^ Absolutely agree with you on this.

i just watched the show and there are times i want to shout and say “ayu, please rest!!” with all the upcoming schedules, how can she cope those?

I'm sorry but I had to laugh on the last picture XD the Outfit the dancers reminds me of work cloths the waste collectors in Germany wears. Now I can not unseren this anymore XD

Still have to watch the Concert but it's interessting to read what everyone to say about it

The glasses from rollin’ Live AT09 are back ��, it’s a pity she only sang the chorus.

They look like hi-vis wear that a lot of tradies wear here in Australia :laugh

i know u guys gonna skip this part, but i wanna say, this time im so happy with PoA^3 ver of "Born To Be..." performance, mainly because the first half part they pay tribute to the PV infamous yellow spotlight scene, love it!

Yup, and lots of other things that can happen.
The floor is slippy. She dehydrates (look at the amount of sweat and movement..) The strong spotlights. etc.

She herself said on TA that she tends suddenly loses balance bc of her ear condition. Doesn't mean she constantly has issues with balance, it means that if her ears start acting up in the middle of her concert she might lose balance, and like people have already mentioned, this happening on an elevated platform wouldn't be fun. Hence why she's fine with wearing heels but needs someone to support her on an elevated platform

^I have balance issues of my own, and movement caused by factors our of my control tend to get the worst of them, so, it may happen because of something I did, but sudden movement of the place I'm, being it a car, an elevator, etc it's always the worst. This and abrupt change of heights.

This also might explain why she is not performing aerial numbers anymore, or needed someone to hold her on the a-nation chart.

im actually happy to see her performing in arenas and not in halls.

Yeah, I wanted to hear more of that song.

Who from 04.06:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwCXVj6g6q4/

She was really full of energy, and overall the concert is pretty cool. The low points are the vocals, as pointed out already, and some weird choices like the outfit change and weird use of props (what was the point of the floating pyramid in HEAVEN? It's a great prop, but with such a random use).

Honestly, if I was part of her team, I woudn't allow live broadcast of her concerts. I don't remember seeing a lot of female singers doing that, and they don't do it for a reason. I can see the excitement, but I think it would be better even if they would have the footage for a week and then show it to us with a proper edit, and when I say that it's not only for the audio/vocals, but also for the image itself.

^I believe the use of the prop during Heaven was a light nod to the ABL performance.

Right, it doesn't look like such broadcasts help her gain new fans.

She looks so cute in the photos with the green top. I actually really like that costume.

I’m enjoying this version. Especially the ending outro where the choir sung “born to be”. I also prefer this version over the POM18 and even POM11.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the rendition she does for POM. The original version that she did for AT05 packs all the power the song is meant to inspire, so I’m glad she did it for this show.

Can anyone upload Duty track from AWA?
My location isn't available to install the app T.T

No, definitely not...
I've seen some very bad Japanese press and comments on SNS about her bad vocals and especially about her being an hour late for a scheduled broadcast.
E.g. they also mention that she is not apologizing for or at least explaining why she was so late... and how often it happened in the past.
In the end the conclusion mostly is that she and her team are not professional and they're wondering if she's even cherishing the fans she (still) has.

I mean I love her and I had the chance to see her live in 2017 while living in Japan, but decided not to go, cause her tickets are simply too expensive for what she has to offer for me.

started watching this, why is the music SO loud during Duty? You could barely hear her voice,. The visuals on the screen are amazing tho

After listening to the whole show again (audio only) at work, I like it even more than I did originally, despite the sucky vocals. There are still parts and songs on the setlist I don’t like, but I would definitely buy the dvd if they can do a decent job and not CDL2015-16 it.

BRILLANTE japanese creepy style is so much more magical than the original creepy style

I thought laundry machine was the only joke.
However, we have something else to laugh at in 2019. Thank u, ayu.

https://i.imgur.com/idf2Lfa.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/SbaoLy1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6hToOaI.jpg

Because of this my (German) friend and I laughed so hard at the concert. We were like wtf? O.O :laugh

Calvin Klein started this construction workers collection trend few years ago.

I noticed this too! It was a nice touch.:yes

I watched the concert - thank you guys for posting the link. It's the first live broadcast I've watched in full from Ayu.

I'll get the negative stuff out of the way first which was the lack of the band and Ayu's vocals. I would say a live band is a must for me (although to be fair I got used to Namie not having a band) and Ayu especially as I've become attached to the members over the years. I always get a little worried that when her band isn't there that this is the start of them appearing less and less even if I don't think this is going to be the case!

The vocals weren't great and she relied on a lot of backing track. I do wonder if this is going be how she is going to sound going forward. I get it as she's never been known for her vocals in the first place, probably doesn't have a good technique, has been touring for the best part of 20 years and you have her hearing issues to add to that! I hope her vocals can improve on the next tour though.

Onto the positives!

I loved the choir, taiko drums and string section. I wasn't a fan of the drums when she's used them in the past but they worked so well here especially in Brillante Speaking of, I'm always chuffed when she performs Brillante as I always figured it would be a song she would perform once and that's it.

The choir sounded so good in Walking Proud! I'd definitely be up for album of re-recorded songs.

The setlist was great and I thought she sounded best on Bold & Delicious and Born To Be (has she ever performed these songs together before?) What a combo! Although I would like to see her do the original version of B&D again, I did really enjoy the new arrangement this time round.

I loved Yongae!

I was getting a bit tired of the Lelio/XOXO medley so the Sparkle/NaNaNa/etc medley sounded great! (Although they do drag Sparkle out a bit for my liking)

The show just looked great in general. I thought the dancers had some better choreography too.

So bring on the upcoming tour!

^Her dancers really are getting better choreography latelu! About the vocals, she most likely was sick or tired, as she sounded way better on the first date, so I don't think this is how she will sound from now on when she is healthy.

And the B&D + Btb... combo was used before on both POMs

you know I'm wondering if the 4.6 show that I attended was the exception and if all these torturing vocals are the norm now...

^ Don't worry it's not the norm, the shows I attended in 2016 weren't that great in terms of vocals because of the screaming but it was okay, however the shows I attended in 2018 had really great vocals.

She screamed less in those?

Honestly yes. BRILLANTE in 2016 was ruined vocally by a lot of screaming but BRILLANTE in 2018 was great!

Cool! My best live Ayu experiences probably were "part of Me" acoustic version from CDL 2013-2014 and "HAPPY ENDING" from Arena Tour 2015. 2 super rare cases when she didn't scream.

The show I went in Nakano Sunplaza in February, her vocals were AMAZING. I was completely shocked of how good she sounded in every single song. And I think it was my favorite concert of her (I've been to 7 in total).

About the construction outfits I was shocked when I came to Tokyo and saw all this young guys wearing it. It's definitely the trend now. As someone pointed, Calvin Klein is doing it and also all the fast fashion brands released their version.

Sounds too good to be true :-P Did you record audio of any song?

I've seen Ayu 5 times over the years, and honestly I've never been to a performance that her vocals were not good. In order of best to worst, I think I would rate them:

1 - TA 2015 (Birthday Date). She struggled a tiny bit with the high notes in Unite and maybe Heartplace was a little scream-y, but that was all.
2 - PoM 2018 (Fukuoka). Her vocals were great the entire show, and I can't think of a single song that sounded forced or like she was struggling.
3 - TA 2016 (Day Before Finale). Strong vocals again, but her voice was a little thinner on the acapella of Teddy Bear. She also relied on backing track a lot for this tour.
4 - TA 2016 (Finale). Not much change from the day before, but a little bit worse.
5 - CDL 04-05 (Day Before NYE). Her vocals were good here, but I think she lipsynced Duty and M pretty obviously (the sound levels were completely different). Her pitch was really good in this show, and overall I have no complaints...but she was sort of in a transitional phase of her voice where she was moving into her deeper register, but wasn't quite there yet. So while I love songs like Carols, I think they have a unique vocal quality to them that I can't quite compare to after this time when her voice settled in a deeper place.

^ Interesting how people hear the same things but have different opinions. :) I went to the exact same TA 2016 date and thought the vocals were just okay.

You are right about CDL 04-05 - It's one of my favorite countdown lives, but she did lip sync at least Duty and M. She is lip synching to the exact same recording that she used at the Asia Song festival for M.

I would have to say her best vocals that I saw live were in 2005 and 2006. 2007 had a sharp decline and since then I adjusted my expectations. Though she seems to have some random great years at times since then; 2010 and 2015 really stick out as being very vocally strong.

^ Hah, I wonder if placement in the venue played into it at all. You were in the seats, right? I was right up at stage, so it's also possible I got more of backing track because there were speakers by my head. That said, it was definitely not as good as 2015, but I didn't find it to have any egregious problems.

And I think she's always struggled with back-to-back performances. I never thought the actual night of CDL 04-05 recording sounded as good as the night before when I saw her. It wasn't hugely different, but I could definitely notice a change on some songs.

Phew, that's good to know! I was starting to think this was the beginning of the end for her.

So sad to read that she struggled with vocals on the second day. All the pictures from the concert look so good, that I'd hoped that this was a great show nobody would've wanted to miss it. I still think that these pictures show how gorgeous Ayu is, and how spectacular her show was. I love the costumes, stage, setlist.. everything! Then it is really upsetting that Ayu's vocals were bad on the second day. But she is doing her best! This shows proves that Ayu is creative and a living legend!

I wonder what was the reason for that in the first place. To let her voice rest a little bit, because she can't do a full show live? I understand why she does that if there's a dance routine or aerial stuff. It's interesting that there were cases when she rehearsed some songs live, but they went with lip syncing in the end.

Her boobs are bigger than her head.

http://ayuangel.com/download/Duy_Liv...qyJFcEXdAgSwUo

I freaking LOVE IT. i havent watched the show. but OMG this audio gave me goosebumps at so many points?!

Thanks! I wish it were stereo.
They did fix her voice.

^ this was 4.6, right? I don't have the videos to that song but it sounded a lot closer to the version I heard in the arena than the one that I watched online

No, it's pitch-corrected vocals from 4.7.

how do they manage to do this even? she sounded like her throat was totally dehydrated.

Filters and reverb, I guess. I noticed they fixed lyrics mistake at the end of second chorus - these vocals are from somewhere else, but the rest seems to be from 4.7, just edited.

Sigh I hope the covering tracks are from 4.6... It feels less of a lie since it's still from the Saitama concert

I noticed this too :yes great job, editors! holy_arrow also uploaded an AWA rip of this track on the Ayu Downloads page

She sounded so good in 2015, does she just not have a vocal coach now? Or was the one just exceptionally good for her?

She took vocal lessons in L.A with Liz Lewis, but the issue with her voice is that she needs to give her vocals a rest and also her vocal range has changed since debut http://www.voicecouncil.com/wp-conte...re-article.jpg

I went back and listened to Arena Tour 2015 A Cirque de Minuit show I attended. There were many beautiful vocal moments, but there were tons of screaming and usual off-key moments as well, and of course singing out of her vocal range. A Song for XX sounded way worse than in 2013's shows. So in the end I don't know what her coach taught her, as there was not much improvement. I remember Ayu saying in an interview that the coach just said "wrong" when she was trying to sing, and that she didn't really explain much.
I wonder if Ayu is indeed surrounded by yes men, because nobody seems to tell her that she at least doesn't have to scream when she is thanking public/saying something to public, not to mention when she's "singing". No voice will remain the same after straining it like that for years.

It's unfortunate that she hasn't fixed the screaming and off-key moments. People have been speculating her team is full of yes men for a long time, especially during Colours Era

I thought she sounded infinitely better in 2015 as compared to '13. 11-13 were some of her worst imo.

I still believe the amount of screaming most lilely has to do with her hearing...

About the "yes men", do you guys forgot the "lol ayu y u fat" issue? :P

Interesting. Probably depends on what dates people attended.

I don't recall that.

I vaguely remember this drama about her staff pointing out to her that her fandom was annoyed about her being "fat" during 2017 or 2018, when that unflattering pictures of Jtb were floating around.

There was also this drama during a-nation 2011 or 2012 about they axing Juno from her performance when they were aproving her setlist.

^ I remember she kinda apologized (or had to explain herself) for looking bloated in LINE LIVE. But how is it connected with yes men?

^If her staff is warning her she is being seen as fat or whatever her fandom is complaining about and if the label is axing her projects, she is not surrounded by yes men. Those would hold the information and make their best so it didn't reach her and do whatever she wished. Avex most likely aproved every single released people around here complains about, considering they didn't let her release several other things.

I'm also pretty sure she is well aware about the quality of her singing.

So I've watched the show and I was overall pretty happy. There were some new ideas and it showed Ayu is still capable of putting on a proper show. Ayu also looked like she was really enjoying herself and loved being there which made me enjoy watching it more.

Vocally, obviously it wasn't great. But it sounded more like she had worn her voice out than her just not being able to sing well.

I've gotten used to not being wowed by tours over the last few years with the odd tour surprise like cirque de minuit but I did enjoy this one. Bit annoyed Pride was cut though!

Watched the full show last night, I think the show is great, proved arena is where Ayu belongs, not hall...kind of explained why I don't like watching her hall tour, cause Grand is more her style. I like the new scene like the new BRILLANTE, dance medley. The costumes is also good this time, although I wish she kept the VERSACE for duty+Microphone.

So sad to hear her voice is damaged like that, otherwise, it's a perfect show. On the other hand, I think the chorus should give more support like singing the high pitch of Sparkle chorus and let her sing the low pitch part. She just doesn't need to sing every word, dance medley should be a good time for her vocal to take some rest, I don't mind if she uses auto-tune for that, its normal for dance / electric music.

Anyway, if AVEX release it with edited vocal, I will definitely buy it! Thank you Ayu for still trying hard to put on a great show!!

What did she originally wear for EnergizE and STEP you?

^Schoolgirl outfit I believe

Cheerleader/school girl outfit w/ Pom poms.

where can i see those pictures? describing ayu as fat is absolutely ridiculous, especially on tour. but hey, japan....

https://i.imgur.com/UPlu4VG.jpg

Gomi (Ayu's former dancer) posted this last week, a picture of him, Midoring and Peco. Ayu's iconic members <3 I miss Gomi & Peco on the team.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwDzqC9g8sq/

^lovely!

I really miss the old troupe. =(

I think it's already a norm she starts the show about an hour late if there will be a live boardcast (except for countdown live). We should be grateful that she didn't cancelled the show after audiences entered the venue.

I won't say I'm really missing Peco's voice haha, but she was fun yeah.
Miss Gomi !

Obviously Ayu has never been fat but I do remember it used to be quite normal for her to look a bit bigger at the beginning of the tour (in comparison to how tiny she usually was, she is still small but in a much healthier way I think she's said herself) and over the tour the weight would drop off. I assumed she'd deliberately put a bit of weight on because the tour schedule meant she'd lose weight and this way she wouldn't end up even tinier.

I just noticed I posted it in the wrong thread lol It was supposed to be in the Anything Goes. Sorry lol

I will never really miss any of the back vocals she had including the current setup, as I always thought the back track was more appropriate for her. I am still convinced that Peco is partially to blame for what ayu sounds like now ��

This makes like no sense at all xD

Actually. It was during the promotion of STEP you/is this LOVE? that ayu started screaming and yelling like a man and her voice got deeper. It is around that time that Peco became more prominent. You can check the is this LOVE? TV lives. On some level I always thought ayu was trying to match Peco's voice instead of the other way around.:D Might be pure coincidence though xD

Her voice most likely became deeper because she started having a more "adult" image at that time (it's also when her look got more "divaish". Considering she was totally deaf from one ear in 2018, she probably had her hearing issues in a pretty advanced state during the STEP you promo. I believe it's the other way round: Ayu chose Peco as a backing vocal because her voice fitted the aesthetic Ayu desired at the time.

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.