There are awesome singers in jpop scene
and most of they sell really bad xD

^seriously...it's really sad.

Especially when some of them have more talent than a lot of the other singers combined.

^yup. amazing vocals, bad songs xP

That's mean lol of course Hikki has a better voice!

U meant Ayumi moving her mouth but her voice keeps coming from her nose? :shakehead

I had a really hard time deciding, I think Ayu's voice is like fire .. while Hikki's like water
I love both so much T_T .. but I go for Hikki, that Passion performance says it all

Nops... u posted a BoA video and I comented about it :yes
Sorry, but sometimes BoA's voice is very nasal, and ur video is an amazing example of this :)

I prefer ayu. Utada sounds to me like she has to strain a lot

Ah exactly! That's why I voted Ayu + I simply love the way she handles the songs live.

Japanese market has loads of amazing female vocals that sadly barely sell, like Hitomi Shimatani or even alan, ayaka and BoA too have awesome vocals. It is sad, but amazing vocals don't make you an artist, just a good singer. Both Ayu and Hikki have things that the others lack, some more, some less.

Oh and Andre's right, BoA can sound very nasal when she wants to, especially live.

Personally I prefer Utada's voice over Ayu's voice anytime. Of course Hikki does has some breathing trouble but she really has very good voice in lives as well. I didn't vote for Hikki because I don't like Ayu as much as I used to. It's just that I like the way Hikki uses her voice. It's just something that keeps amazing me over and over again. :p Hikki has a lot more talent than Ayu imo.

You should get Hanabi A-nation 05, which I believe blows both of those performances out of the water.

:yes that performance is what got me into ayu. it's still my favorite live performance ever. and thanks to that HANABI is still my fav ayu song <3 it's the only ayu performance that still gives me goosebumps

Same opinion as you.. i would say hikki is more talented in terms of the natural good voice she's given. But in terms of live performances, Ayu is much better epspecially from 2002 onwards. It's evident that Ayu has put in a lot of effort in improving her singing techniques and styles. Her singing becomes more stable and I'm often impressed with her (especially Pride perfs and many more)

conclusion.. i prefer utada's vocals but Ayu's singing technique is much better

i just watched the hanabi a-nation perf, and i didnt LOVE it that much.. i thought some of her other perfs were better

This was actually really hard for me. But after reading your comments I decided to vote Hikki. To me Hikki's vibrato sound more natural, but sometimes Ayu's vibrato sound forced, especially nowadays. RAINBOW is one of my favorite albums because Ayu's vocals sound so pure and natural. Nowadays they don't, espeacially in GUILTY they don't sound even a half as good as they used to. (But I think they're getting better again, in NEXT LEVEL they sounded actually really good. :))

I like both but ayus vocals are just WIN for me

I dont like utada's vocals much.. she has great songs, but her vocals kind of ruin them for me..

I don't feel any power in utada's voice, and her voice sounds like anyone could sing like that.
But even Ayu has some problems sometimes, I really love her unique voice..
Especially the way her high notes sounds...

Actually I hate watching Utada live, because you can always hear her breathing, and her vibrato is much more weird than Ayu's.
There are so many people who make fun of both of them.. ahaha.
But yeah.. I dont feel any power in Utada's voice~ sorry.

My dad says Ayu sings with her nose.......then again he says Utada sounds like a boy. @_@. They just dont get it LOL.

Ayumi Hamasaki

Love her voice lately.