Johnny's has a lock on Tokyo dome every year.

i'm sorry, all the magazine's covers were updated yesterday so I believed it was it too.

From FNS site
I think we'll know by tomorrow if Ayu is going to be on FNS or not?

^
yay!! HOPE SO!!
Ayu must be on the list!

This and I'm actually not sure if ayu would be able to fill it on new years eve anymore...but seeing her at Saitama Super Arena or something would be great, thats pretty much the biggest arena there is, right?(not counting domes)

what is the arena that ayu held her Stadium tour 2002 and A-nation every year? is that saitama?

its like coffee without sugar if no Ayu at FNS

So many things on 25th 12nn!!! Ayu's scedule, New FFXIII trailer

is this the finnal list???

http://www9.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/artists/index.html

CDJapan emailed me a news email saying kouhaku had revealed the official list!! Ayu is on it of course!! the 11th time isn't it??

the final kouhaku list has been out for some days now, we are hoping for her to get to FNS at the moment


and saitama super arena is NO stadium, the title already says it

Ayu is not listed on the FNS update and no further planned updates are listed. They announced NOKKO and Big Bang. Honestly seeing NOKKO's name pop up is about the last name I expected to see. I imagine she will be performing Ningyo.

Nooo...:( I wanted Ayu on FNS. I wonder why she's not going. Not invited? Too early for promo? Or maybe she'll show up as a surprise guest. But I don't think so, they don't usually do that, right?

NO FNS? This just made me die a little inside...it's usually he best performance of the year...well, seeing Nana Mizuki as performer for Kouhaku made me smile again so it's okay xD

What a shame she's not on FNS! She's usually like wearing these gorgeous outfits and looking stunning :( By the way would anyone please link me to FNS's website please?

maybe she will be as a surprise there or smth?

she sang moments at 2004

http://wwwz.fujitv.co.jp/FNS/index2.html

Oh yeah i saw this on ac, not sure if they are confirmed, so can treat it as rumor if you want

I agree. Her FNS performances tend to be her best ones. It's weird and makes you wonder if the release date had been kept as normal, would she be attending? Or is there some other reason.

And that is true about Moments - she performed it on FNS like 9 months after it came out. So promo might not necassarily be the reason.

So sad that she won't be on FNS. :(

What? You can't be serious :no. This isn't right, really...

Maybe it's a bit too early - it's out of range. Maybe she's trying to be a bit more conservative - at that point, it would be 27 days until her official release date...

She WOULD most likely (if not, definitely) appear on Music Station Super Live on Christmas night, as it is more closer, but a December 2nd date for promotion? I think that's just out of range or so...

And Ai-chan is not expected either... (I'm referring to Ai Otsuka for that)

She will be in Vivi ♥, I think i said it in the last thread~

I'm just wondering...is the FNS Kayousai (the FNS music festival) an invitation-only event like the Kouhaku, where it is invitation-only?

^ Yes.

So, how do they get invited? And is the Music Station Super Live a non-invitational event?

^ Well basically every event is an invitation event. If they want you there, they will send the invite - doesn't mean that artist will actually accept though. For instance B'z and Mr. Children aren't going to be on FNS, but I'm sure they got invited. And then there are newer acts that I'm sure the record companies beg to have on the show, like Girl Next Door for example. (no offense meant against them) But obviously FNS isn't necessarily going to care whether they are there or not, but the record company for sure does for promotion.

It's most likely that Ayu declined her invitation because I'm not sure why they wouldn't want her there. I don't think she declined because its too early for promo though - as mentioned, she hasn't always performed her latest single at FNS anyways.
It's possible they just don't want her, but it would have to be for some behind the scenes reason we don't know about.

Im watching the BEST HIT festival right now... is that VTR-Live of Ayu still on? Cos I dont think she'll be in this live

haha, i'm watching this right now too...from a hotel room feed in tokyo. awesome... so where in JPN I guess, is this occurring?

I dun know.. but so far the acts are not really good.. but the moving stage is kinda nice, isnt it?

lol... yeah, wassup w/ these tributes to the oldies though eh?

they usually do that..this has been a long-running programme I think... but this "M"-song, it's the same song called M that Ayu sang on Ayuready once

ah did everyone see the clip just now w/ Ayu singing Dearest, followed by I think Mika Nakashima?

AYUUUUU!! Dearest :D Yea Awesome =) You're seeing everything like 10 seconds earlier I think... Ooh Ai Otsuka... now the fun era is being shown finally.

too bad ayu didn't join in best hit T__T

I really do think she declined her invitation, because there are some artists who I have no idea why they got invited instead of her, so I think for reasons we don't know, she has not been invited.

Or maybe the rumor from last year was a bit true, and some companies still don't like the fact she cancelled Music Station at the last minute??? I don't know...

Or maybe there will be a last minute addition. I am hoping w w.

Agreed, Ayu and SMAP were closing the show for years, regardless of the fact they had hits that year or not It's a shame she declined if she was invited though ^^

Ayu probably declined to be in BEST HIT, FNS because she wants to focus in releasing her latest single? haha lol :D
or just like how she declined to receive awards for almost every years.. haha lol :D

It's at the Kobe World Hall. Website: http://www.world-kobe.jp/

I didn't watch the show, but I assume you are referring to "M" by Princess Princess. Originally released back in 1989.

wow, I just subribed for 6 months subscription!

ayu hasn't performed at the best hit kayousai in years...while she has been at fns every year for like the past decade. I hope this means they're busy working toward the new single's release.

^don't forget about CDL preparation

^ Never stopped her before.

btw, has anyone seen Best Hit Kayousai up for download yet anywhere?

I don't think they didn't invited her because of cancelling MS special last year... OMG! she FELL down the stairs! She wnt on sugery! How would she be prepared to sing the next day! It would be the stupidest thing ever to be angry because Ayu was felling down in every corner and could not sing ¬¬

On Fuji TV blog, so many people are asking why Ayu isn't appearing?
They say like "FNS's feeling is Ayu." or "It's too lonely without her."
I really wanna know why she won't go...

^
woahh i hope that FNS staff heard the fans asking about Ayu not going..
i hope they invited her! or she decides to go!

^ Doubtful. There are also bunches of people posting "why isn't NEWS coming?" "Why isn't KAT-TUN coming?" "Why isn't Mr. Children coming" etc etc. It's not just Ayu. Anyone who feels their favorite artist has gotten shafted is posting - probably happens every year.

hmmm~
Ayu is like there every year, and seeing her not in Best Hit and FNS too.. hmmm.. she lacks of promotion each year T__T

I agree. This is really sad. Even if the release date is still so far away, but I guess that's the reason. I think it's really suspicious. FNS really feels lonely without Ayu because she's been there for years. And she has a single coming up, I doubt she won't be able to do it on the second. She could do Sunset as well. It's not sad that KAT-TUN, NEWS or MR. Children are not coming. It is sad that Ayu's not coming. (Don't get me wrong. I love KAT-TUN and Mr. Children but I don't find it remotely sad that they are not going to be there, I don't associate them with FNS like I associate Ayu with FNS) Well, we cannot change it, but I just have to say :eviltongu to Fuji-TV.

Yeah, she most likely will be at the Best Artist 2009, but FNS? I don't know why, and I want to learn more about why she is not going, but maybe this might be sad for fans of Ayu and FNS.

And shouldn't Ayu even post on her diary any kind of reason why she's not attending this? Is it really because it's a bit too early for her promotion or some kind of sort? Or is she just going to make a last-minute decision that she would be there with the fact that she announced it at the last minute? What is going on with Ayu now - do we even know where she is right now - is she in Japan or is she surprisingly in America for some sort of recording?

I hope so too :(.

But it seems like Ayu's fans are posting more than the other ones.

She is practicing for CDL.

I think if the reason is because she wants to focus her energies more on CDL or just wants to take a bit of a break this year, she would post that in her diary. If it is for some other reason though, I doubt she is going to mention it; you don't want to draw attention to the fact that for some reason you weren't invited to participate in one of the biggest music shows of the year.

^ It could also be a very personal issue keeping her from attending ;)

It's probably way too early for her promotion to begin or something. Just look at how long it took for small snippets of You were... to appear! [a little more than a month before release date] This single's been so under wraps, it's a little strange imo. I feel like the live schedule will probably be out at the same time as Days/GREEN's since the shows all fall around the same timeframe regardless of when someone's releasing. [November 30th~December 1st] Perhaps she'll try to load up on mid-January TV promotion along with the year end stuff?

It'd be a bit sad if her live schedule this season goes the way of Rule/Sparkle and NEXT LEVELwith her performing at maybe Kouhaku and that's it. I remember wanting more than just that MS performance, and then... that's all we got. It was like... YOU JUST RELEASED AN ALBUM, WOMAN.

One thing I hate about things like this [the not attending FNS thing] is that 2chers looooooooooove bringing out the Hama-buta/Hama-basanwwwww comments. Blah.

Same here:yes
It was really strange to see her releasing an album but only doing 1 live performance!!

Hopefully she'll do some performances and appear in magazines:D

This might be a really stupid question but has been already announced?
And wasn't she supposed to be in Oricon style or whatever that magazines is called?

i always love her FNS performance, with all live orchestra and different arrangement...
i really hope she will appear

i would be so disappointed if that happened again. hopefully it won't. i'm getting so impatient waiting for the site to update.. seriously it is not summer anymore they need to get that layout out of there and at least get rid of the s/s promotion dates in the schedule :headache

Yeah, maybe she is way too busy, and/or it's just a bit too early to promote...

I just found out that we have already leaks of Kanjani8's new three-single affair; isn't that kind of early? Maybe she's going to try avoiding promoting early by not going to FNS this year - it would be 27 days prior to her actual release, which is a bit too far to promote...

Hopefully she can come back in 2010 (with blonde hair again, I suspect if a pattern like 2005-2006 does), but 2009 may be a no-go...

She only performed once during NEXT LEVEL because of her recording and tour commitments. Her blog made it clear she only finished recording/mixing the album a few weeks before it went on sale, and after that she concentrated on rehearsing for her arena tour. From the reports of the first concert, you can tell she was underprepared from her tight schedule. Where do you think TV lives fit into this? Ayu clearly thinks that concerts for her fans take priority over TV lives. She had to concentrate her time somewhere, or both the TV lives and first few concerts would have suffered.

^I think we all know that...but ayu had way busier schedule especially during her peak. Maybe she should start on the new album sooner so things won't get cramped at the last minute. Anyways, hopefully there'll be more performances besides the koukahu. I love ayu's TV ballad dresses.

Do we really have any recent updates on the FNS situation? If she's not going to appear for FNS, then you'd better get going on voting for Ayu furiously that she can be the nightcap act once again...

My odds of Ayu appearing at the Best Artist...i'd say, like around 1-5 on the morning line? Maybe Ayu should stay busy for the CDL, the Best Artist, the MSSL of the year and the Kouhaku, and maybe let's just wait for Ayu appear at FNS next year - maybe with her signature blonde hair (I just don't think about being comfortable appearing with dark hair if she really ever appears this year, if she can make it in a very slim chance), and maybe for her 50th single commemoration (if she releases singles at this current steady pace)...

Fan club mails were sent out to notify members that she will be performing at a CDTV COUNTDOWN special on 12/7. [taped perhaps?]

That's less than a week after FNS... Hmmm.

That's wierd...
She won't be on FNS but she will be on a show a week afterwards?
I wonder why.

@CDTV
woah

Concerning FNS, I still harbour a secret hope she'll show up as a surprise, If not, FNS won't be forgiven. I don't think Ayu declined, why would she?

For what I understood in the email the deadline for application is the 3/12 and the 4/12 they will e-mail the winner with the day, hour and place... so maybe it's not tapped as they will email the winner only 3 days before it...

Looks like it will be live according to some TA members... I'll change it to read as such now.

If you check the TBS website then there is no CDTV SP scheduled at that time. I suspect that it could be a pre-recorded performance for the year end special on 12/31.

just get an email from CDJapan...
ayu will be appear in next SCawaii 2010 February Issue
with bonus ayumi hamasaki+RODEO CROWNS original bandanna.

S Cawaii! 2010 February Issue w/ Ayumi Hamasaki Original Bandanna

I would like to buy this if the shipping cost is not expensive... *sigh*

i think you were.../ballad won't get much magazine cover promo, because namie will release her new album, and i believe that avex will push the promo to namie album...i just hope that avex will give ayu single a promo too...

^ yeah.. and maybe that's also one of the reasong why ayu's single was pushed back to end december... There would be a lot of promotion and cover mags for namie's album the same week, with no space for Ayu's single... so maybe for the ayu's release week for Yw/B she'll have covers...

Ayu will probably get the magazines for the next month (Janurary right?) because You were.../BALLAD is getting released at the end of the month~

finally the official site updates!

http://www.avexnet.or.jp/ayu/jp/schedule/

^i hope so...ayu winter single deserve a lot of promotion...but so far we got nothing...i hope avex will update her schedule soon

edit : yay...avex update her schedule, but..the promo is so little...just 2 tv performance and 2 magz...sigh...

^ yay for bea's Up :luv2

Woo! ViVi and Bea's Up! :heart

But yeah seems like the promo really won't be too massive :/

Wow, didn't expect tv asahi to air another Music Station episode before the SUPER LIVE. Thanks for the info.

maybe more will be added? they usually don't add them all at once.
i hope the photo shoots will be something good!

yeah sure they will add more ^^ maybe not a LOT more...

they havn't announced CDTV special even though TA members got an e-mail to attend as audience... so there are 3 TV performances, and maybe more ^^

<nd also someone announced Scawaii for frebruary 2010 (released 4 january) so also 3 magazines shoots!

Usually Ayu does more TV performances in winter than any other season xDD I don't think we'll get a lot more magazines though ^^

it seems like promotion will go from first december to first january ^^

wow... only 11 days for the first one!! Sure she'lls ing You were...

I love Bea's up..
thanks for the update

I hope they'll add more things for promote Yw/BALLADS
and woah I love Bea's up photoshoots!

thanks :D

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.