She's one of the biggest stars in Asia – but nobody knows who she is
One of Japan's biggest stars, the singer Ado, is headed to Australia for the first time this month, although if you're older than 25, you may not recognise her name. And nobody recognises her face, even in Japan and East Asia where the 22-year-old is a superstar: Ado's identity is a closely guarded secret.
She's never revealed her real name or her face, instead using an anime avatar to promote her work. At her concerts, she performs entirely in silhouette. (At an event in Tokyo last year, she conducted a 'meet and greet' event for 1000 fans, shaking hands with them from inside a custom-made opaque box.)
As she speaks over Zoom through a translator ahead of the Australian leg of her current Hibana world tour – one of the biggest ever by a Japanese artist – Ado's screen remains darkened, but her voice is instantly recognisable, even to the most casual listener.
Her unique vocal style has brought her 10 platinum-selling singles and more than 7 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
The songs are not your standard pop-chart fare; Ado is a star of Japan's utaite scene, a digital subculture that grew out of a video-sharing service, Niconico, similar to YouTube, to which users upload videos of themselves singing.
'Utaite' means amateur singer. The term was applied to people uploading cover versions in about 2007. Many of these covers were of vocaloid songs – tracks created using vocal-android synthesiser software in which users input their own lyrics and melodies, drawing on voice banks of real singers or voice actors, and often depicted with anime-style characters. (Yes, it's complicated). The most famous of these is arguably Hatsune Miku, now so ubiquitous she collaborates with major brands in Japan, and, despite being a virtual singer, also tours globally.
These software-created songs, an often uncanny blend of machine and human voice, are not easy to cover, but many do. Not many though, as successfully as Ado, whose vocal range easily swings across four octaves.
Ado says she first embraced utaite culture when she was about five years old. 'I visited my cousin's place; she was using her parents' computer to watch something,' she says. 'She told me, watch this, and it was the first time I saw vocaloid characters. At first, I thought it was an animation, maybe anime or an extension of some TV program.'
She was instantly intrigued. 'They're virtual beings, and it was so different from what I heard around me, so-called J-pop music. The uniqueness and the sensibility also was very appealing to me.'
By the time she was 14, Ado had begun uploading her own songs, taking the path of many an up-and-comer by converting her wardrobe into an ad hoc recording studio. She describes her singing style as 'kind of shouting and raspy'.'I did a very short voice training [course], but basically I am self-taught,' she says.
After capturing the attention of vocaloid producer Syudou in 2019, when she covered one of his songs, the pair collaborated on her debut single.
Released the day before her 18th birthday in 2020, Usseewa (which translates as 'shut up') is a punk-influenced song that showcases her expressive vocals, punctuated with her now trademark screams, and, for Japan, some controversial lyrics. Usseewa takes aim at the country's corporate culture and societal pressures to conform.
It was an instant hit, quickly embraced by younger fans and reaching No.1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 as well as streaming charts. It racked up 100 million plays in 17 weeks, making Ado the youngest solo singer to achieve such statistics.
To date, the single has had more than 232 million streams on Spotify. Songs expressing the kind of rage Usseewa does are not common in the Japanese mainstream, especially from female singers, and it resonated with a generation of Japanese beginning to feel stifled by the country's traditional values.
'I don't want to sound like I'm boasting, but I really believe that my music was something that was … unprecedented,' Ado says. 'There wasn't any music like this, with my kind of different tones, and different styles.'
Especially not by women: 'Female singers used to have the stereotyped singing style.'
Part of Ado's appeal is that she traverses the musical gamut from punk vitriol to softly sung balladry – sometimes in one song.
'I use different tones and voices to sing different characters. It's probably non-gender – not male, not female. I sometimes do sound like male punk singers but sometimes sing like a very sensitive female singer.'
In Japan and East Asia, she has come to symbolise younger generations who, in the face of economic downturn, and with more access to global media, are embracing more individuality and challenging traditional attitudes to social issues, gender roles and 'grind culture'.
'It seems like there are many young people like myself that are looking for themselves, for who they are or looking for the place that they belong,' Ado says. 'Many of them are searching for their dream and a lot of them still don't know what they want to do in life … I feel like I'm representing all those people and speaking out their mind or their emotions to be themselves.'
TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO ADO
Worst habit? I am bad at being on time.
Greatest fear? I have no fear.
The line that stayed with you? 'The only way to get what you want in this world is through hard work' – Tiana in the Disney film The Princess and the Frog.
Biggest regret? There are many [times] I wasn't able to apologise for something or to admit my own mistake because I was a little too childish. I wish that I was a bit more mature so that I would be able to actually say sorry.
Favourite book? I read lots of Manga series.
The artwork/song you wish was yours? When I listen to a beautiful-sounding song, I sometimes wish I had that voice – same thing with male singers as well
If you could time travel, where would you choose to go? I would love to travel back in time to my past, to when I was 12. I want to go back and see myself and to study more and to play more.
After the success of Usseewa, Ado went on to break several records, including becoming the first artist to have six top-10 songs on the Billboard Japan chart and the first Japanese artist to reach the top of Apple Music's Global Top 100 chart, with her song New Genesis, the theme song for the anime film One Piece Film: Red, in which she also voices one of the characters. In February, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched her music into orbit; she was the first artist selected for the Cannes Gala's BandWagon2 project, which aims to eventually bring music to the lunar surface.
Ado isn't the only utaite singer to gain international fame, but few others have such an ardent fan base. It's not uncommon for her fans to claim her music has saved them.
'It really brings tears to my eyes when I hear something like that, because I used to be nobody,' she says. 'I was not good at study. I was not good at sports. I felt like … I'm no good for anything, anybody. So for a long time, I felt so powerless, and I knew that I didn't have anything, but because I knew of that [feeling], I wanted to do something if I could – and to not just say, 'Don't give up', but to be able to be with that pain or whatever that person is actually experiencing.'
She's still surprised at her rapid ascent.
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'I always wanted to be famous, but I never expected that my first single would get that much attention,' she says. 'When it happened, I was really happy, but my mind was not catching up with … becoming so big. But now I'm happy that many people know me.'
That's an obvious segue into Ado's anonymity, but questions about the singer's choice to remain anonymous were forbidden by her management. Many in the Japanese music industry tightly control what their talent can discuss with the media.
She's excited to visit Australia for the first time, and has plans for her time off.
'I want to see koala bears,' she says, 'and I'd like to walk around the city.' But of course, we'll never know.
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