i found out about ayu around Spring of 2021, mainly because of an oomf on twitter who stans her but also from looking up info on the biggest acts in japan. before that i was mainly a lamb and a kpop stan (still am~) and so as u guys know, Mariah is the most successful western act in Japan and also kpop acts usually also debut in Japan, which is why i liked looking for that info. i was mostly unfamiliar with jpop music other than vocaloid songs and a hikaru utada phase i had in 2019 (i got back into them this year with the release of the spectacular album Bad Mode). Naturally, ayu being the icon that she is and having sold as many records as she has, she appeared towards the top of these lists and was usually referenced in regards to Japan’s top popstars of all time. i was pretty impressed with her accolades, so i decided to check out what music she had. i’m not gonna lie i felt a bit overwhelmed when i saw that she had more albums than Mariah (which already has an extensive discography and took me a while to finish it), but i decided to pick something based on some factors:
- how much my mutuals have mentioned it
- which title/artwork intrigued me the most
and that ended up being LOVEppears! at first i didn’t listen to the whole album, and only listened to “appears” since it seemed like the closest thing to the title track (also the single cover looked crazy [not particularly in a good way if i’m being quite honest
] to me so i thought “what could this song possibly sound like?”) and i IMMEDIATELY fell in love. i kept hitting repeat again and again and subsequently i ended up listening to the full album (and absolutely adoring it) which is what ultimately inspired me to start listening to her other albums.
fast forward to now, and ayu is my second most listened to artist of all time on lastfm, and she ended up being my most streamed artist of 2021 with loveppears and appears being the most streamed album and song respectively. it is always so nice to find artists that just click immediately with me, and the fact that she’s able to connect with people like me who don’t know Japanese based on just her sound and passion alone, makes me admire her so much more!!
i know i’m super late to the ayu party and it’s true that one of these days she might want to step away from singing to focus on her personal life, which i wouldn’t blame her especially after so many years! but until that day and even afterwards, i will continue to love and support ayu dearly!! <3