[Norrel]

Calling her a has-been for the reasons listed seems a little harsh, no? I don’t think a has-been would be someone who just headlined two nights at one of the largest arenas(Saitama Super Area) in the world, and even sold out the second night. We’ve talked about why she might need an assist from her dancers on high positions, and while her recent vocals may or may not have something to do with her being 80% deaf, the fact she still is able to perform and sell out arenas and halls as a headlining act is clear there’s still a fan base in Japan that allows her to do as such. Mariah Carey, by comparison, doesn’t even do headlining tours, and recently has reduced to just an opening act for bigger acts, when she used to be one of the biggest pop singers... not sure what you’d call that, but Ayu has definitely not reduced to that.

Even Madonna needs some assistance from her dancers in her older age and even turns to auto-tune or vocoder effects heavily in her more recent music/tours, but that doesn’t make her a has-been.