Ayu has lost her hearing...

[truehappiness]

It was a leg injury, so nothing happened to her head. Don't worry about that.

[Not~Yet]

^-Oh good.

Hope this doesn't affect her music or her enjoyment in making music

It definitely won't, because like stated before she lives for music. In the days of tears and in the days of smiling faces.
And her right ear is still completely fine so it won't make a huge difference once she's used to her left ear bad hearing.

[bulmasman]

Ok, let's see here...

I'm disgusted by the posts i've seen from some so-called fans here. You're showing a complete lack of respect towards Ayumi and your fellow member's of the forum. If you don't like Ayumi any more, keep it to yourself. If you do like her, don't be an ass... simple as that. Saying you want her to give her career a break for a bit is one thing, saying "don't dissapoint me with a lousy/crap vocal again" is something entirely different.

Now, i'm saddened by this news, i really am, but i'm not extremely surprised. I've known for a long time about the problem with her ear, and i just guessed it would be a matter of time before this all came to the front.

What i would like to point out though is that she doesn't actually mention WHEN last year she went for the ear inspection. It could have been early, middle or late year for all we know. CDL could have been an off night for her (like a previous Concert where she strained her voice in the opening few songs).

The chance's of this being the reason are slim i will admit, but it's still a possibility. If the complete loss of her hearing in the left ear has only happened recently though, maybe with some time to adjust to it properly she'll still be able to perform well. I'm not too worried for her future hearing at the moment though as i haven't seen anything in the past to say she has any problems with her other ear. If she did, then i would be first in line to tell her to chill out, relax and maybe look at an early retirement.

I find it admirable that she is more than willing to push on for her fans. I can't see Avex having a huge hand in her decision. If you remember she threatened to walk out on them before, what's to stop her carrying out the threat if they're putting her health at risk? Ayu doesn't have to work anymore, i doubt she's going to go broke any time soon.

[truehappiness]

My guess is that post-AT07 through the end of t2m's promotion is when the ear problems started returning..

And they didn't do a checkup until October - November... which is probably why she seemed to improve a lot vocally with Together When. Or at least, maybe she just didn't really notice it until it was too late and then she found out? I think otherwise, she would've told us sooner... rather than now. Then again, it could be that she just got it done last week and did the CDL anyways, so there wouldn't be any awkward feelings at the concert?

[VAL]

Originally Posted by Hamasaki_Vaan

Hey guys, you better take a look to the "Until that Day" lyrics...
now... the meaning is very clear, don´t you think so?

OMG! Now we can understand the lyric, now is so clear

[Teyla]

poor ayu

o.0 it's very sad news for Ayu. If she wants to continue and feels she can, then that's fine, but IMO she should get advice on this. Losing the ability to hear on her other ear will be devastating.

[Aggar]

Originally Posted by Hamasaki_Vaan

Hey guys, you better take a look to the "Until that Day" lyrics...
now... the meaning is very clear, don´t you think so?

I really doubt it . . most of the lyrics in that song are easy to notice that she is trying to say something important and may be that's why she give the name "Until that Day . ." now we can clearly see what she trying to say . .

[ayu_fantasy]

Pray hard for ayu everyone, I hope she'll be fine...

As for bashers, Ignore the person..... This person got no life.....

[sitara]

well, i knew that was a problem she had for a very long time now, i was wondering if it changed? now i know. she needs to slow down, eleasing a new album every year, concerts, countdowns.... i'm not surprised this happened ;________;

please take a rest!

[Raiu-Ayu]

OMG! This is so sad!! I hope ayu doesn't go deaf. I feel so bad for her. I hope she maybe gets a hearing aid or something to help her.

[elepop]

Originally Posted by UHPlus

wow...i'm actually relieved to see that! dun disappoint me with a lousy+crap live vocal again ayumi...please do something about it...

get a hearing device or special vocal training to adapt to the handicap..

Oh, right. Like Ayu isn't already trying to do her best all the time?

Anyway. Your comment really pisses me off.

It sounds like you just want Ayu to stop singing.

[catcher_inthelight]

Its not meiniers its Sequela!!! did I spell that right!!! I F'n CRIED by the way.....

I love her

[elepop]

If she decides to do concert in smaller venues, it would be damn cool if Ayu does unplugged concerts. <3

[ImpactBreaker]

ayu has lost the hearing on the left ear . She doesn't mention how things are on the other ear, but I'm assuming it is still working fine.

For that matter I am a little skeptical that acoustic trauma was one of the main reasons. When you listen to LOUD sounds, BOTH ears get affected equally, unless you use a one ear headphone or the likes. Concert exposure to sound expose both ears and damage them at almost the same extent, but in the case of ayu only one ear was clearly affected. Another thing against acoustic trauma is because ayu is a FAMOUS ARTIST on a FAMOUS label. It's clear that avex will take the proper cautions to avoid occupational exposure on a unhealthy enviroment, and I believe they provide the proper equipment and measures to avoid that or else they're at a great risk for being sued for that. I'm sure ayu is well aware of that, and she wouldn't insist on damaging her ears just for the sake of fans. For real, I believe ayu to have more self love (and intelligence) than that. On the other hand, hjer oprofessional exposure are strong factor that make this possibility a little stronger. Still very weird that it would affect one ear only and ayu would still be willing to keep on the exposure though.

About the fall, I doubt it. First of all, there are no records of her suffering head trauma. The fall she suffered most likely didn't hurt her head. Plus for a head trauma to cause damage to one ear, most likely you'd have to suffer a very serious damage in your head so it would cause fracture of cranial bones and damage to the cochlea. There are obviously no records of anything simillar.

Meniere Disease: it could be a reason. It often affects one ear all of a sudden, with remissions and recurrences. It often causes vertigo, which would explain why she fell on stage, and could even explain some "possible drunk" tabloid pictures of ayu (she could be having attacks of vertigo instead so she needed the help of her bodyguards to walk and the tabloids assumed it to be alcohol and took a shot of it, who knows). It's also associated with tinnitus, a suymptom ayu has referred in the past. It can lead to progressive loss of hearing which would also fit her symptoms.

Ear infection => viral infections sometimes cause abrupt neurosensorial ghearing loss that may or may not be permanent. It could be an explanation for her current problem. Bacterial infections usually cause conductive damage to the ear, which can lead to deafness, however, conductive hearing loss is usually TREATABLE and the person recovers hearing after surgical procedures. She mentions it's not treatable so the hearing loss is likely to have been neurosensorial, and for that matter if it was an infection, it was viral. However the loss would have been abrupt and not gradual. By the way she tells it, it sounds as if she gradually lost hearing through these years.

Medications: certain antibiotics and analgesics. I don't think she's used ototoxic antibiotics to treat her "ear infections". Analgesics, if she suffer from some chronic pain, but I don't think she does

Tumors: It could be a remote reason imo, but she didn't mention anything about undergoin surgery or anything like that, anyway.

[Cys86]

Well, this fall might have been caused by the ear. If you have problem with your ears it's difficult to hold your balance. Similar situation happend during DOME TOUR 2001, it was shown on NTV during this special interview

[truehappiness]

The fall at DT01 is the one people are talking about..

But then again, she's fallen once during ASIA TOUR 2007 as well and needed quite a few banadages around her leg..

[Cys86]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

The fall at DT01 is the one people are talking about..

But then again, she's fallen once during ASIA TOUR 2007 as well and needed quite a few banadages around her leg..

I was talking about that one

[cloud♥honey]

I have to agree that her last performances sucked a lot, but I don't think she's losing her talent or something like. The ability of Ayu making music won't be affected with this losing of hearing. But just see the performances at ASIA TOUR 2007. They are awesome! Probably this will be her best tour. The performance of appears in that makes me wanna watch it so crazily.

I don't get the point that some people (you know who) are talking about "now her voice will get sucks and she'll be just more an artist in Japan".

[truehappiness]

I think that, watching the whole DT01 ordeal with her singing so badly during rehearsals possibly could've been what happened here, and we didn't figure it out until now... D: