Well, she's far better at hitting higher notes here than during Promised Land ou TROUBLE CDL, when she struggled a lot to do that during live broadcast (all ballads from TROUBLE CDL, snowy kiss and SAKURA from Promised Land). She's not stellar (far from that), but for me she improved a lot, it's at least stable. And I didn't mention POWER of A^3 because she was clearly sick there.

She’s certainly not known for her vocals, but there’s still a scale of her best and worst performances, and this would definitely be towards the worst for vocal ability, imo.

But I feel like she’s overdone it for years. She really had no reason to tour for the past few years considering she had no new material aside from a couple songs. Imagine if she rested, regrouped, and came back super ready and prepared and inspired????? But all that time was spent singing pretty nonstop then giving birth twice then singing more like girl lol.

As a fan I appreciated it, but I also want her to be realistic…

you're so right ! Tours are really awesome to watch, we all know that it is the stage where Ayu feels herself and at home but...
Wish she rested and came back with new songs too, and new theme for her shows. I miss the time when we have a new album and a new tour based on it. It was very exciting !
But I think Ayu fears to lost people if she was doing that, so she sings her old songs again and again...

Hmm... I couldn't bare through most of the show except for Secret. She really needs to dial down on this whole "cutesy" voice thing. It was fine up till 2016-17 when she royally f'd up her upper range. All she has left now is her lower-mid register and somehow she avoids it like a plague?

I watched TROUBLE tour finale and she sounded so, much, better there since she was actually using her lower chest voice...

For me, the vocals weren't necessarily 'bad', but I personally prefer her past voice which was more clear and less 'nigotteru'. (although this time I was glad to see her looking more happy and relaxed/comfortable than some recent performances - the worst thing for me is her seeming very self-conscious and uncomfortable in recent years, perhaps due to the media, perhaps due to injectables which can affect facial expressions). I don't blame her at all for her voice changing and it doesn't affect how much I love her as an artist and an inspiration - aging and having kids changes (in particular, deepens) one's voice, and nothing in life stays the same forever :) In general I prefer the CDL's that have a proper stage rather than a round one because there seems to be more interesting backdrops and choreographies, so I was really happy about that. It's nice to hear everyone's different opinions on it!

I think she sings to however makes her happy :) I think some of the lives too is from an overworked voice but that's not to say I don't get what people are saying :P But she has seemed to make an effort improving her voice for a few years now :) She actually made big improvements since her old vocalist left (think it was PECO) not saying that had anything to do with it but her live vocals did improve since then lol. She also seems to sing better too when shes well rested

Does one need a reason to tour? It's a job like any other? She earns money -> reason good enough to tour, plus it seems like she is enjoying it.

Its the main way an artist can make money. They say if you really want to support your artist, go see them in tour because they get little now from how digital media works. The fact she can do tours years after year would be a better sign of her popularity then over cd sales as well :)

^Yep. It's not very common for someone to tour as frequently as she does with as many dates each time as she does after a career this long. Several stars that were said to replace her in the industry over the years don't attract that kind of public anymore.

Sorry, I meant no other reason other than wanting to tour.

Most musicians only tour to support new material, or they’ll occasionally do a random tour/limited performance.

She’s toured nonstop for several years without anything major to promote.



I went off topic lol.

I do agree that the tours are a blend and that indeed their individual identity is close to non-existing. I would say the first TROUBLE tour did have it in a way, but this has definitely been the case since just the beginning. I think she is going back on track as 23rd Monster seems to be more distinguishing.

You are right thought, her latest tour with a strong sense of identity was MIJ. In a way it does feel like she still is touring JTB with a new name for some years now.

Touring 20+ years non-stop is a really long time so I can understand how she comes with nothing new every year. My dream is to see her live but I'm kinda concerned would her tour these days actually fulfill my dreams since I've been her fan since 2008.

If you think about it, this is kinda what artists seems to go for when they are not releasing any new music. Think about residencies in Vegas. Britney performed 4 years + worldwide tour with 95% of the songs being old classics yet it was a smash hit! We are just use to treated too good by ayu in her career until 2016.

^It doesn't bother me all that much tbh. She did had some pretty interesting single date shows on the past few years, and it's just natural she's not releasing new music nor having new concepts after doing that yearly for so long.

Diana Ross kept touring for almost 15 years without releasing anything between 2000 and 2020, One could argue she is older and they would be right.

The logo for "ayumi hamasaki ASIA TOUR 〜24th Anniversary special @Pia Arena〜", a concert commemorating the 24th anniversary of her debut, to be held on April 6 (Wed), 2022 at Pia Arena MM in Kanagawa, Japan, has been decided!

As the title suggests, this show will be a special performance of the current Asia Tour with a special anniversary selection of songs.
New goods and ticket sales information using this logo will be announced later.

https://avex.jp/ayu/news/detail.php?id=1097455

https://i.imgur.com/OSIEHVol.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/63XhMi5l.jpeg

Logo is very nice, I just don't like this font !

I expect this classic ayu pattern to be repeated on all new goods

Looks little bit messy but I love the idea and it's really nice they tried something different from the usual "A" logo, that pattern is really iconic!

Great Ariana Grande tour.

Yeah, I mean there are plenty of US artists that haven't released new material in years upon years yet they still tour every year. Tours make them money, and it you have a catalogue of hits you can pretty much tour forever.

[azealia banks voice] Got her half up half down... is she giving ARIAKNEE? is she giving ARIANKA or WHAT??

I personally thought it was another ayumi hamasaki x Barbie collab :rolleyes

^ Yeah, that is an old vintage Barbie silhoutte.

Ayu's channel, besides MUSIC for LIFE, will show some selected performances of CDL 23rd Monster during YouTube Music Weekend too!

01. Rule
02. Depend on you
03. Secret
04. Last minute
05. WE WISH
06. SIGNAL
07. RAINBOW
08. 春よ、来い
09. how beautiful you are
10. LOVE ～Destiny～

edit: as for angles, I checked Last minute and they was the same

This is really weird because the email sent out by TA said that it would be Music for Life Return that would be included in the Youtube Music Weekend, but it's definitely CDL :S

I suspect this is not the final edition for the DVD. There are a lot of angles and transitions her editing team doesn't use. But the audio seems edited enough to be released.

It's the dTV re-broadcast.

The audio was so good on YT, I was wondering how come I didn't like it when I was watching it for the first time but looks like they switched it completely, rerecorded or the technology they use is so good. It was quite pleasant to watch this time, not all but such improvement.

I don't think they did any re-recording, the vocals seems the same she sang during live (maybe the exception being Depend on you, it had the most significant audio edition - thank God). They just corrected the pitch of most part of the songs, covered up some missed notes here and there, and the mixing is so much better, her voice blends well with the choir and the instrumental. When someone goes off-key in a not-well mixed sound output, it will be more noticeable because the voice stands out. But some songs had very little adjustments, like Secret, that it's almost the same thing she sang during live broadcast.

I totally loved her LOVE ~Destiny~ performance :love she looks so cute when she gets really excited after signing song's parts right lol awww she looks happy!