Great some promo!!

We also know about CDTV and SCawaii so it's 1 more for TV and 1 more of magazines.

That's great for some more promotion! Too bad she will not be in this year's FNS music festival...

And that could really affect some ratings, as Ayu is like one of the powerhouses that make the ratings high for FNS, but I'm estimating below 20%...

But you should know that it's still a bit too early for the performing artists at this year's MSSL, so we'll just have to wait and see. And as expected, the Kouhaku, with a slim chance that the girls can upset the boys...

So two TV appearances and two magazine shoots. If the shoot to SCAWAII is good, then I'll consider buying it since I really want that bandanna :).

Most of Ayu's magazine promotion will probably leak into January since Namie has most of the magazines Ayu would normally have in December. [I think she had ViVi last month, so Ayu gets it this month.]

Okay, so Ayu was not at the FNS music festival at all...now here's the point: Have we heard any message about why Ayu did not attend this year's FNS music festival? That would be really interesting, because she did a message that she could not come into the 2008 MSSL because of the shocking injury about a day or two before the MSSL...

^ That's probably the main reason I think that she wasn't invited. If she turned down the invitation for some reason such as being busy and wanting to focus on CDL or something this year, I think we would have heard about it from her.

Is there any some sort of criteria about how do artists get invited for the FNS music festival? I know about the Kouhaku at least, which is based on performance notability, but is there any similarities and differences between the FNS music festival and the Kouhaku on how do artists get invited?

And is it really sure why Ayu either did not get invited or rejected her invitation?

I doubt she wasn't invited... why would lesser acts get an invitation and Ayu not? It just doesn't add up imo.

She probably had to reject due to other commitments on the same day or something and it's not big enough of a deal for her to announce it on her blog, or if she does, she might do it on the day of the event.

MSSL was explained since she was on the guest list and at the last minute, had to be taken off. Since she was never officially on the guest list for FNS to begin with, it's not that big of a deal... perhaps they were holding out on her to accept, and she never did? [Last year, I think she was part of the last set of performers to be confirmed for the show.]

Either the promotion was too early in relation to the release date, or she wants to change her strategy and focus more on the CDL, or it could be both...

do we know what she's performing at CDTV and Music Station? it's prior to You were.../BALLAD's release, so will she review S/S again?

Because there might be some unknown reason why not. Obviously we don't know what goes on behind the scenes of these shows or Ayu's team.

I totally don't buy promo as being the reason - she could have performed it early or performed something entirely different; she's done it in past years.

Plus, you would have to think that by the time Ayu had the release date of 12/16, FNS likely would have already been decided upon. I doubt just because of the release date change FNS is going to say "oh sure, no problem. you can cancel the performance."

If this were for a scheduling reason, I really, really think she would have explained it on TA since I'm sure everyone in TA is wondering why she didn't perform.

Sure it doesn't make sense that "early promo" is the reason and I agree that she could've sang something else other than the new songs, not that it would matter as she performed JEWEL months before Secret was released.

On the other hand I don't think she shares everything with TA and if they actually asked her I'm pretty sure she'd answer. On the other hand we didn't get the latest blog updates as far as I know :)

Yes, now that FNS is over it seems even more strange that she didn't attend. She could have sung Sunset for example, most of the other acts performed older songs. My guess is that she didn't have time. FNS is more than 3 hours, right? And all the acts sit there and listen to the other acts. So maybe she doesn't have time right now to do nothing for 4 hours? :D On the other hand that explanation is not really that convincing. Very mysterious. *sigh*

How odd.

Question: Most likely Ayu's schedule is decided months in advance, right? Couldn't it have been possible she foresaw not being able to attend when she got the invitation and declined? Are the PVs for the single even finished? It's highly possible she's just too busy, ne?

I wonder if there's gonna be a happy xmas show this year...

^ Unfortunately, there won't. 2008 was the sixth and also the last broadcast of "HAPPY Xmas SHOW!". For this year, Nippon TV and Panasonic decided to replace it with a new show called "The Platinum Ticket". It was broadcasted four days ago (11/30) on the NTV channel.

The performing acts were: Hitoto Yo, CHEMISTRY, JUJU, Sukima Switch, Maki Ohguro and Sarah Brightman.

http://panasonic.jp/platinum/
http://www.ntv.co.jp/platinum/

^ Ah that sucks. I didn't know that.

Then that excuse could have been used every single other year that she attended, but she still attended anyways. ;) That's also then assuming that every artist that showed up is less busy than Ayu and that is definitely not the case for several of the acts there.

Now lets keep or fingers crossed for Best Artist and Super Live.

no Happy XMas show? o.0

Ah, gotcha. I hope it's another valid reason and not related to her injury because if they're still butt hurt over that, they can pull the stick out of their bums xD;

Ok, now that the You Were PV is already out, that pretty much should kill the 'it's too early to promote' theory.