[2007] This really convinced me! Utada is THE best!

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by bulmasman

Nobody is THE best, it's all down to personal opinion really. Technically Utada does have a better voice than Ayumi, but when it comes to giving a really good performance (though that Kremlin Dusk one is absolutely fantastic and blew me away when i watched the concert) you need more than just technical perfection. You need more emotion and something of a uniqeness, (doubt that's a real word but i'll go with it anyway), to your voice imo. For other singers who i personally think can better Utada both technically and emotionally... Onistuka Chihiro for sure definitely. Rimi Natsukawa (not jpop per se, but absolutely amazing) and Angela Aki live is truly a marvel.

And ddd, to say Hikki has the "best voice in Japanese music, hands down" is nothing short of a complete lie.

I have to agree.

hikki is an awesome technical singer, something that ayu's vocals lacks but imo ayu's emotional vocals are superior to any other because you just hear emotions all over it, whatever the style of song is.
hikki's voice specially live is really good technical voice but it's really flat and I don't really feel that it's emotional (except for really small amount of songs).
Therefore which one has it's positives and negatives, even with perfect technical voice like kumi's, sometimes even such a voice is not enough to bring excitement (and lately most of her performances as of late for some reason imo).

I'm just glad that any of them has a unique voice and you can atually tell who is who and all of their voices are really good and full of enjoyment.