I really enjoyed both performances! I was expecting the worst with TO BE after reading the comments here. She's done way wayyyy worse. I think she actually sounded more than decent.

Like most of you, I too have been feeling so much second hand embarrassment watching and listening to a lot of her stuff for the past few years. This terrible performance and look aside, I don't know what it will take for her to objectively see and hear herself nowadays. Why does she not acknowledge her current vocal limitations and insist on mutilating old songs? Why does she dress and act like a 20 year old now when she didn't act like that when she was 20? I'm sure she can afford a 5 year hiatus to rediscover who she is. Right now its looking like a continuously desperate attempt at relevancy that definitely isn't helping her make her way back into the Japanese public's hearts.

I would say part of the issue is just not appearing on TV all that often anymore so she doesn't really have much of a sense for what to wear and when. However, I don't think she cares much about staying relevant since it's not as though she is showing up on MS all the time. Before this, when was the last time she was on a show like this? Typically it seems like if they invite her to a big special, she says yes. From late 2015 to now, she has had four TV lives, all at MUSIC STATION and all with 3 months between appearances. Once for Ultra Fest in September 2015, once for an MS special in March 2016, again for Ultra Fest 2016 in September 2016, and this last special for March 2017.

I think it feels like even though she's on social media and stuff, these last few years we've seen even less of her as far as music and new content has gone so it's a bit like we lack the connection to her career that we did up until 2010/2011 when she really got into social media and basically stopped being as active as she was with releases and promotion.

Sometimes I imagined Ayu has swapped with another Ayu and the real Ayu is enjoying her luxurious life somewhere on the Earth.

Kidding. I wish she would control her voice and sing more carefully though.

omg thank you for articulating what I've been feeling for ages.

The deeper she goes into her most recent "phase" of "I'm living only for myself instead of what others expect from me", the more disingenuous everything about her seems. The old Ayu was seemingly untouchable in that she was a well-constructed persona, she was all over the media, and everything she touched turned to gold...and yet there was always a vulnerable, relatable quality to her. She's not a talented actress and I think it's very telling that back then, she seemed more natural than she has in years. Now everything seems forced, superficial, and, as another poster said, overly contrived to the point of ridiculousness. It's almost as if there's an (attempt at an) elaborate show to distract you from the fact that, under the surface, there isn't much left. Are we being punked? Of course people grow and change over time but to see someone who has been such an influence in my life devolve to this point actually breaks my heart.

This might seem slightly over dramatic to some (I'm having a bad week; let me live) but this performance really feels like a death knell for my fandom, and I have stanned this woman for over half my goddamn life.

What the fuck is she doing?

That performance was messy as hell. I legit had to pause TO BE once she started screaming the chorus and get up and look away for a second. Embarrassing

I thought I was the only one who thought the dress looked unflattering on her. She should have kept with the outfit she wore in the beginning.

ourselves is good to me, I split it from the medley to make the subtitle.
Hope for her better vocal in the tour.

yes! at first I thought shes going to wear something like that, or something close to what she always wore during her days promoting Ourselves but then she came out with that dress and I was still hoping that she got another layer underneath her dress but NO :no

another huge problem well at least for me that she always looked very different when she appeared on MSta nowadays compared to her look behind the scene/documentary/concert in the DVD, seriously whoever did her makeup didn't do any justice for that. Just look at her recent pics in Italy, she looked totally fine and fresh but not in MSta yesterday. She looked fuller and I can barely see her eyes and that dress with her busty chess made me think she barely or really has a short torso lol, so imagine the public who didnt follow her at all suddenly saw that. Thus the harsh comments and memes on social media meh,

They should see her in Documentary AT16 she looked so good! :grumpy

Agree so much.

Indeed. Still this wasn't her absolute worst. We all remember the butchered evolution performance from 2010/2011 I think where she admitted it was her absolute worst. Then there was a Mirrorcle World/SURREAL performance from 2008 where she murdered SURREAL with vibrato and screaming. This one wasn't bad on that level, but it was far from good. ourselves partially saved it...

Its not her best but it worse when she goes into the chorus. But i think she would get more back lash for not making it :P the music shows are very grudge full when you stop going to them, like when ayu couldn't make one in the past :P I think part of it feels like she just does them as a commitment, maybe its just because she keeps doing her 2002ish songs. She might sound better with her tv lives if she focused on her newer stuff, that her voice is good for. She has a more mature voice now compared to her past, and she cant hit the same notes now, but she can still hit the note/pitch of her new stuff fine. Like if she would sing Your the only one, and sings it like her area tour, that would show her voice training off, and it shows she still has a good strong voice

Ourselves was brilliant! TO BE I could have done without.

Think how different we'd all feel if she'd done FLOWER, a song she's meant to shout. She has plenty of great new songs, something like TODAY would have been so good.

Who picks the songs for these events anyway? Is it a compromise between the show and artist?

The problem is that she doesn't look that bad in normal life. I don't come to Ayu section as often like I used to be, but sometimes I still visit the social media thread to see what she's up to. She can just wear any of those shown in her instagram, and I bet the general public will say those outfits are more relevant then the one she wore last night. And actually most of her outfits on recent MS are unflattering. I feel like she's trying to make them as grand as possible, like she cannot really separate the sense of normal tv lives' outfits from concerts' outfits. (I still cannot forget the hideous outfit she wore when she sang Feel the Love on MS super live).

But you're right. Lately I find that all her tweets are all about her glamorous life, nothing music about her career. Also, I'm actually quite amazed that she can do tours in arenas nowadays. All the artists around her era are doing concerts in halls or even smaller places. I guess her hardcore fans in Japan are really loyal after all.

She just doens't wear tees and jeans on tv anymore. Like I said above, she thinks grand outfits are the best. After I watched last night's performances, I watched her early lives (from her debut to maybe like Love Songs era). I wish she would wear some street fashion clothes on tv. Even if she's wearing pretty dresses, she can make them elegant like the one she wore in HEAVEN (the first MS live). But no she decided to wear that dress, to a point that I think her vocal wasn't as bad as I thought because the dress was quite distracting.

And about her chest... If she wanted to show off her figure in the first place, then she is doing it wrongly. I really think that cutting was not complimenting her body at all. Like you said, My brother even went further by saying that her b**bs cannot fight against gravity. And like you said, that dress made her torso so full. I just don't understand, she had waist in the beginning of the show (as shown by her opening outfit), then all of the sudden she looked like she gained 10 pounds. What was she thinking when she chose that outfit...?

She can still do dresses but something that is not from 90s anymore. Something properly fitted and more luxurious. I commented this long ago, at her level, it's not difficult to loan outfit from famous designers or even custom or whatnot. Look at all the KPOP stars, they are very relevant because what they wear in public when they perform sells as good as their record. So I really don't understand up to this moment ayu still depends on her "designer" to create all these questionable outfits. I mean seriously. She started these "costumes" thingy like around 2005 probably, when she wore that mini floral dress for STEP you in 1726353 colors each live. I watched her 2004 Moments performance and she actually wear different interesting outfits every live. It's such a joy to watch. Now everything is uniform. Like if she like this dress she will have it designed in 100 colors just in case. I come from fashion retail background and trust me, if customers saw ayu wore, let say Gucci, in her tour or live, I tell you, they will visit the shop amd say: I want this top, ayu wore it. Gucci marketing team will definitely promote it as well. She of all people should know how important all these aspects are. Even the Taiwanese singers are being relevant nowadays because they know, music and performance can only get them that far, image is very important.

We may not love Alvin, but you gotta admit at some point he actually made her looked like a Superstar that she is.
She needs talent like that.

And yes, she gotta stop acting princessy cute as it's not relevant anymore.

Its just sad cos I'm really looking forward to this but... well...

Those mini floral dresses for STEP you were actually quite nice. And she did wear different dresses for HEAVEN performances in 2005, so she was still doing great during that year.
And I agree that she can borrow/rent outfits from famous brands. Her "designer" or "stylist" should be fired asap because I don't find any of her live outfits good at all in recent years. The dress from last night alone is enough to dismiss her styling team.

I know it's probably not good to diss her like this. But she was the fashion queen back in her early careers. Almost every Japanese girls followed her styles, and everything she did become trends (fox tail, VISEE make ups, hair styles, out fits, etc.). Even I didn't really like her diva look around 2008 (A COMPLETE era), she still looked glamorous and beautiful. Had she never been a fashion queen, I wouldn't find her nowadays fashion that bad. But her choices and tastes are just polar opposite from the early ayu. Obviously I know people keep changing throughout years, so I don't find weird she has different taste of fashions compared to before. But I never imagined that we would diss her fashion to that far. Just never.

it's so suddenly sad to read all these negative comments here :( usually it was always me saying 'oh I miss old ayu! her old vocals were so perfect and I hate her current vocals' and everyone's here was reacting very good to her new vocals and etc. but now most of people here are not satisfied. it breaks my heart to see her hardcore fans being so negative on her. no, I don't blame anyone. this is just sad :(

tbh I really enjoyed all MSta yesterday. I watched it live and I sang lots of songs along like Ozaki Yutaka's 'Sotsugyou', AKB's old songs, ahh and X JAPAN songs. it was sooooo good! and I was so surprised they ended with X JAPAN not with Johnny's. Oooh it was great! so as I sang along all the songs I barely noticed bad vocals of ayu �� but yeah, I thought that she looked not very good and that the dress didn't fit ourselves and that Timmy was too disctracting. but I enjoyed the talk and how she talked to Yoshiki :)

and the only tweet I remember today is "chemistry, hamasaki ayumi, x japan are on tv right now. is it really 2017?!" haha

they also showed the debut videos. it's sad they didn't show YOU performance! :(

overall I can say I enjoyed it very much. I need to rewatch ayu's performance again.

She doesn't need to even loan the designer outfits, she can buy them or pull them out of her own damn wardrobe. For how good she's looked the last few years the whole outfit/styling made no sense!

ourselves new version is very hypnotic.