[Article] Ayu at 39 for concert attendees.

[orbitalaspect]

Originally Posted by maxikot

Namie: Queen of Hip Hop. Koda: Queen of live
Ayu: And I am the Party Queen! YOLO

LOL. Anyway, I've always seen Namie as the Queen of Hip-Pop, Koda as the Queen of Pop, and Ayumi as the Empress of Pop.

With Namie's comeback, I think she earned every right to call herself the Queen of Hip-Pop. She managed something no other major pop idol has ever done: She became the biggest selling female artist early and late in her career.

With Ayu, she's always had an insane amount of finesse to her image, music, lyrics, PVs, etc. For her, it was always about the "experience" or the "story".

With Koda, she's just always done equally well both the singing and dancing. My only wish is that we saw more stuff like "Alive" and "Koishikute" throughout Koda's heyday. I still tear up when I listen to "Alive", since it's the most unexpected amazingly done song I'd ever think to associate with Koda.

Overall though, they all three, alongside artists like MIKA NAKASHIMA, BoA, Otsuka Ai, Suzuki Ami, all win for being the defining elements of the era in Japanese Pop music that saw more sales, more creativity, more immersion into music as an art than any other time in history. I'm eternally grateful I got to live and be old enough to be aware and share in it with others.