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I was strolling through a music store in Taipei when I noticed my recent album featured on a large display. It made me think, “The employees who created that display are unaware of my presence.” However, I have grown accustomed to this feeling and it brings me joy.
The Japanese pop star has gained immense popularity in both east Asia and online. She has sold 10 platinum singles and has over six million listeners on Spotify worldwide. However, Ado’s true identity is kept secret. She never appears in photos or videos and during concerts, only her silhouette can be seen. In a video interview, her camera remains off. Although she is a captivating conversationalist and a dynamic live performer, she is also quite introverted. Ado confesses that it was initially shocking to hear her own voice being played in public places since no one knows anything about her personal life. She is now gearing up for her first world tour, which includes a stop in the UK this month.
At the age of 17, just one day before her 18th birthday in 2020, Ado released her debut single Usseewa as a bedroom artist. The song quickly became a huge success, with nearly 170 million streams on Spotify to date. The title of the song means “shut up” and it features a bold punk beat, lyrics that challenge authority, and Ado’s intense screams. The song struck a chord in Japan, where there is immense pressure to conform, and Ado was praised as the voice of non-conformist Gen Z. “Usseewa was a song about anger, sung by a female vocalist with a unique raw tone like mine, which was rare at the time,” she reflects.
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She does not compose her own music, but she delivers powerful performances, hitting high notes with a vocal range of more than four octaves. She brings lyrics to life with the same enthusiasm and dramatic vocal ability as an anime voice actor. In fact, Ado uses an anime-style avatar instead of a traditional artist photo. She even provided the singing voice for a popular character named Uta in the 2022 animated film One Piece Film: Red. The accompanying single, New Genesis, which has a synthwave sound, reached number one on the charts and remains her most successful track to date.
At the age of four or five, she began to develop a love for Vocaloid music, a software that allows synthetic voices to sing any song. She specifically mentions Hatsune Miku, a digital pop singer who is portrayed as a 16-year-old girl and brought to life through technology. Ado admires her “performances” where she is projected alongside a live band, in front of a large audience. Hearing the unique voices for the first time was a strange but intriguing experience for Ado. She was determined to uncover the mystery behind Hatsune Miku and the music, sparking her interest to learn more.
They began singing remakes of songs from Vocaloid, utilizing the eerie, artificial quality of the software to create a mysterious persona. They discovered that only Vocaloids could sing certain songs due to their ability to deliver lyrics at a super-fast pace or hit impossible vocal ranges. However, they were able to rearrange these songs to fit their own human voice. Producer Syudou noticed them after their intense cover of his song “Jama” in 2019 and went on to write and produce “Usseewa” for them. Since then, they have expanded their creative team and used their music to explore the struggle of overcoming self-doubt. In “Gira Gira,” they sing about feeling inadequate and being compared to others, but eventually find strength in refusing society’s judgmental expectations. In “I’m a Controversy,” they argue that being labeled a “problem child” is something to take pride in. They express interest in covering a song by Billie Eilish, who also openly discusses her self-worth.
The decision not to show her face might appear to be tied up with that struggle, but it’s actually done to align with the Vocaloid scene, and to focus more squarely on her artistry. “When I perform live, it’s about what can be expressed purely through the songs, the lighting and my silhouette,” she says. “I hope audiences overseas can enjoy this new kind of culture.”
Ado represents Japan’s generation Z: a more independent and progressive group compared to millennials. They are actively trying to challenge the persistent economic recession and declining birth rates. Ado expresses, “It seems like things are truly changing now. As a child, I had dreams for the future, but the present reality is quite different – with both positive and negative aspects. As a high school student, I experienced a lot of inner turmoil. I am grateful to have achieved my goals, but many young people in Japan are uncertain about their aspirations. The unknown future causes them anxiety, and the idea of living a normal life feels suffocating. This is especially evident online, where there is a toxic atmosphere and overwhelming amounts of information.”
I am hopeful for a future where people have more chances to live their lives the way they desire. Even though I am young, I use my music to guide and inspire others. While AI may lead to decreased job opportunities and the emergence of artificial pop stars that surpass even the Vocaloid singers, Ado remains steadfast. She believes there are certain tasks that only humans are capable of.
Source: theguardian.com
