Do you remember your first impression of Ayu?

[Lee^ChaN]

Somewhere in 1999, my friend gave me a bunch of Japanese songs, and i fell in love with "Depend on You", then i browsed her name.. and WOW!! SHE'S DAMN PRETTY & fashionable!! never thought once that she'd be the queen of J-POP!

[Aisha_Angel]

The first time I saw Ayu was through the PV for [INSPIRE]...My immediate thoughts were:

She's definitely a trendsetter. (The pink tank top, jeans & Ayu-hat)

Is she even Japanese? She looks like she's half-black or something. (when riding on the caravan)

Near the end of the video...DAYUM she's got a big forehead!

Why does she have lye (that white stuff) in her hair?

[love in music]

i thought she was a model here in america, i had seen her being used on graphics on neopets.com
i used her on graphics even though i didn't know who she was, because i thought she was pretty

[ayane4ever]

I remeber...it was afew years ago....cant remeber when but i know how. My sister saw he ron a paperdoll site and told me i looked at her as a paperdoll and thought straight away...Shes very pretty!

[RyRyMini]

The first song I knew by Ayu was GAME - this was a few years ago, probably around 05. I really liked the song but that was as far as I went, until I joined this site then I became obsessed =x

[Ayusan]

Oh I remember and it's easy : NO, never, no way, will never listen to that chick.

In fact I had nothing against her valuable, just a stupid french mag that had a weird way to speak about her and which made me dislike her, yeah without listening. Plus at that time I was already deep into visual kei and j-rock, then j-pop .....

It was the realease of No way to say single, and their words made me dislike her, I dun even remember their words, I could if I read back the mag but yeah, it has been always like that with each of her release by the way.

For an obscure reason ~.~ ( still after all of those years I still dun get why I did ) I've ordered RAINBOW ... hahahaha I was : .... listen We wish .....WTF there is nothing wrong with her ... listen Real me ..... can't understand those guys from the mags ..... fall on HANABI and love at first sight ^w^ ... HANABI is the song that made me enjoy Ayumi.

Anyway Ayu is one of the VERY rare pop singer I do listen with Olivia and Tommy heavenly/february6, though I only follow Ayu works.

[Yum!Fruit_Salad!]

My first was when I was watching Dearest's PV. I wanted so badly to be an extra >.<.
Also, I was wondering whether she was in the US shooting it or she just happened to find a place in Japan that's filled with alot of westerners.

[JaysenRyan]

Well i had listened to the Kingdom hearts song by Utada, and decided to download some JPOP through Bearshare, so I found some names of Japanese people and Ayu was one of them. The first song i played was Trauma. God, from the second she sang i loved that song, it was magic. When i saw pics of her i thought OMG How cute! Then i watched the video for Evolution and was hooked forever more.

[Love Appears]

I was a member of a general chat forum and there was a girl there who was an Ayu fan. She would always post about Ayu -- I mainly remember her posting pictures of Ayu in her "URARUU" photobook. She had Ayu signatures, and I specifically remember one based off the "Duty" photoshoot.
It's hard to remember exact thoughts, but I was usually very fascinated by the pictures. This woman seemed to almost exude an energy all her own through these photos.

It eventually sparked my curiosity. I don't remember a whole lot about the specifics since this was over 6 years ago, but I searched for her music and I was hooked pretty much immediately.
I remember downloading the SURREAL video. I had really slow internet, so it took a few days, and I kept previewing it and thinking it looked so awesome.

Up until that point I never really encountered an artist with such a unique artistic depth. The fact that she sung in Japanese didn't matter at all to me; it was like a breath of fresh air. But looking up the translations did me in for sure, because her lyrics seemed so heartfelt and genuine.

[Calico]

I vaguely remember. I just knew she was a really big artist and I avoided those because I never wanted to have to catch up on huge discographies. XD

But one day an anime theme site I frequented uploaded her song M and heavily recommended it, so I downloaded it to try and really liked it. So then everytime I saw someplace that uploaded a song by her that I didn't have I grabbed it. Pretty soon I was hooked on her and by the end of the year (2003) she became the first Japanese artist that I actually followed. I even joined this site. So then she became my favorite artist and still is.

[AyUta]

Omg, I HATED her lol. I thought she was so fake, but as time went on, I began to appreciate her more and she showed me that she is not just some lame singer, the same as all the others. She proved to be a very beautiful person, in and out. NOT a fake.

[Handjan]

In 2004 I heard Dearest. I thought that it was magnificent and began to download her music. Then I saw a part of Dearest PV - and I thought - such a beautiful voice, but with her blond hair(I saw her only with blond hair) she looks ugly and too americanized. So for a few month I was only listening her music. But one of my friends gave me a disc where anomg different files was Moments' PV. And I understood that I was wrong.

[Yeli13]

A friend of mine was watching Because of You PV and then told me "Hey, listen to that".
Actually it was HONEY, and I thought that it was another artist. I remember that I really fell in love with Because of You, but I didn't feel nothing for Ayu... Neutral then.

[Jason]

Wow, years on and I still remember what I first thought of her.

I first heard "Fly high" on a fanmade final fantasy music video, I fell in love with the song and, luckily the person who made the video credited the song. I started looking her up and found numerous songs, evolution got me thinking "this ayumi must be really something...". I listened to alot of the songs from I am..., since it was around the time it was released and well, I really fell in love with her music and as time went by I just began to admire the woman. I began getting her older stuff and started getting excited about her new releases and to this day, she's still my favourite artist of all time.

[Purple Neko]

Originally Posted by NintendoHTF1242

"DEAR LORD HER DAMN HIGH NOTES ARE TERRIBLE"

was my first reaction =P I've gotten used to her high notes now

Lawl that was mine as well. xD

[wyien]

Hm.. I remembered that she was just a really big figure in Jpop. And I was so jealous becos she was so pretty. I though: "How can someone look like that?" And was so pissed with her. She was gorgeous and was so famous. I even compared myself with her and asked; "What does she have that I don't?" But aside from that, she didn't give me that sort of arrogant feel and that feel that she thinks she better than everyone so I didn't hate her. I also knew she was well-known for her lyrics. People were talking more of her lyrics than her looks, which I was more concerned of.
Then I listened to her songs and realized that I incredibly love her tunes then checked out the lyrics (which were always translated badly and most oftenly aren't translate to exact meaning) and didn't like the lyrics at all. I used to think they were trash and stopped listening to her. I thought; 'She is well-known for her lyrics? Trash!' Then one day I listened to a properly translated piece of End roll and that completely changed my mind.

[Emperatriz Ayumi]

Her pretty BIG eyes!!!!

From the moment I met Ayumi Hamasakai my complete live has changed... now I know what I am....

[waterballoon]

I thought she was really cool! Cos I first saw her in the 'ourselves' PV... and she looked really cool there, and I just thought it would be good to follow her music... never regretted that.

Though I must admit, getting her discography and songs all figured out was a tough task.

[hiroshi_ben]

cute,sweet and stylish!!

and oh yah...and i thought her songs that time were awesome too!

[ayupan90]

I had only heard of Utada Hikaru when I first realised Ayu existed. I saw a pic of her and I thought 'omg what a stuck up *****' lmao then I actually heard her music and was like :O wow she's amazing