tbqh i think she'll only perform at Kouhaku and maybe FNS ^^'

hey guys, check this out. I don't know what are they talking about..but it seem like something about her new single vs Hey Say Jump.

http://www.cyzo.com/2013/11/post_15154.html

:thud

Oh dear...this Ayu-HSJ fight is becoming a (really) big (of a) deal!?

according to her official website she will feature the december issue of Majesty Japan...

2013/12/09「Majesty Japan」

http://avex.jp/ayu/schedule/index.php

yayy can't wait for the new magazine photoshoots!

Yeah, the last issue also says it is a 'private photo session' with Ayu... whatever that means.

Here we go again...naked Ayu once more???

Chill

I'm worried about Kouhaku...

what if she isn't invited?! and it's her 15th anniversary.... that'd be sure very very sad :/

^ She'll be invited for sure, she has attended ever since her debut and she's been the opening act for 5 years in a row, and now is her 15th anniversary, it would be the weirdest thing if they didn't invite her...

Moreover, she is the symbolism of Jpop and the pride of Japanese Music. I believe that she would be invited

^I couldn't have said it better

Does Kouhaku allow you to sing new songs though? I'm wondering if she'll do Feel The Love or something from earlier this year.

No TV lives announced yet...?! I want lives for Feel the love!

I want lives for Merry-go-round!

it'll be deprresive if she doesn't perform it on tv at least once

This single is likely getting CDLed.

I won't be able to handle the AHS drama if she hasn't been invited to Kouhaku.

People worrying about Ayu not being invited is a bit odd... she was way more active this year than in previous years when she was also invited. (2011 sticks out to me)

I would not worry.

I want to see Ayu opens Kouhaku with M-flo =p

Man, if Ayu opened Kouhaku with Hey!Say! Jump against her... ugh.

^
you mean with HSJ as the first act for the white team?

Yeah.

So ironic if this happens...

i just hope she won't perform... SEASONS

There's no way... I hope.

^She may sing this song but I hope for one of the new songs....

So, no TV announcement yet? I think its safe to cross Best Artist off the list. That airs next Wed already. She isn't on the FNS list either. :(

I actually have a bit of hope for MS Super Live this year. Maybe by her doing that Asahi Dream Festival, she mended some fences with TV Asahi?

Oh yeah I remember she performed at Asahi Dream Festival thingy, was it broadcasted anywhere?? I know the setlist is similar to a-nation, but I want to see ayu perform!

So I'm not the only one thinking this song is like a curse made for hunting us forever!!
I love SEASONS, actually, but too much is too much.

it's kind of surprisingly quiet on her schedule as of now, having in mind she's releasing a single next month *shrugs*

Whoa...this was definitely surprising. What's going on?

Yeah, it was pretty much the same set list, but I saw it live and thought it was one of the most energetic performances she has ever given (maybe because she was performing in front of an audience that wasn't necassarily there to see her? That definitely makes you work harder I think), so I really hope it gets aired. It was vocally rough for the first two songs, but got better after that. They announced back in September that it would be aired on TV and details were yet to come, but nothing has been mentioned since then, so I don't know whats going on.

They probably want to be safe and make sure she'll be in Japan or something...

The beloved/New York blunder was a pretty horrible situation that they probably don't want to repeat since she's in LA so much recently.

She should decide between LA or Tokyo...I know she's worked hard all her career and deserves somewhere to have a break every now and then but her career needs her to be a constant present in the Japanese media now more than ever.

Or maybe they're just still annoyed because of that. Which would be stupid. Ummm most influential female soloist in your country is having her 15th anniversary this year, and even putting out a new single for the first time in over three years, and there are no lives planned yet? No Koukaku or FNS at the very least? Damn...remember when she would do like 10 lives for a new single? I know it was in her hey day, but still.

I have 8 TV performances of Voyage from 2002, 7 of CAROLS from 2004, 6 of fairyland and STEP you from 2005, even 5/6 of Sunrise and You were... from 2009. And these are just the ones I have on my hard drive, I'm sure there are more. 2010 is when she started to perform drastically less on TV. I don't like it though

^ Oh for Voyage you could probably count around 15 or so. Step You was I think 8? Carols had 10. Dearest has had close to 30 performances.

Yeah, I miss those days. :)

I would love to see her performing all over tv again....but the reality right now is there isn't exactly an uproar of demand for her to perform from the Japanese public...

Even so, it would help to have at least 2-3 TV performances. Often, it seems people don't even know she has a new release until way after the fact.

obvi don't expect her to do as many as before and whore out the song, but a few would be nice. hello, promotion.

Thank you, that cleared some stuff out!

Yes, I feel bitter too bud. I would definitely hold a grudge if she's not in FNS or at least Kouhaku this year. And I'll probably explode when I see the single sales. Honestly I don't think her sales are that bad because no one likes / listens to her anymore. It's more because of her promotion. Last year there was barely anything!

Rumor from earlier this week was that NHK would announce the Kouhaku line-up on Monday (Nov. 25). However, seeing as there has been no official word yet, it is probably not happening, but it should be announced sometime next week for sure.

I so hope that Ayu get to attend at least one of the three big end-of-the-year shows (FNS, MSta SL, Kouhaku).

Something is missing. Not just due to the lack of single releases.

For some reason I've always loved her TV performances more than any concerts. Last beautiful TV live moments were "You were...", "crossroad" and "Love song" if I am not mistaken. "Life", "ANother song", "Why..." etc did not have any appeal to me, argh.

Even worse, I would not expect much from a "Feel the love" or "Merry-go-round" live performance; this kind of music does not really work live (for me).

^Feel the love could work like You & Me live, which gets the crowd all energetic and pumped up.

I agree. Feel the love is animated and energetic. Ayu and we can dance all the night. ;)

Final line up for '2013 FNS Kayousai' unveiled

http://www.tokyohive.com/article/201...ousai-unveiled

No Ayu so far >.< maybe we can still hope for the secret performers that to be announced later on the day of the festival

Wait... Is this for real?? I hope so too, because if not, this is just really horrible!

You know, I've been trying REALLY hard not to complain, cuz this is our first single in how many years... but that's just my point. It's her first single in all that time, and she's not even gonna promote it on FNS? No wonder people don't know she's released something until after the fact.

I'm afraid Ayu's becoming Americanized, being in LA as much as she has been and it's starting to rub off in her releases/schedule.

P.S. Anyone else get this really fake vibe from Christophe and his wife? His wife especially. It's like "WE'RE RICH BWHAHAHA YAY" :P

We'll probably get at least one live, but probably much closer to release. Can't exactly perform at FNS if you're in LA. But she has to go back for CDL rehearsals eventually.

Neither FTL or MGR fit with the theme of FNS so I don't think it's a big deal she missed it tbh

Hamasaki just doesn't care about the promotion and I really dislike this attitude :/

I hope she's not invited to FNS because of last year's performance >. <

I think that was just a stupid rumor, really. She didn't do that badly with SEASONS.

I laughed reading this :D We have the same feeling.

Being a fan for more than a decade, I'm sorry but I'll have to say she sound pretty bad during last year's performance... I mean she's looking gorgeous and all but the moment she sings, my heart really sinks... I felt really bad about how she sounds. Sometime I really wonder if it had something to do with her ears. There's rumours of her ear recovering but I just don't agree with the performance she's been putting up on live. That might be the reason why she's appearing lesser on tv as she might not perform to her usual standards.

Never considered this, but it very well could factor in the lack of promotion. I doubt this is the main reason, though -her lives drastically decreased by 2010 and were already falling in 2009.

What kinix said makes no sense to me. Her live vocals were top notch both times I saw her live.

Rumors of her ears recovering? There was no chance of recovery back in 2007~2008 and that wouldn't change anything now since she is deaf in that ear.

I've been a fan for more than a decade as well, and I don't think she's ever really sounded all that hot during TV performances in general. She had a period where she wasn't as shaky, but after around 2006-2007, things got especially off.

I'm not following her twitter/facebook/blog activities in any way but from what I get to see every now and then while browsing AHS it's somewhat embarrassing to have her posing and partying in prestige boutiques and fashion boroughs like a no name girl.

Explain the performance of last year FNS performance then. As I've said, people were afraid of her non consistent performance. I remember that someone posted a poll of it too. And the reason sponsors were afraid of her was her performance wasn't consistent. Maybe performing at her own home ground and performing in front of other non-fans/artist tense her up. But certainly that FNS performance did kinda ruin things up.

Fans of decade then you should remember the rumor during miracle world. There's on going rumors of her recovering her hearing (there seems to be a live performance where she did something to her ear and causes more rumors kinda forget it already). But it's just a rumor, I didn't believe it too.

Didn't quite really get what you're trying to imply at ur 2nd para =.=

It was a misinterpretation of a blog entry.

If ayu will be on kouhaku then it would be enough for me. I was first shocked about what was posted on the last page and then I realized it's FNS lol. Thanks god.

Anyway the good thing about kouhaku is that she has to be in Japan on that time for CDL.

I'm just excited for CDL, really hope things will turn out better next year. But at least she's on more mags, and her singles are back lol.

Ayu just always left me feeling so bizarre :thud This is probably why we're so interested in her :)

Me too, that's why I don't like pics with her/them.

Are you guys forgetting 2005-2007 or so? THAT Ayu dressed like a diva, acted diva-ish and now rich people are rubbing their snootiness on her?

Ookay....

She's probably busy shooting in LA and won't be able to attend to the FNS...She may be scared to confirm and later fail to attend like the music station incident, it's totally understandable. I hope we'll get at least one performance promoting the single though.
Also I hope they'll announce Kouhaku's line up soon...

Ayu has always been super rich, but we just didn't see her in such extravagant occasions until now
The LA snobbiness will rub off on her

I agree about Ayu's busy stuff back here in the States, some 1300 miles south of Seattle (of course that's LA!). :yes

And on another note, I think of this - the more I don't hear Ayu appearing on TV, the more I actually don't watch Japanese music TV shows (like Music Station or even those annual specials such as FNS, MSSL or even the Kouhaku)...because Ayu has been much of a driving factor just to watch Japanese music TV shows. Now it seems I don't care about it at much (even with AKB48 or Arashi) because it just doesn't feel the same (unless the show has Sayuri Sugawara or Yanawaraba, my more favored artists over the past year, but finding shows with those are more difficult because they're not as looked for as Ayu or other big artists; JPopsuki usually only covers the big ones)... :(

I feel OK when I see those photos of Christophe&wife + ayu. But yeah, sometimes I feel like that they're living in their fairy-tale and don't care about the "real" world... but should they actually :laugh anyways, I think ayu shouldn't expose her wealth that much... I don't know, sometimes it just annoys and spoils her image.

btw some Japanese friends told me that they liked ayu way more when she had an image of a girl-next-door. I guess that's why girls like AKB are still so popular. they just keep that image and hide their wealth though I guess that top-girls are really wealthy :laugh

The main factor when people said that SEASONS performance was bad was her voice changing. I mean, people assumed she was singing bad because her voice was different from what they remembered imo (like people says someone is singing 'bad' because it's not identical as CD recording).

She was not amazing (even with her hear loss, she has better vocal performances than that), but it was miles better than a lot of her performances (INCLUDING the ones from her peak).

You are perfectly right 'bout this one.:yes

I remember that Ayu pretty well... and I never really liked diva Ayu.

Yeah, diva Ayu was in full swing from 2006-2009 there abouts. It decreased for a while after that. I agree that it's better to not flaunt her wealth. One reason why Arashi is consistently so popular is because they act extremely humble and don't flaunt the wealth that they must have.

The FNS performance last year was pretty bad. Of course we've heard worse, but for the casual fan I'm sure it was a shock.

I do also feel that more and more Ayu is a bit scared to perform in front of non-fans probably because of reactions like what she got at the last FNS. I've also felt, especially this year, with the lives I have seen that it is taking her voice a few songs to warm up and settle in. On live tv you don't get that kind if time. Although I suppose she could spend sometime singing backstage first...

so ayu is confirmed for this year's Kouhaku! yay!

source: @nhk_kouhaku twitter

wondering what song she's gonna sing.

Woo!

I hope it's not an old medley. It would be pretty awesome if she sang something from LOVE again, tbh.

OR DEBUT PRAY AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

If she's opening kouhaku again, she'll most probably sing something with impact. So "Feel the love" kinda gets the higher percentage of being performed.

Probably Tell All?

Yeah at this point I am just hoping it's not an old medly...considering that she'll have a single out let's hope it's at least a new song. Though I would love something from LOVE again (Ivy plz?).

What did she sing then? Seasons?

I only want MGR + FTL medley!!

Yes, that is when she sang SEASONS during FNS 2012.

Seems like Ayu was not revealed until way late for FNS 2012?

^ Two weeks prior to the show. When the final line-up was unveiled.

I'm happy for Kouhaku. At least one TV appearance confirmed.

Prayin it is SAKURA, if we were in 2001 that sing would have sold trillions

Wonder what she'll perform at Kouhaku. The new single will be just out by then, but usually the big hits of the year are performed :shrug

Finally a good news. Hope she'll perform the new songs from the single. I would love something unsung from LOVE again but I'm sure there isn't even the small chance she'll do that.So I'll put all my hopes in the CDL 2013-2014.

"SAKURA" as one of her brightest sounding pieces from "LOVE again" would be a blast.

Is there a link to the video cuz I don't remember her singing it so terribly, or maybe I didn't even hear it...

ayu has confirmed for koahaku 2013 *______________*

http://www1.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/artists/index.html

Finally Kouhaku's line up!
Of course Ayu is there, but no Kuu? That's sad :(
And no k-pop... they must be afraid of the complains like in 2011...

I don't think she was that bad on last year's FNS, but she didn't do well either imo...

hopefully she will sing her new song?
Although the combo she did last year was amazing.

I'm hoping for either Feel the love or Merry-go-round, but I have a feeling she's going to please the crowd with one of her classics...

I'm more interested in the outfits, the outfits from the past two years were awesome *-*

I hope she sings SAKURA ^_^

you are right, now that thinking of this, SAKURA has this vibe of Dearest adn Voyage, I dont know maybe the atmosphere in the song :love

I would love to see SAKURA too! and with either FTL or MGR please

yay! :heart

I wish they would add another female artist lol, the white team has an "extra" participant XD

Chances for Song 4 u? I really thought she would sing it last year so maybe this year. Or another special medley.

Where did she sing Song 4 u last year again? Was it HEYx3 ?

I just want something, something from LOVE again. Sorry but I don't need any old songs like SEASONS, Voyage, Dearest, we've seen them million times already. No I want new songs being performed. Love Songs barely got any live, and LOVE again will just be left out too? Even though there were bunch of great tracks like SAKURA, Ivy, bye-bye darling, petal, etc., the album itself lacked promotion!!

The theme for kouhaku this year is “Uta ga koko ni aru” (A song is right here)