She's singing the same way as she did in 2008 FNS... and it's an a capella... Unless both of her ear hearing deteriorate... :no
It seems that she choose to sing this way to prevent herself from going out of sound. But I don't really prefer this =(

Not really ...her vocal cords are damaged !

I guess that happens. You could see YUI having the same problem during Goodbye days at this FNS.

I think thats why vocals tend to get better the longer the singer sings, because they can get use to all the sound around them and the live mixers can adjust as needed.

glad I am not the only one who thinks she should work on that matter

So I've seen the performance in HD and I have to say that she did sound really good. I can't remember the last time SEASONS sounded this good.

She didnt sound that bad.
But... yeah.

I thought she sounded good in the other version, jsut one or two bad high notes, but over all I was happy with it. She just seemed so stiff and... not very happy for some reason.
i think she's over the whole live thing really.

This is how Seasons should sound! Like a goat with a cold breathing helium, not this ******** she did now!

...I love you...and I can't find a lie in your statement...

Some pf you tend to forget that ayu is half-deaf and has her other ear injured also

LOL. I personally prefer either the studio version or today's live vocals, though these live vocals are cute and pitchy. The young legendary ayu XD

I wish we could go back in time and take the young Ayu back with us to the present day :(

Only if we stuff her mouth with something.

I lvoe the way her voice is going... it shows a maturity that some artist never really reach. It's all about the evolution of the sound and she did it wonderfully.

Post this on facebook so I can like it! xD

Agreed. I didn't hear anything wrong.

This one's way more pitchy than current live!

This one is with EDITED (fixed) vocals, so it's not fair to compare.
She did well on FNS.

Too bad we can't go back to those times with Ayumi & the band, with no backup vocals and no dancers. I'd pay double for concert tickets just to see the other 20 people off the stage.

You do realize his post was sarcasm? He was actively trying to show how awful her vocals used to be - and used the CDL one to show that even edited ones STILL are worse than the FNS one. So for that comparing was fair :)

sarcasm is kinda hard to read.
Some people like her older vocals a lot more then the new ones now as well so its okay to be confused.

It's the other way around; she's had a lot more back-up vocals in her earlier days than nowadays. At least that's what I get from watching her TV lives.

Her dancers are massively annoying, indeed :msneaky I just need Ayu, Peco, Princess, Nobuo and Yoshio on stage.

Edit: I have that Shu-ya fetish, though ^-^°

Oh, I see now what was meant :-))))
Yep, that's why I was confused, you got it right :-)

Honestly you guys, I think my ears must be so terrible, because this version of Seasons is honestly not that bad to me...

It doesn't even begin to compare to the disasters of You were... lives.

I've been reading so many articles which will say she is so bad at singing this time, but I really dont get the deal... can someone explain to me? LOL

To me this was a pretty solid verson of Seasons. She has always sang this song in a cute, helium voice, and honestly this live sounds even better than the job she did in 2007. Her voice is actually solid and nice... I dont understand LOL

She is old, didn't have a hit in a while, half deaf and envolved in controverse... She is an easy target.

The fact is... Ayu never was a good singer, and she never will be. The closest she ever got from it was being a so-so singer. She may be off key sometimes on this live, but she is off key sometimes (or a lot) on ALL of her TV performances since day 1. The "she can't sing anymore" thing is ********, cuz by these parameters, she never really could.

A 34 year old woman with a childish voice ! strange lol

I really like her voice in 2001 but it's an immature voice like for exemple Kana Nishino now ! In 10 years her voice will be different and fortunately ! It's very rare when a singer keeps the same voice throughout her career like Koda Kumi, Nana Mizuki or Misia (...) but these singers have attended a vocal training since their young age ! Ayu is not one of these singers ! She has she learned how to sing when her career was launched. The difference is big because she became a phenomenon she was everywhere but her voice was not prepared to that IMO and she pays today the price of all these years with a bad lifestyle !
Personnaly I've find this performance of seasons quite good but I think people confuse sing off key and to use a different tone ! it's two differents things ^^
Maybe she sing like that because she can't sing like before ? or because it's a better technique ? It seem that her vocal coatch has said on twitter that the performance of Ayu was successful ?

I hope my english is correct ^^

Maybe it's true but she is not the worst singer of japan ! I've seen an old program (2002) where a lot of singers were interpreting Ayu's songs and they were terribles... I think she is a decent singer when I see how she sing in her debut she has a good technical level now ! maybe it's not as good as before but I don't consider her like a bad singer =)

I think her innocent voice is what makes her old songs so good, and it's also why they don't work now with her "mature" voice when she sings them live.

The old songs are very clearly the feelings of a young adult, and her voice now doesn't have that innocent, and maybe even insecure tone (compared to how IN YOUR FACE she is on songs on MY STORY and (m)u), that it had then, so it makes the songs themselves seem rather odd.

The other is injured too?? :tired

IIRC, Nana Mizuki was into doing enka and stuff early on in her career. It also helps that she's a super professional seiyuu/voice actress. It is true that Ayu was never a 'singer' in the sense that she had an amazing voice that was operatic or able to hit high notes/belt easily, but she's able to move people with her songs and I think that's enough for most people... though she gets a lot of flack from people for 'not being able to sing' like she used to. I think it's just a change in technique and a maturation of her voice for the most part.

I don't think her other ear is injured. At least, that was never mentioned before.

you know what is the problem here for most people i think? That her voice was changing. Also she was just looking for a right niche to be in a right voice for her, and everyone likes that changing period, because it's interesting and it makes you hear different things. You get that kind of variety there. But eventually artists settle down with what they feel comfortable and true for themselves and they develope a technique that that are comfortable with. And they stick with it.

I have the same thing going on with other of my favorite artist. Comparing to the vocals from years ago when it had variety and color in it now his voice sound the same on each song. However, still amazinglu beautiful and memorable.

The thing is, you can actually hear that old voice getting through sometimes, they don't loose the innoscence or whatever u wanna call it, they just get older and more experienced. And most of the fans don't realize that it's most likelly not the artists that get worse, but the fans that get stuck with the emotion they heard once, they don't mature/grow together with the artist, and there's absolutelly nothing wrong with that. Weall are different. It's trully spevcial if you get to grow as a person together with the artist you like so much at the same time they are going through the looking of temselves and all the learning. This is the most difficult to get.

Also you HAVE to know the fact that LIVE singing is not an easy thing. Fact that if you want a show full of dancing and moving or a LIVE performance you will have to deal with being out of tune at one place or the other, and singers are humans too, our bodies aren't robotic creations (even robotic creations need some oiling to be done), their voices can go bad one day, be out of tune the other and blow you mind away the third.

I can't listen to her pre I am.. songs because of her voice being too plain and unspecial for me, but i never said she couldn't sing, or she sounds horrible. Cause she doesn't. They might not do the thing for me or you sometimes (like an example I am not thrilled of her vocals on any of the Love songs tracks, but lots of people love it there, and I loved PQ vocals to death, most people didn't) I think who who but Ayu has clear development in the vocals department. Also i think for a person who's on stage for more than 10 years singing live is a fact of being able to sing and if she did lypsinching, that wouldn't be the level for an artists and performer as she is, so you have to give her a credit for that. Better sing live and miss a note or too here and there, than lypsinch....

What a relief!:thud

I know that ! that's why I chose her like an example ^^

True ^^

You're right. Nana Mizuki had enka training from the age of 6 or 7? She still does the occasional enka performances here and there too. I don't think it's fair to compare Ayu to Nana Mizuki though. Nana's voice has changed slightly, but the level of her training means her singing very very rarely falters. A bad Nana Mizuki performance is when she sounds the same as the CD, rather than better.

Odd anecdote time. To make a long story short, a Japanese girl from my uni commented that: "she (Nana) sings like Ayumi Hamasaki though" on FB a few weeks ago. That is something I have never heard before.

After watching the SEASONS live, she did a fantastic job of it. It was one of her most controlled TV lives in recent memory, she never sounded like she was screaming or yelling. Only out of pitch on a few occasions.

Still baffles me why she sang SEASONS in the first place. Should have done Missing orchestra version or Sweet scar.

this same as I thought, shes holding back at some parts at some high notes otherwise everything sounds good.


:(

I've also heard that ^^ strange ?

I think it's because Nana, like Ayu, does a lot of... whatever the technical term is for that a~~~a~~~ kind of thing? Nana does it on pretty much everything she holds.

Music is not my strong point.

Yes that must be it ! something like that ^^ http://youtu.be/kKNvi66Op2s?t=14s

You guys mean this.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrato ?

Yup, that. Nana does it way more than Ayu does haha

I felt this heavily in the ivy recording. I'm not sure if that is how the song was meant to sound or not, but I definitely get what you are saying.

^
Enka technique =)

People say on 2ch that they want she sing like in this video ! Like a young women ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQEAU...ture=endscreen

Well, this is a very common singing technique and a staple to japanese popular music. One of the things that make what is considered a good enka singer is how beautiful and controled their vibratos are...

Actually I think something has happened to yui's voice. I noticed at best artist as well that she was lacking power. Mika nakashima was also all over the place vocally. What's happening to all the female vocalists? lol. it seems as if kuu and Namie are the only ones that have consistently kept their voices in good shape over the years.

Kumi is very experienced in this domain however Namie I don't know what to say ? her voice on CD is the same but in live is very different since a few years and I find that sometimes unpleasant to my ear !
Didn't Mika has also a problem with her ear ?

Seriously? They want her to sound like a 10 year old? Lol, oh Japan

Yeah, I actually prefer those videos that were posted because while vocally not perfect, you can feel her passion and raw emotion.

Also, I believe the first video is right around the time when her ear problem first began; a lot of performances from then are off.

I think part of YUI's hiatus is that she doesn't feel 'right' anymore, and that if she keeps performing as YUI, her mind/heart will break? I don't know what she was getting at in the blog entry that mentioned this, but it seems like she's ready to check out of J-Pop for a while.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater
English subtitled video from YUI to fans about the hiatus or something, by the way, she looks really beautiful in this video!

Mika seems to be sick or something so her vocals (and appearance imo... sometimes she looks like she has a fever!) are a bit... off her game.

Namie's vocals aren't really anything to write home about, I think, considering a lot of her songs are very 'talk-singing'.

I only watched the performance once but I remember her going off pitch and out of tune several times and there were a number of notes that were not held as long as they should be. I think that is what the articles are referring to more than husky vs. high pitch voice. She really hasn't even sung seasons in her high pitch voice since like 2001.

It's just unfortunate because this is one of the most watched shows all year and it's the only one she has besides Kohaku. It was a good oppurtunity for her to remind everyone about her. But she really needed to hit the performance out of the park I think.

Even at her worst, Ayu can still out sing Namie and her flat vocals. The vocals on Utada's Distance album are diabolical tbh. Only Koda Kumi can challenge Ayu vocal wise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5-sYJ8f9xo In this one it was already different ^^

I'm wondering if it was a compromise with FNS because she didn't do a collab. Like, "if you aren't going to do a collab, then we want you to do one of your old hits." :shrug. She has a new release this week and a big stage to promote it on, so yeah it's weird.

I don't know about Mika, but yeah her performance was awful. By comparison Ayu was waaaay better. As for Namie, I might be in the minority here, but seeing her live, her vocals are pretty consistently clear and strong. Her voice hasn't changed much in 20 years, imo. She may not be a huge vocal powerhouse, but within her range she is very consistent. And for 20 years of touring etc, she must be doing something right to keep her voice in shape.

And I'm not the biggest kuu fan, but she has pretty much mastered her voice.

I'm sorry but, no. :). Even at her best, ayus strongest suit has never been her vocal prowess. Maybe if this were 2003-2005 ayu could have a fighting chance. As it is now, it wouldn't even be a competition. And then Superfly would come along, murder both Ayu and Kuu with her voice and leave their bloody corpses on the stage. :)

Wow, work is slow today. Too much time on my hands, haha

Good lifestyle Imo when you look at her interviews ! beside Ayu does not help her voice ! she works all the time ! sleeping at impossible hours, She does not spare herself etc...

I'm wondering if it was a compromise with FNS because she didn't do a collab. Like, "if you aren't going to do a collab, then we want you to do one of your old hits." :shrug. She has a new release this week and a big stage to promote it on, so yeah it's weird.



I don't know about Mika, but yeah her performance was awful. By comparison Ayu was waaaay better. As for Namie, I might be in the minority here, but seeing her live, her vocals are pretty consistently clear and strong. Her voice hasn't changed much in 20 years, imo. She may not be a huge vocal powerhouse, but within her range she is very consistent. And for 20 years of touring etc, she must be doing something right to keep her voice in shape.

And I'm not the biggest kuu fan, but she has pretty much mastered her voice.



I'm sorry but, no. :). Even at her best, ayus strongest suit has never been her vocal prowess. Maybe if this were 2003-2005 ayu could have a fighting chance. As it is now, it wouldn't even be a competition. And then Superfly would come along, murder both Ayu and Kuu with her voice and leave their bloody corpses on the stage. :)[/QUOTE]

That's okay~

Honestly, Ayu and Namie shouldn't be compared. Ayumi is an artist, Namie is a popstar.

I think it's not fair to compare each others because they have not the same style at all !
Namie or Utada would be unable to sing a song like Mirrorcle World or forgiveness but Ayu would be unable to sing a song like Deep rever or others ...But say Ayu can't fighting meuhh

^ well, it was mostly a joke. :). But I think you can compare basic technique and ability regardless of style. I actually think Ayumi would do a good job on deep river, lower register songs suit her.

My main point was that most of these singers aren't vocal perfection, there is always someone that could come along and be better.

Now I agree with you :D

RE comment about her vocal prowess, when I saw her Arena Tour this year I was actually blown away by how good her vocals are. Watching through a TV does not do them justice at all.

That's because Avex alters and fixes the vocals~
Compare the vocals from a TV rip of any CDL to the DVD version and you can hear the "alternations".

ooh, i like this one. i love them both but... this. so much this.

Err... I'm talking about seeing her Arena Tour IN PERSON this year. Avex does not 'fix' her arena tour vocals as they are happening.

How are her vocal cords damaged over the past four years???

This is one of 1st lives in a while where i didn't feel worried for ayu's vocals, she was a shaky a few times but overal a good job, not to pitchy nor is she screaming like in PoM performances/progress lives

Ayu isn't really big of a challenge, she can put so much emotion into her song but like most people here said, i never considered her a great singer, Namie is much superior vocally imo, especially when she's only performing a ballad and not a huge set list filled with dane routines. Same with Kuu and hikki of course, they're both great vocalists.

Hikki isn't that great at performing live...I guess because she doesn't do it that often. Ku is kind of consistent, but uses back vocals way too much. Namie is pretty much the same as Ku, but lacks even basic emotion and does it like a robot. Imo people like ayaka, Hitomi Shimatani or even BoA are way better vocalists.

Don't get me wrong, all the girls sound great when they're singing their own songs and while they're in their comfort zones. The question is would they sound as good singing each other's songs? I don't think the majority of dance songs that Ku and Namie do require much of a vocal skill?

they can, you can have autotune and reverb working on a mic live no problem, it's a standard thing~

ok ayu sounded terrible at fns... =/ it's weird to think people think otherwise lol i love her new deeper voice and forget the pitch problem but the sound of her voice was not pleasant whatsoever

I'm aware some people still really love her voice as it is now, and these lives, but I just can't.

I love her to death, and her new songs have been great, vocals and all, but listening to her on those TV lives is just painful. It's not so much "she sounds bad" as it is hearing her struggle (or at least, that's what it sounds like). It's no surprise to me that she does so few TV performances these days.

God, I am dreading Kouhaku. It's clear she is doing her the very best she can in those performances, trying to control her voice and get the song out, but it just seems like a battle. Although she was never known for her vocal prowess, she was always an effective singer, but something is cutting into that.

My heart is breaking because, what do you do as a singer when your voice is no longer reliable?

I think Ayu has always pulled SEASONS off pretty well with her old vocals.. But
I just watched the two TV lives and my conclusion is this: FNS SEASONS wasn't that bad, I've heard worse from her.. But Song 4 U was horrid, sorry Ayu.. I think it's sometimes really frustrating that her voice doesn't sound really good even with the new songs that should be much easier to sing for her new voice..

I love End roll as a song, so, I like that End roll live
and all these old SEASONS lives still sound much better than the recent FNS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ0NO3Wv1TE
Look at the commentaries & the like/don't like O_o

I hope it will be an electroshock for ayu & avex !

^ well that's an eye-opener for sure..

What the... ??? :tired :shakehead
Poor ayu :no :grumpy

Ayu and Avex should do something! please Ayu. Do something. I love your music~I dont really care about your personal life~I don't care with who you're dating. Please promote your albums properly~the albums deserved more.... :(

OMG, most of these comments are so rude and mean. I'm really surprised by such reaction. It's not one of her worst lives you know.
"she'd better stop singing" ; "unhappy woman"; "painful to watch"; "what's this? her voice has changed"; "shocking" ;"such voice doesn't qualify for singer"; "what's this? that's terrible, she can't sing at all!!"; "amateur at karaoke bar"

It feels as if there's some hatred and conspiracy against her...
Agreed!

It pains me to say this... But I agree with you. :(

Hikki is my favorite pop musician of all time... IMO she's so good her best studio albums destroy almost every one's whole career, and I'm counting Ayu on this.

But when she's live, girl can't sing for her life. Her vocal technique is so bad that almost anyone in the pop business can oversing her. Her breathing is all over the place, her range is ridiculous short, her vibrato and falseto are out of control, she can't hold long notes, she scream instead of belt (that horrid Kremlin Dusk live proves this), she is always of key and composes songs way out of her range. Being a Hikki fan for over 10 years, I can't think of 5 good live performances from her voice-wise. Her voice is gorgeous and she can put tons and tons of emotion on it... And those are the only good things she has as a singer.

I was shocked by those dislikes and comments, especially when those came from native Japanese. I am sure that this performance is not her worst. And I love this performance, her voice comes out naturally. WTH going on here? Am I having a nightmare?? :dead2:no

^^
Hikki herself consider herself like a musician instead of a singer ! She is talented & has a touching voice and makes great songs but I agree with you for her vocal in Live

She is rare now on TV ! So people have been easily subjugated

I know^^... She's also not very much into performing. Honestly, I don't care. I just wish she is well and producing good music! But it annoys me when people use her as a example of "great vocalist", cuz she just isn't.

About Ayu...

She has done FAR worst than this live... I believe the marriage-divorce-datingmarriedguy controverse is playing some role on this. The comments on youtube are pretty negative, but it's not like we can know how many of those people are just bored haters. Japan surprisingly has a lot of those.

Yeah hikki is far from skilled as a vocalist. I absolutely adore the woman and her music, she's one of the most talented songwriters in the business, but she can not sing well AND writes incredibly hard to sing songs.

Ayumi I consider above average for a mainstream Pop singer, she sings better live than many people in the business as she has superior control and a pretty good range(Britney, Madonna, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Koda, Namie, Hikki...all have bigger problems, most of them cover it up by having simple songs or using backtracks often) but she's far, far from being a great singer.
And this SEASONS performance really wasn't that bad, she had some trouble with the dynamics and intonation, that's it.

I just see hate. God.

Maybe it's time for a Xtina's "Circles" for Ayu.

you do realize that haters go about, band together, and trash together?
It means nothing to have that many dislikes on a page.
(besides, I would dislike myself for that horrible first la-li she sang)

besides that, everything that has to do with music is subjective. People can scream and shout back and forth about who is better in what not, and that just proves that its different to everyone, which makes it subjective.
All the rabble about vocals, compositions, insert random music terminology to make myself look smart here, is meaningless when it comes to music because everyone has different taste in what is good and not.

Claims music is completely subjective -> asks for conventions on writing in another thread.

i really don't see what's so horrible about that performance, she was out of tune for maybe a couple of times, and i heard a yell instead of singing in a couple of parts too but have anyone thought that maybe because she actually TRIED doing the old voice she sounded not that good for most of people, cuz it is NOT how her voice is now. i personally think she did just fine.

Some people's sense of hearing is seemingly spoiled by the full-playbacks of recent number one acts in Japan. This is how a human voice sounds live unless we're talking of extremely experienced and talented opera singers.

Don't have to be an opera singer to sing well live..
There are plenty of singers out there that sing great without playback at all.. so idk what you're talking about. "This is how a human voice sounds live".. Not really. This is just how a bad/damaged human voice sounds live. Not even hating, just being real here.

Any news on magazine covers for Ayu? I certainly hope there are a bunch planned for April...

That video was probably posted at 2ch or something. Unfortunate, but those comments are the reality of most Internet discussions about Ayu. Darn, this thread is going to die before I even start editing in 2013 material, haha.

Well, I was just at a bar with friends last night, we probably met about 5 or 6 other people there?(all Japanese) Someone brought up the subject of FNS and we were talking about the different acts and I swear everyone around me said basically the equivalent of "Can you believe how bad Hamasaki sounded? It was so surprising." So, yeah, its not just 2 channel/forums etc. People are actually talking about it.

i really do believe japan, at this point, is just tired of her.
this happens all the time sadly, which is probably another reason why she doesnt like doing lives much anymore.
She is perfectly content with releasing new music and doing tours. she has a solid fan bases that still go to the concerts and buy her music.
For females also you dont really see a lot of the older artist at the shows like Heyx3, MS, and all the others, they just do the special ones.

I'm not really convinced that most Japanese people would have been positive about her voice even if she was at her 'best' since her voice is so different nowadays.

Just an FYI, I was talking about that video only and not surprisingly, it was linked on 2ch along with articles that said she sucks at singing now as well as a ton of gossip blogs saying the exact same thing. The 2ch thread also has 400+ replies... I probably don't have to read them to know what they say. Something tells me most people who aren't fans and are just casual music listeners remember her voice as what it was in 2000/2001 and probably don't know that it's veeerryyyy different in the present (not that they care, really).

OMG Ayu is a big joke now...it must be hard for her to go on stage with a smile on her face knowing what people are saying and how pitiful her sales are. Hold your head high Ayumi~

I was expecting her FNS performance to be horrible by all the comments, but it wasn't that bad. But it wasn't great either. Oh well, I couldn't care less about TV lives anyway so she can be as bad as she wants to be xD

I actually would like to know more directly what the Japanese comments / people have been saying. I find it interesting to know the reality of the situation. If someone can post translations, that would be appreciated.

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=476

Many people also call her grandmother because of her current voice.

Wow....I never thought I would see the day when she was this disliked..I mean, I know she has been in a decline since her peak but wow. There was never this much animosity surrounding her until now. Yikes.

^
They also call her "Enka singer" lol

Poor Ayu.
I can't imagine how heartbreaking it is to be criticized over your passion.
Question, has Ayu ever admitted that her voice is 'damaged'?
Her voice was brilliant until 2007/2008, which is coincidentally when she also said that she had become deaf in her left ear.
Perhaps she is still having troubles properly hearing herself singing?
I mean, surely the most crucial factor to a great vocal performance is being able to properly hear yourself.

I agree with the people in this thread, and in other threads that have mentioned that Ayu seems to...well, sing awkwardly on TV lives in comparison to her own concerts.

The different vocal conditions in TV and concert settings are probably due to TV shows not adjusting the stage sound to her ears properly(especially shows with 50+ acts simply don't have the time for that). But the public likes to ignore it because it's easier to just bash her for "not being able to sing anymore".

for me this is when her voice was her worst, i can't sit through this concert

Also the shouting/screaming of Together When at CDL is forever seared in my mind.

that's why I don't freak out over her vocals that much because it seems she goes through stages of sucking, then sounds good, sucks, sounds good, sucks, etc. She's just in the suck stage right now, undoubtedly everyone will be freaking out and suspecting her of lipsyncing come Countdown live when she's improved/warmed up.