ayu!

I've been a great fan of Ayu since I was, em, let me count, 13-14ish years old. Yes, it started a few years ago. I first saw her through a VCD of her concert, which was Arena Tour 2002, since then I had high respect for her works. She's not only a singer, she is a performer, a writer, a visualiser. I always love all her songs and always feel happy and satisfied whenever I watch her performances.

She's definitely different from other artist out there. I love her works, I love her attitude. Well, frankly, I love everything about her. I admire her for being hard working. I love her for not giving up even when she has complications. I just adore her. She's a great artist and I am proud that she has fans all over the world. I love her signature slash trademarks whenever she does her tour. One of the most important factor about her concert is she plans her own concert. She picks out how the stage would look like and stuff like that. And that is why, at the end of her concert, there would be an ending credit saying 'visualised by ayumi hamasaki' and is now changed to 'All Produced by ayumi hamasaki' with her looking at the stage. It's wonderful.

I love how every concert, she manages to surprise the audience but still have her trademarks on. One of her trademarks are her costumes. I love her costumes! It's so concert-y. Her costumes has the element of surprise in it and of course, her outfit for the MC-ing period and encore is damn cute. And her stage, one word can describe her stages; 'Wow!' It's tricky yet so coordinated. You should have seen her 2008's Arena Tour, she had this big ship on her stage! :D During her concerts, you can also see different suspended things or objects going around, for example during her 2006's Arena Tour, you can see her inside a ball, well, not exactly a ball but you know, suspended in the air, it was amazing.

The video above was the first concert I saw from her. It's the opening for Arena Tour 2002. Arena Tour 2002 was oh my gee. It was just amazing. I especially love the opening. And I definitely love A Song For XX. I honestly just love all her performances! I can't possibly say one by one but if you really want to know why I love Ayumi. You should just check out her Countdown 2006-2007 concert because it comprises of stage settings from her previous concert but renewed. It's also called Best of Countdown Live. So yeah. And, and she sang one of my favourite song No Way To Say in the countdown, and her stage settings + costume were awesome. She had this dress which was probably 19 feet wide! And one more thing, at the end of every concert, all her audience will keep quiet where she will say "Thank you!" without her microphone, it's one of her trademarks AND believe me, you can hear her.

So it's been my wish since a few-few years ago to watch her live. She's one and still is one of my idols. (:

till then

- w a i