Kumi Koda holds a mini livestream gig and shows Final Fantasy X-2 some love

Back in April Kumi Koda did a lil' gig for Nico Nico Live Broadcast Live. I've banged on numerous times that this is more of what Kumi Koda shoulda done over the course of last year, as opposed to putting her fans at risk with a big-ass tour. So I won't go on about it again.

It was a short and sweet set of just 5 songs which included the following.

XXKK | from angeL + monsteR [My Name Is...]
Got Me Going' | from AND
1000 Words | from Grow Into One
Who | from DNA
Lucky Star | from angeL + monsteR [My Name Is...]

"1000 Words" caught me off guard like fuck, because I don't think she's performed it in quite some time, compared to "Real Emotion" which she last performed on the Kumi KOVID tour.

I'm not going to bother embedding the video, because Avex are on some bullshit where they're flagging videos which feature music of theirs and preventing them from being embedded on websites. Which is dumb, because you can still watch the shit on YouTube anyway.

📺 Watch it: Kumi Koda Nico Nico Live Broadcast Live performance (April, 2021)

Say what you will about Kumi Koda, but she always gives great energy when it comes to her live performances, and the mic is ALWAYS on. Even if those vocals aren't in the best condition, a bitch puts in that ear piece and tells the engineer to turn that shit up.

I was very much here for "1000 Words", which is up there as one of Kumi's good ballads. "1000 Words" is also one of the better songs to feature in a Final Fantasy game, but it's so overlooked. "Real Emotion" is the song that everybody remembers because the game opens with it, and it threw FF fans because nobody ever thought that such a song would feature in a Final Fantasy game. Much less performed by dry-ass Yuna. Also, Final Fantasy X-2 is seen as the bastard child of the franchise that often gets shat on, for being too different, too stupid and too 'girly'. I personally preferred X-2 to Final Fantasy X. But, OKAY. And to add insult to injury for "1000 Words", it isn't even available on streaming globally, where-as "Real Emotion" is.

HENNYWAY.

As nice as it was to see "1000 Words" get some love, Kumi Koda's performance of it wasn't great. Kumi Koda hasn't been performing all that often this year. But on the few occasions that she has and she's sung ballads, her voice has sounded rough. Although her voice has been sounding rough for a while now - which may partially explain why her voice is heavily autotuned on so many of her songs these days, and why she opts to rap more as opposed to actually sing. I don't think Kumi's losing her voice. I think that she sounds like shit because she's developed bad singing habits over time, and not accounted for the fact that she and her voice are aging. You can hear that the range is still there, but there's no technique. Kumi is constantly straining for notes which is never a good sign, and can fuck your voice up in the long run.

So Kumi. Gurl. If you're reading this. Get your ass a vocal coach and start working on that technique.

💿 Album reviews: angeL + monsteR [My Name Is...] | re(CORD) | DNA | AND | W Face | Walk Of My Life | Bon Voyage | Japonesque | Color the Cover | Dejavu | Eternity ~Love & Songs~ | Universe | Trick | Kingdom | Black Cherry | Secret | Grow Into One | Feel My Mind | Affection