Ayu popularity

[kendelle]

Ayu still has a lot of fans from all walks of life. She's decently popular for a country with such a dense population. I'd say that 70% of the time people would know of her, even if they're not actively aware she's still a performer. Most seem to assume she stopped releasing music around the early 2010s. You might be lucky finding 1/20 people who know any songs she released after

My completely unscientific straw poll of random Japanese people I've spoken to at random times about Ayu:

Males mid 20s: "Oh, I knew about her. She was famous a long time ago"
Females mid 20s: "I remember her from when I was young.", "She's very cute.", "Japanese think she is a strange person."
Males early-mid 30s: "Oh, she's old now. Didn't she get fat?"
Females early-mid 30s: "I used to like her songs. Wow, she's still active?"
Females late 60s+: "She's that pretty person.", "I remember her eyes are very pretty."