I think the special effects used for the performance were better than her actual singing. She seems to be having a hard time singing the faster parts of the song and her voice gets very strained. I was very disappointed by her vocal performance in this song when I first saw it because this was probably my only liked song off her Exodus album. I like the background effects though, that's what probably makes the whole performance seem so great.

You do know that the news article about having no.1 and no.2 albums by a female solo artist at the same time on the Oricon album chart was "done again" by Ayu, right?

Well, 36 years ago, guess who the last artist was that achieved that?

Hikki's mom. Keiko Fuji.


BTW, Hikki has terrible stage presence. Like, Kaori Mochida of ELT can't really sing that well anymore, but hell, she puts on an amazing show :D

lol I guess I'm the only one who hates this performance. Her voice was all over the place...and I was like "are you still going to sing??" towards the end. I don't know if I'd rather hear ayu sing "fairyland" offkey or listen to the crazy vibrato...! There's other performances of hikki's that does it for me where I fall in love with her all over again <3! But not this one lmao </3.

And I think comparing ayu and hikki will never end...:/ But I agree they have nothing in common in terms of music.

LOL the article you quoted says "underrated". I don't think an extremely popular artists would be ever called "underrated".

Wow, Hikki's parents are OLLD.


The wikipedia entry probably says that because she's not as big a name now as she was 30-40 years ago..

[whereas Yuming, Akina Nakamori, and Seiko are all still somewhat present in Japan right now..]

lol... That Wikipedia article was so badly written.

"She is a far superiour singer than any other who has ever recorded in the Japanese language, including her formidable superstar daughter"

- if Keiko Fuji was more popular, I'm sure that article would have been flagged by wiki's staff as being non-neutral. Not to mention the spelling mistake hahaha.

Even worse is the article that the wikipedia entry references... lol.. It claims Utada Hikaru sold 40 million albums in Japan
(the record holder for female artist is 29.3 million - Yuming)

But as for comparing Utada and Hamasaki Ayumi... I'd say that Utada Hikaru is an exceptionally talented music singer, songwriter and producer. Probably highly intelligent and above average singer...

The quote by truehappiness is funny but silly:

- a fan of classical music would compare Hikki to Cecilia Bartoli, Sarah Brightman etc, and make the same statement you just did about Hikki.

In my opinion, Hamasaki Ayumi's is Japan's highest selling solo artist BECAUSE she wasn't some super talented music artist who went to opera school or had a rich music producer as her dad and an ex-superstar as her mum.

Instead, "She was picked up after being heard at a karaoke bar" ..... worked excessive hours and went to vocal training... - while always singing and writing from the heart..... and BECAME number 1.

Hikki is popular because of her talent and background.. Hamasaki Ayumi is even more popular because she deserves it more.

First of all, I think Hikki lacks a stage presence. The stage takes over instead of her taking over the stage, and the background, pretty as it is, just overwhelms her presence. But that might be just me.

I'm not fond of this performance because I think she sounds extremely strained when she's trying to hit the higher notes (she's an alto, through and through), she kind of has trouble breathing, which is just downright distracting, and the effect in the background music overwhelmed her voice, and the song doesn't really show off her voice because she's obviously not that comfortable with that range.

But not to sound like a butthead, do you have to bring up Ayu vs. Hikki? Why saying if she's the best vocalist, only Ayu was mentioned? their voice is completely different, they sing completely different stuff (no seriously, if Hikki tries to sing an Ayu song, I don't think the result would be that pretty).

But to be honest, I have not find the perfect vocalist yet. Sure, Celine Dione has great techniques, but I always thought she lacks flavor in her songs.

I just wish Hikki could go back to release r&b.

I find it funny and interesting that 36 years ago, it was utadas mom that achieved the #1 and #2 album ranks.I dont know how popular her mom was back then but you gotta have some kind of popularity to have both albums top the chart at the same time.

I love Ayu, but her beginnings came from being picked up at velfarre [a now closed avex dance club / karaoke place], where she was discovered by max matsuura. Then he wanted her to become a singer, so she got lessons or w/e and then she sent him letters and then that made max wonder if she could write her own lyrics.. then it just grew from there :D~~

In your own opinion, of course. ;)

In my opinion, Ayaka has a powerful voice.

love ayu more :D

hahaha =)

You're right of course, I should have written IMO in front (ie: that she deserves it). Because many people would disagree with that statement....

BUT I did start my conclusion with IMO (see my post again).

That being said, Hamasaki is the highest selling solo artist of all time in Japan and in terms of "Star Power" (ie: commercials, sales, media power, social influence etc - as Forbes would put it) ... I believe it is safe to say Hamasaki Ayumi is more "popular" than Utada.

why does it matter how she was discovered or what her origins were? Many successful people flunked school, were orphans or were illiterate. How is this any different to singers?

For example, I used to like Andrea Bocelli... And yet, even he was criticized by classical purists for not singing (as you put it)... "formally"

Or put it another way... If Koda Kumi were to suddenly dress up in Chanel evening gowns and hire a classical orchestra... Would her singing skill be any different (assuming she didn't go to vocal training etc)? Of course not!

And yet, there would be many people who think so, due to her shift into a different "cultural role" in society.

forget the voice, I was blown away by the stage, it looks so beautiful. Ayu's concert stages look like there just made up of cheap crappy props.

^^haha lol XD

great stage, ayu's not bad either :D

I am gonna flame you!! Mufufufu!! :lech

Well, I do have one of Hikaru's Album called Ultra Blue or something like that.. The 6th song (forgotten :no ) was my favorite though..

Now, I heard that Utada's -Flavor of Life- Ballad version is nice so I am searching for it.. Note that I am NOT requesting..

Well, same as FuNsTyLe, I like Utada Hikaru too.. But Ayumi comes in first!

Hikki had one of the greatest minds of photography / directing at her disposal..

Her ex-husband, Kazuaki Kiriya. Hikki's previous concerts are nothing compared to the UTADA UNITED one, mostly because she didn't have one of the best people in the business to ever direct promotional videos at her side..

Ayu directs everything, while Hikki probably just chose some outfits and the setlists, while leaving the rest to her husband. There's also the fact that Hikki basically had NOTHING but her band and outfits. I wouldn't want Ayu to simply just stand there/walk around the stage, and I wouldn't want the screens on the ground / huge screen behind to compromise her activity on stage :D

I'm a fan of Hikki too , but I don't personally feel she was at her best on Utada United 2006. I think the concert was great , I liked the setlist & the stage was one of the best I've seen. but I found Hikki sounding very strained & shrill & unpleasant , especially the chorus of 'Be My last' sounded bad to me.

Well stop comparing stage sets,outfits, CM's, sales and promotion... I was talking about voice Off course I know Ayu is much more of a superstar than Hikki..But when it comes to voice, Utada beats her by far! And btw..Ayu's vibrato really annoys me, because it doesnt sound natural, if you watch her older performances from around 2001 and earlier, she did not have any vibrato, and it sounds better then.
It doesn't come natural, and in some performances, it's actually very annoying

^ That seems your opinion from what the other members have voiced. Some do not like Hikki's vocals. I for one tend to get sick of hearing her vocals after listening to them for long. I like her vibrato because it creates a dramatic ending but not everyone agrees.

I think Utada is not better than Ayumi in terms of vocals, and I'm not judging by just one performance.

Utada sounded horribly strained on Utada United, and she did so even after they mastered the sound for the DVD... hearing her voice on the DVD, I'm scared to think how did she sound for real...

Ayumi recieved vocal training, three months streight, she came back and did lives, and even though she had squeeky voice, she never gasped for air or went of key trying to hit high notes. She sang sort of on the same note all the time at first, but as years went by, her voice gained deepness.

I don't hear pretty much any kind of developement in Hikki's voice, over the years. The way she sounded in Automatic, she sounds the same way in Flavor of Life, except maybe a bit more grown up. When she was doing lives for FoL, again, she sounded strained, and even singing parts of the song that seemed easy to sing, she seemed to have trouble with them.

Ayu has been doing tons of lives throughout her career, both TV lives as well as tours, that's how she practiced her voice. I couldn't see Utada being nearly as active as Ayumi was. It seems to me Utada just started singing without much practicing, her singing sounded good at the very beginning so she (or anyone else that was around, working on her records) didn't feel that she needs much specific training. The best proof is how quickly she got worn off doing UU06. I can't remember myself hearing Ayu strained just becouse of singing a lot (the off-key CDL had its reason).

It's not that I don't like Utada, I just think Ayumi is technically a better vocalist, even if Utada's voice sounds nicer (at least on studio tracks).