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There's no shame in admitting that Ayu's out of her prime. Avril Lavigne is a has been. Katy Perry is a has been. We all age, run into struggles in life, fall sick, fall out of love, embarrass ourselves, and that's okay. Paul McCartney was 70 when he sang at the London Olympics. His voice was shaky, and people were proud to be fans.
I'm saying we shouldn't be holding her to the standards that we used to when she was 25. She's 40yo, 80% deaf, with vocal and balancing problems. Let's be realistic with the expectations. And it's not like she owes anybody anything at this point. Her legacy's insane already.
I was 15yo when I first heard her. Back then I didn't even have the money to see a local concert by a B-list artist, and now I'm finally making enough money to casually travel to Japan. I had seen her recent year performances online and I was sweating her vocals when I walked in, but I just had to go pay my respects. I tried to make conversation with the girl sitting next to me who also came alone (early 20s, probably a student, didn't look rich), but her English was pretty bad and my Japanese was worse. Finally I said "you must like her very much" and she took 3 seconds to remember how to say "yes". A few seats over there was this girl who came wearing an orthopedic cast around her swollen foot. Her friends had to support her when she went to the bathroom. During the concert I looked around at the crowd and saw a very old couple (60-70ish) a few rows behind me. The woman looked tired standing for that long, but everybody was standing so if you sit down you really couldn't see anything. It really impressed me how some of her fans went out of their ways to see her. I can't imagine standing for 2 hours on a broken foot or when I'm 70yo. No wonder she always gets emotional at songs like My All. Maybe she sees all this as well and it really is just her fans that keep her going.
What I'm trying to say here is that there's huge diversity among her fans, and none of us can speak for everyone. Some people want new songs, some just want to see her once in their lifetimes, some goes to see her every time she's in town... I do believe that Ayu's doing the best she could, and I'm not saying stop complaining. Just because we're fans doesn't mean we can't be critical. But let's be realistic with the expectations. She's probably literally unable to cater to everybody at the same time now.
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