Author Topic: (Discuss) Ayu vs. HAL (Read 3011 times)

wakaba_doll · « **on:** January 02, 2007, 04:59:36 PM »

Way back in 2002, when I first discovered Ayu, I fell in love with the song M (which remains, to this day, my absolute fave Ayu song

) In any case, I noticed that the arrangers of the song were HAL, a group of producers who also happened to have a group on their own, fronted by a female vocalist named HALNA. For the longest time, I was really confused, because I originally thought that Ayu was also the vocalist for HAL, just going under a different name

LOL

Take a look at the similarities~

HAL's DECIDE single cover

Ayu's Evolution single cover

HAL the music group disbanded in 2003, with a supposed statement by HALNA saying she wanted to "get out of the spotlight"~ However, HAL continues to be music arrangers and work with Ayu, most recently on her SECRET album. My question now is this~ Did HAL the music group disband because of too much competition/comparisons with Ayu, especially in the case of HALNA? A brief listen to her vocals shows extreme similarities to Ayu's, and of course her styling seems to mimic Ayu's as well.

What do you guys think?

aedon · « **Reply #1 on:** January 02, 2007, 06:02:53 PM »

HAL as a group were amazing, I still miss them T_T They had style and HALNA had nice voice (and looked like Ayu as much as any other blonde Japanese idol lol). I don't think there was much info on why they've split up, their site was updated like once iirc (with last compilation info)... I've heard a lot of rumours, including one about Haruna's pregnancy, but I guess the main conflict was between the guys themselves, because Sato Atsushi "graduated" from the project around the same time when HALNA left (circa 2002).

HΛL timeline was:
1996~ Sato Atsushi, Umesaki Toshiharu
2000~ HΛLNA (vocals), Sato Atsushi, Umesaki Toshiharu
2003~ Umesaki Toshiharu, Shimizu Takehito, Nakano Yuta
2004~ Umesaki Toshiharu, Shimizu Takehito
Sources: http://hal2000.co.jp/, http://www7.plala.or.jp/mina37/hal/

And since HAL was an avex group, imho if anyone made HALNA resemble Ayu on purpose, that must've been avex bosses who wanted a replacement or back-up or whatever. I'm biased anyway~

wakaba_doll · « **Reply #2 on:** January 02, 2007, 06:35:46 PM »

I think they were a really great group too, and I admired the work they did with Ayu

It's just amazing how similiar HALNA's voice is to Ayu's~

Here is the PV to "the starry sky," one of the singles from HAL's first album~ There's a part towards the end of the song where her vocals *TOTALLY* sound like Ayu's!

LovelyMermaid · « **Reply #3 on:** January 02, 2007, 10:02:51 PM »

Yeah you're right, they do sound simmilar. It could be because they worked together so much, ya know?