really care anymore , specially with old lives like evolution.

this would be the best thing Avex could do, i think the whole queen of pop went up to her head and she needs to start acting like a singer.


not reminding the lyrics for evolution is nothing new ... Grrr

Obviously, we have two very different tastes... as most of those performances were not that good, especially Sunrise one.

Anyways, 2003 had A Museum and Arena tour 2003 - 2004, which is one of her best vocals, even A Museum TV version was really really good.

Anyways, I think these articles are coming up now because it's been a succession of bad performances, with evolution being the worst performance she has given in her life. I would actually prefer the And Then vocals over the vocals now... at least she can hit those notes, no matter how painful they are... in CDL, she couldnt hit the Because of You or Inspire notes, and it was equally painful...

I thought she was improving, but I am beginning to agree with everyone now that her voice simply needs to rest and become better.. she cant continue like this, or she wont have a voice within maybe 2 years... I dont wanna imagine it.. ._.)

I hope everything turns out fine!!!

hopefully this opens her eyes. she needs rest and vocal training badly.

She is hitting most of the notes, she is not running out breath and she is not having trouble with the song... So, she is singing good. She is singing lower than she used, but one's voice gets lower with the years (it gets stable when the person is 40~50) and she is using more of her range than she used to. If u like or dislike her lower voice, is a matter of taste, but it doesn't mean she is singing bad...

Thanks to Mariah Carrey people nowadays thinks that "good" means "high" vocal-wise ~~'

Yeah, me too - I actually somewhat like the vocals of the Jewel era...

....................Are we listening to the same Ayu?????????

^Did u bothered watching the videos I posted?

^ I've seen those lives before. lol

Being honest, I enjoy her lower range. It's difficult for me to listen to her earlier albums because of the 'quality' of her voice or whatever. So I don't have a problem with how her voice sounds.

Of course, I can't overlook how difficult it is for her to hit certain notes. I'm not sure how she could rectify that, with lessons or rest or whatever, but I think she's getting better as time goes by. As others have said, she's been improving since the end of last year, during 'Days' promotion. In fact, I thought those performances were so elegant and well-done :)

'You were...' seems so much harder for her to perform because of all the production in the song. I think she's struggling to hear herself above some songs. That's why 'teddy bear' was such a standout during CDL, it was very simple.

Oh goodness. I forgot what I was trying to say with this post. I guess that I'm disagreeing, but agreeing at the same time. -shrug-

^So, point me where she is going off-key and running out of breath, plz^^

It is a little weird imo that this article came out now as opposed to after the evolution performance a month ago. I thought that she was improving too, but I think AT09 probably screwed up her voice somehow, since she did mention that after starting AT09, she strained her throat. It's always rather odd how she has to start from point A vocally every year after improving slowly throughout the year. -sigh- Whatever the case is, I think AT09 was sort of a "learning experience" for her of what to do and what not to do when doing a long tour, so hopefully she can rectify that.

I think it's really funny if anyone is disagreeing that her voice has been sucking lately.

It has. End of story.

For whatever reasons, I'm sure we don't even know half of them, I don't even care.

She just needs to hire a vocal coach and start studying again.

If she loves what she does, and wants to continue working, she'll take this seriously, because every moment that she continues to use her voice this way only stresses it out and damages it.

Kinda glad the media is addressing it, tbh. Ayu needs the eye-opener.

Even if a year without Ayu would be a painful one, I'd soooo prefer that to what she's doing now... Heck, AT10 should be boycotted for just that reason :laugh

I doubt anyone is saying that, because it's pretty much the giant elephant in the room now. She'll go about fixing it in her own way, and hopefully that's enough to improve things.

I kind of want to smack Ayu for progressing so far vocally from CDL07-08 to CDL08-09, and then having things go wrong again after most of AT09 had happened.

Sorry, I forgot u were God =)

Her voice is sucking on some lives and is pretty concistent on other ones... not as concistent as it was at her vocal peak, but not as bad as her pre 2001 lives... But I always have problems with those stuff arround here cuz...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-EeBH1ON08 people loves this live even if she can't properly sing the chorus (btw, she only could on Kouhaku and AT05)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDtBUiILhAM or this where she can't properly harmonize with the back track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZWPBjJ7fLw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK5wiV23LW0
or those (and any other Dearest promoting live) where she shows the voice control of a drunk karaoke singer, making it sound too loud, or too low or too sharp at random

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0-QD7Yc5Ro or here...

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/FSkLly1qKFk/ or here that IMO is tied with Evolution from last year as her worst live ever...

Hm, I think the teddy bear performance is a glimmer of hope in CDL09-10 because of how pleasant it sounded, haha.

Maybe that's a sign that she needs to have another stripped-down live like Limited TeamAyu Live in 2003...

Well, she is pretty much the only person on AHS who makes sense 99% of the time. :shrug

Her voice hasn't been great lately, but currently it is better than the Mirrorcle World period. D: I was kinda relieved that the media has addressed the issue, maybe we can see an improvement in the future. I want to see Ayu back in top form. D:

That's pretty insulting to other people who do make sense at this forum, to be honest...

emiko
See how u r God, u have even ur own worshiper xD!

lol everythin theyre sayin is what we've been talkin a bout since 2007 so i dunno why you all seem so surprised or sad.

her vocals are crap lately. so what, she is human and she gotta get on her feet and so on.


cdl 09-10 was the crappiest concert since i can remember.

you know...things like this and the drug "scandal" make me worry for ayumi.

i worry that some day the truth will come out and it will completely ruin our image of her. for instance, what if she really were involved with drugs? what if her voice is lacking now because she spends her time on drugs, instead of on practicing and preparation?

i'm not sure, i'm not saying i believe she IS doing any of this, but i can't help that the thought is in my mind. :shrug

^Pretty much, she broke her arm before pcdl cuz she had an overdose :O

:rolleyes why does the drama follow me? Please report my posts if you think I'm being rude.

By all means, invite your friends to do it as well, then the staff will take more notice.


@Andrenekoi: hunny, I really don't know what you're trying to say with your reply. That she's been consistent? so her voice has been consistantly not that great, and then just bad at other times.

So I guess we should settle for her voice being "not that great"?

And please don't insult members by trying to refer to them as "worshippers". Thanks. Can we drop this now?


@true: yeah I guess it is the giant elephant now...Honestly, I think it is for Ayu too. I don't really see her going long without trying to do something about it.

@touchedstar: you know, the drug scandal just reminds me of ayus drinking. People don't see it this way, but imo, that might be one the real weapons against her voice if she hasnt been cool with it lately...

I guess we never know all of the factors though. Drugs certainly wouldnt be good. Look what happened to Whitney :tired

She slipped on the stairs at home on Christmas Eve IIRC.

I think this negative press coming all at once [okay, it's only two or three articles...] might be a little worrying, but this is Ayu we're talking about here. Just have faith that things aren't as bad as you think they might be... because if they were, I think she'd tell us instead of having some other source report on it first.

I think she's been trying to do something about it, but vocal issues can't always be solved quickly. Her job is to sing, and while working towards getting better vocally, she's going to be singing along the way unless for some reason she does go on hiatus. (which imo would probably just make things worse since she wouldn't be getting vocal practice) We don't know whether she is doing anything or if she isn't, but I choose to believe that she is, it's just that results aren't going to be immediate.

haha, i don't know if i'd go that far, but then again, in the making of for ballad she kept messing with her nose in a way that i couldn't help but wonder about.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...3/cokenose.png

:laugh I'm going to have to disagree with that.

:yes I agree. I wonder if she'll write a TA entry about it. It seems like something she would do. But she might not even hear about it.

aha.. FINALLY.. Japan realized it!
i'm not gonna give further comment for this..

yes but seriously...how long might it take?

honestly...I think I'm getting like worried and anxious that her voice is like damaged...

I mean because like...you know if it's her not having the training and having to relearn because of her ear, thats one thing right...but healing tissue damage? @_@ I'm actually really scared about that.

But I really do hope she can get better because I think where she's at with her voice right now is really awesome.

Maybe she will try to get as much help for this new album/tour and it will only get better from there.

edit: :roflmao at the post beneath this.

...you titled that cokenose? Oh my, priceless.

That second one from what I can see is her blowing her nose because she had to "cry" for the final scene of BALLAD, and her nose probably got a little stuffy afterwards because she really cried... or something. The first one, I dunno.

If that's really a symptom of that though, I must be guilty every so often then... haha.

I imagine it'll take somewhere around the same time that it took her voice to sound better after CDL07-08... so a few months? If AT10 comes around and she's still got that out-of-breath sound going on as much as now... then it'd probably be safe to say that her vocals have been permanently damaged. If you're familiar with ELT, the female vocalist of that group had an amazing voice from 1997-2003, and then some time in 2003/2004, she had bronchitis and damaged her vocals beyond repair, so now whenever she sings classics from 1997-2003, or even new tracks from after that period, she's kind of really bad. Most of their new works, especially her solo works have been very gentle on her vocals, as well as being midtempo lounge-y tracks. To illustrate the change, here are two videos of her performances back then and a recent one:


It's very evident that her vocals were damaged... -sigh- I feel so bad for her sometimes... basically she'll never be able to sound like she did back then.

Sometimes u r rude, but so am I =) And I still believe that even if her voice sucked at evo performance and on every MW performances, she is just at her usual bad most of the time... She is sucking live since the begining, and the feel good lives she has here and there don't make it up IMO

And really, if u feel free to be agressive to others, should stop being such a cry baby when people are agressive to u, darling
-

About voice coaching... it takes time... if she started learning how to sing at 97/98 and it started showing on 2001, 2002... well... if she is re-learning it right now, 2009/2010, 3 or 4 years maybe... But for sure, more than a year

lol go away

yeah, i know its probably as you say, but i keep worrying that the vocal quality and the drug scandal are connected. ugh, i would die if they were.

either way, i don't like worrying for my favorite artists career!

Be aggressive, but do it intelligently please.

I don't see how her always sucking, instead of just now sucking warrants you replying to my post and being relevant.

So she always sucked. Okay, well her voice needs work now, as well.

So...since she didn't get it then, she needs to get it now.

Does that makes sense?

And, about the taking time thing...as she is a professional singer, not to put too much demands on her, I don't see why the process should take as long as when she just started...but whatever, she's really busy I guess.

@brian: I really...like...do not want that to be the reason...like I don't even know...I think my world would like collapse around me lol So, I like didnt even think of it as possible...man...

Oh no, wait.

I thought that her deafness becoming worse, but in every criticsm no one say about her deafness, are they forgot about it?

I don't think anyone really knows for sure what's responsible for the vocal quality issues. People blame her long tours for contributing to it every year, but she'd done it from 2000-2005 without much issue, so I don't think that's why... but perhaps AT09 is an exception since she did explicitly state that her throat got strained during that tour. Whatever the case is, I'm sure she wants to sound better so that everyone doesn't have to worry about her... I'm sure of it.

She needs to re-learn how to hear again while singing, what isn't something that easy at all... if u ask me, the main problem is that she can't properly hear the notes now... Even when she hurts she throat, it cuz she can't really know what note she is singing, and she can easily go out of her health range by doing this...

And the inteligent thing... really... saying "It's funny that people doesn't agree with me cuz my point is pretty obvious" is far from being an intelligent point

People her Kouhaku performance was AMAZING! I just can't believe they say it was bad vocally!

I notice a lot of times she is able to sing one song live really really well and then another song completely terrible in the same live. Perhaps some songs are really not meant for her to sing?
Not that this is an excuse for her vocal's getting weaker, it's just something I've noticed.
I really hope it's not true, but perhaps her voice will never really heal itself now. Perhaps this is just something that happened over time and now there's no chance of healing it? Like I said I definitely hope this is not true, but maybe she has done something to fix it in the past and it hasn't worked?

What's the deal with that? Hm? The coke thing?

^cause it's hilarious :laugh

@andrenekoi:No the problem is obvious. The reasons for it aren't though.

And thats what I was saying...it could be anything!

Could be the tours...or her not taking care of it...or drugs? @_@

But all I was saying was that it doesn't really matter, because she needs to take care of it...

and I think, we think, she is...so...I think we can drop this now?

@true: See...like thats why sometimes I'm not sure about her doing these long tours...It's really demanding on your entire body to do a tour...and even just a simple tour...and then making them really long where she only has a few days in between each show...

And her shows are so long :tired

Maybe from 00-05 it was just because she was younger?...not that much younger though...so I don't know.


Oh, Just saw the ELT thing..That's really...:( very sad. I hope that doesn't happen to Ayu...

maybe she's just lazy to sing the whole part of B&G..


for this year kouhaku i think she did better than last year performance...
i do wonder how good is her right ear now...is it still the same or getting worse.. :(

she seemed to be out of breath when singing but would ayu even want to get vocal train

Hey, she hasn't sucked all the time. I think her voice was pretty good in the MY STORY tour and CDL 04-05 and 05-06. She also has some good TV lives. These do not equal
suckage

^Trust me, never watch the TV version of this endless sorrow live ~~'

i agree with boh of you. she need to take a break and rest .she 's been singing for more than 10 years and before it get worse i think it would be a good time for ayu to take a break from the music or rehersal more on her songs . her voice have changed a lot but she still use the same way to sing 10 years old song which doesnt fit with her " older" voice .she needs to find a new way to re sing those songs .

i agree we are not picky just concerned . ayu vocal have not been very good in live those past few years .....

well i hope too it will be an eye opener for her ...
anyway we will see how it goes .

I have, I didn't think it was bad, it's actually really good for ayu standards.

That's how she usually does it for concerts. I think the last time she did Boys & Girls on a TV show was some time in 2000 or 2001, haha, so it could be more habit-related than laziness.

Oh, also, a-nation '09 was rather awesome vocally but maybe that was just an exception last year, hm. Rule was too amazing for words!

oh... i hope ayu read it for an "inspiration" for to take more vocal lessons and TAKE A BREAK! ^^