Also... Peco was more than a backing vocal, she was also the concerts director as well choreographer together with Ayu... I think is a little naive putting the fault on her for Ayu's voice.

By the way, was watching old TV talks and there was one from 2008 (A BEST 2 promotion era) in which Ayu mentioned how her throat is always sick. That sometimes she would wake up and have this raspy voice. The TV host even joked that one day when he called her he thought it was a men on the phone. With that being said, it might explain a lot about her current situation.

After this concert it's a good time to listen again to "Duty" from CDL 2014-2015. It was so good it hardly needed any editing.

Her voice changes are seriously impressive imo. If you told me the one who sang poker face, guilty and flower are 3 different persons, I would believe it.

I think she’d sound wonderful if she stuck to her deeper voice and lower register, her screaming right now just sounds painful to listen to for me.

This is interesting, I didn't know about it!

Perhaps. I am not going to insist on this as it probably doesn’t hold water in the world outside of my head. It could be a a pure coincidence that ayu started sounding worse when Peco started being her back vocal or as you said it could have been the hearing issue that progressed further around that time.

Interesting maybe she has permanent nodules on her vocal chords ?
In the first place making her singing that high while it’s was not her natural tone was a bad idea but I assume it was for marketing purpose so ...

I became a fan during STEP you and to me 2005 was one of her best live-voices.

is it this show? https://yadi.sk/d/ba9mPSpqzEcjUA

Yes. "My throat is very weak, so it often dries up".

Exactly! And this was 12 years ago so maybe her condition got worst.

I had no idea about this. I would assume this contributes and if she does take proper care, she probably can sustain her vocals.

Yeah, hearing her voice became worse around that time is a first for me. :shakehead

Interesting. I wouldn't have known it had begun around 2005 either. Would've thought a few years later.

I remember at least one bad TV live with Step you. Need to rewatch, it's been years.

For me her golden vocals era was around A BEST 2. I love every single live she did to promote this album and I'm a big fan of the vibratos all the way. <3

She had up and downs during that year. Most of is this LOVE? lives weren’t that great, but her voice started going downhill with the CDL when GUILTY was released.

In terms of pitch, even before that, 2007 was a difficult year when hearing issues got worse: some Fated and Together When... lives were completely off-key, ending with infamous CDL. Although there still was a number of good TV performances that I loved that year.

CM of this live - https://www.instagram.com/p/BtlPZ0LHtLm/

So it was Duty and Pride and Microphone! Not the theme of a-nation '03 or songs from CDL 2004-2005 but same taiko drums

https://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram...ninstagram.com

https://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram...ninstagram.com

https://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram...ninstagram.com
🎉さいたまparty🎉

9️⃣月4️⃣日out🎈🎈🎈🎈

#ayumihamasaki21stAnniversary
#PowerOfA^3
#パワーオブエーキューブ
#埼玉スーパーアリーナ

I had actually forgotten about that outfit/segment until I saw these pics.