So, About That Rumored Aya Matsuura Comeback…

Back in March, rumors began circulating about an Aya Matsuura comeback, and sadly, we’ve heard nothing new since then. Now, planning a return to the music biz isn’t something you do spur-of-the-moment, especially if you’re the mother of a two-year-old. I get that, but for the media to have caught wind of such a return, the wheels would pretty much have to  have been in motion for a little while already. I really hope this doesn’t turn out to just be Ayaya screwing with a reporter by leading him on a snipe-hunt, which would totally be an Ayaya thing to do.

Anyway, I really miss Matsuura and her perfect pop voice. I’m not crazy about the lite-jazz/pop turn she took musically the last few years before her hiatus, but her voice makes me want to listen even if the music doesn’t really fire me up. It’s a shame that her career bridged the very end of the solo-idol era with the girl-group explosion, because she was the Seiko Matsuda of the 2000s. She had everything you could want from an idol: an amazing voice, a fun and down-to-earth personality, a sense of humor, and an aura of absolute confidence in everything she did. It didn’t hurt that she got some of the best material that Tsunku ever composed, but she made every part of her job appear easy. Had she debuted, say, five years earlier, she’d be a Japanese pop legend, maybe not on the level of Matsuda, but close. She was, in a word, perfect. At just 31, Matsuura is still in her prime, and it would be a shame if this rumor turned out to be a dud.

Off topic: My favorite part of the article I linked above is this little tidbit buried at the end:

In 2013 Aya announced her marriage to Keita (Tachibana, lead singer of W-INDS), they had been dating for 12 years. In December 2014 she gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

Wait, what? This means that Aya managed to successfully hide a serious relationship from the shark-infested Japanese entertainment press for nearly her entire idol career! That’s gotta be the most Ayaya thing ever. Is there anything she doesn’t make look easy?