ayu 'injects' feeling into her songs
 

I was talking to my fren about Sunset~LOVE is ALL~, when ayu reaches the "anata no..kae na ki wa naishi....", somehow I can refer to myself. Like as if she's really telling you her feelings, and the message of the song.
If I were to interpret that part for myself, it screams : "I really wanna show you my love, I love you, I really do". Something like that.

My fren told me it's a 'gift' that ayu has. Well she may not sing as good as kuu-chan or beyonce. But everytime she perform she has this aura I can't (hardly can) find in other artist.

Well, it's not only Sunset~LOVE is ALL~, I believe some of you has your own favourites. Care to share?

She's the only singer so far, that I can bawl my eyes out while listening to her songs. Some of the songs where I feel great emotion from her are

- fated
- Together When...
- untitled ~for her~
- Endless sorrow
- Days
- HEAVEN
- SEASONS
- Dearest
- Voyage
- Dolls

omg that's a lot but I'm sure there are more. She's an amazing singer honestly, it's hard to convey emotions as strongly as her.

I know what you mean about Ayu having a certain aura to her when she performs. That is why she is one of my favorite artists. Yea, her voice may not be spectacular at times, but she tries hard, works hard and does it all for her fans and love of music.

I always loved when she performed Dearest acoustic piano version. That particular performance is my favorite of all time, because she has so much emotion in her voice and the words are just brilliant and touching. It's like Ayu is singing directly to you, and that is what I love about her the most. The connection she has with her fans.

When her emotions are conveyed naturally, I love it. When they are obviously something being played (like in many of her ballad performances with Shuya), it just comes off as way too over the top for me.

ikr! Usually when people cry they go like T_T or ;_;, but for Ayu faking it, it's always >_<... at first I was like, "wow she's crying!!!", then now I just laugh whenever I see the fake-crying... XD

I call it "the Ayu feeling".

But I haven't really felt it as much from her in the past years...

but back in the day...omg...I used to tear up just hearing a song for xx lol

Occasionally happens now...but when I watch old stuff.

I don't care too much for the fake crying either, sometimes it's annoying but sometimes it's played very well. I just don't like when she over does it.

Omg...when i think of fake crying, i think of the HANABI screen for AT08

But yeah...I call it the Ayu feeling too

I used to get it a lot especially with ASFXX, Memorial address and some of her other ballads
But since the release of NEXT LEVEL, I haven't been able to experience that feeling except occasionally now with rainy day since it was my first Ayu song

her HEAVEN in AT06 look fake to me...which made me couldn't really enjoy it..but her untitled~for her~ is very natural....

ya..she has the aura and i understand what you feel...because can't find such thing in other singer too

i never understood how people can cry to ayu (or anyone) without actually fully understanding the songs... it's one thing to know what the song means such as a translation, but actually understanding ever detail and applying it to one's life and/or experiences, like one would with a native/fluent language, is a lot different. Even though I read translations, after reading it, I tend to just forget the meaning. I guess i'm the only one? haha...

I'm not doubting the people that cry, i'm just saying I don't necessarily understand where the tears come from. Especially since usually, people's favorite songs are the songs with, by japanese standards, the "less meaningful" lyrics, while Japanese people tend to like the songs that are overlooked by non-native/fluent speakers of Japanese. such as her entire Duty album--I've heard so many fans say it's such a boring album and not her best and don't understand why it's so popular, etc. (Then there are the fans that just hop on the bandwagon and say it's her best because Japanese people say so, which is a different story for a different time, haha.)

maybe it's just me. do i sense emotion from ayu? yes of course, I think she lets her guard down a lot when she sings. but crying is, i guess, different for me.

However, my favorite "emotionally injected" song is "teddy bear". :)

@tokyojapanfan: Well even without the translation, her voice itself already carries emotions, and the melodies play a role too I guess.

I cry at things I don't understand XD Sometimes it's not really the lyrics that makes me cry, but it's more of the "plot" of a PV or just the emotions being portrayed purely like during Memorial address @ AT03-04

I also cry sometimes when her concerts end... she doesn't sing anything does she? ;) And I remember once I was watching BEST of CDL 06-07 then at the credits they were playing Who...'s instrumental and I just started crying, :laugh

For me, it had a lot to do with the music itself.

I loved the flow of her songs, from note to note, lows to highs, and the power that she infused in her songs, that was only emphasized by the emotion that she put into it.

I'm like that with a lot of great music, or when it comes to great singers as well.

Andrea Bocelli can make me weep lol And there are some compositions that are just amazing...I think everyone knows the Adagio for Strings, which, I first heard covered by a Choir, and it was just one of the most gorgeous things I've ever heard.

this

I think this is the great beauty of music. My teachers used to tell us that, we can always play the notes as they are written, but you haven't made music out of it, until the audience can actually feel the emotion and the story behind it.

And there are no words in symphonic pieces, obviously. It's not something that's easy to do.

But that's a little aside from the "Ayu feeling" I guess.

But anyway, you don't need words to convey feeling or emotion.

Alot of ayu's older songs are done in such a way that you can tell a song is sad or happy or angry or frustrated, and whether it deals with life in general or love, from its arrangement, melody, and how ayu sings it. That's not so much the case anymore (and when you CAN tell a song is happy or sad, it seems so over the top and forced that you can't really "feel" it anymore). But back in the day - especially with albums like "Duty" (which I dunno WHY anyone would call it boring o_O!) and I am..., you could tell.

The first time I heard "Far away" I knew it was a sort of frustrated sadness that she was talking about. The first time I heard "teddy bear" I knew it was a mournful sort of song. The first time I heard "A Song for XX" I knew she was singing about some sort of apprehensive, angry determination to change something. The first time I heard "Fly high" I knew it was an inspirational, uplifting track - and all of this was without knowing the lyrics.

I haven't felt that in awhile. Songs like "fated" are too over the top with the fake crying type of voice in the bridge. Songs like "Sunrise" sound like she's trying to convince herself that she's happy, nevermind trying to convey the message to us.

"HEAVEN" just about had it right, but then the fake crying in the video nearly killed it for me. I just don't watch the video and I'm fine, lol :)

I love you Deli :shughug

I can never fully explain what happened to it...but I think you did beautifully.

A Song For XX, even when she performs it now, always gets me. Probably because even before I knew any Japanese that song just totally spoke to me. Sometimes I think the reason why sh ecan still perform it so well is because even she herself still feels it.

yeah, this is why i love her. i feel like it's rare when a song doesn't have her "feeling". a lot of artists just sing but don't put their heart into the song, or even bother to put themselves into their music, and that bugs me. ayu is always herself in her music and has a way to get her emotions across even when the listeners of her music don't know any japanese.

Ayu & Chihiro Onitsuka both really inject feelings into their song.
i can feel it~~~& this is why i love them

for me, some songs that have that really have that "aura" to them are HEAVEN, untitled ~for her~, criminal, Sunset, no more words, and most of all..Memorial address.

She's the only singer that can move me with her songs even if i don't know what she's saying. Because she doesn't just go on stage and sing a song. She sings it to eveyone with all her heart and feelings. If she were any other way, she would be just another singer.


When i do know what she's saying, whether it's a line from a song, or a line in her Diary messages, there's always something that i really needed to hear at that moment. i don't know how that always happens, but it does.