[Dustie]

I think Utada is not better than Ayumi in terms of vocals, and I'm not judging by just one performance.

Utada sounded horribly strained on Utada United, and she did so even after they mastered the sound for the DVD... hearing her voice on the DVD, I'm scared to think how did she sound for real...

Ayumi recieved vocal training, three months streight, she came back and did lives, and even though she had squeeky voice, she never gasped for air or went of key trying to hit high notes. She sang sort of on the same note all the time at first, but as years went by, her voice gained deepness.

I don't hear pretty much any kind of developement in Hikki's voice, over the years. The way she sounded in Automatic, she sounds the same way in Flavor of Life, except maybe a bit more grown up. When she was doing lives for FoL, again, she sounded strained, and even singing parts of the song that seemed easy to sing, she seemed to have trouble with them.

Ayu has been doing tons of lives throughout her career, both TV lives as well as tours, that's how she practiced her voice. I couldn't see Utada being nearly as active as Ayumi was. It seems to me Utada just started singing without much practicing, her singing sounded good at the very beginning so she (or anyone else that was around, working on her records) didn't feel that she needs much specific training. The best proof is how quickly she got worn off doing UU06. I can't remember myself hearing Ayu strained just becouse of singing a lot (the off-key CDL had its reason).

It's not that I don't like Utada, I just think Ayumi is technically a better vocalist, even if Utada's voice sounds nicer (at least on studio tracks).