L.A. Live was crowded to the brim, with little to no empty space in the plaza outside Peacock Theater. Decked out in shirts and hoodies featuring anime-style artwork of a girl with black hair stained in blue, excited fans awaited the performance of a rather unconventional artist: Ado.
The 21-year-old Japanese singer has been on the rise since her debut in 2020, but what makes her unique is simple; she has a secret identity.
On Friday, Ado arrived in Los Angeles on the second to last stop on her first world tour, “Wish.” From Taipei to Jakarta to London to New York, the artist embarked on her first journey out of Japan.
Ado got her start when she was a teenager as an utaite: a singer mostly publishing covers of songs on sites like Niconico and YouTube. However, she would make her big break with her single, “Usseewa,” a loud, brash and aggressive song questioning society, that would later chart 41 on Billboard’s Global 200.
Ado made her mark beyond solo work, such as collaborating with K-pop group LE SSERAFIM, singing the opening theme for video game “Lost Judgment,” and having her music featured in rhythm games like Wacca and “Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!”
She even got to be a part of one of the longest-running anime series of all time: “One Piece.” Ado worked on the 2022 film, “One Piece Film: Red” as the singing voice of the character Uta, where she released an original album to be featured on the film’s soundtrack.
Much of her claim to fame is her anonymity, with her visual identity primarily being in the form of various artistic avatars. Now, her dark, raspy voice has reached audiences globally, as evidenced by a sold out Peacock Theater.
As the stage dimmed, the crowd screamed with their blue light sticks glowing in the dark auditorium. On stage, a cube stood in the center flanked by a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer and a keyboardist.
It shone blue as the music began, and a figure obscured by a spinning parasol walked onstage into the box. As the projections on the cube turned off, the silhouette of a woman with long hair, a draping coat and a pair of high heeled boots stood behind the bars of the mechanical cage.
The screen behind Ado turned bright, as she opened with her upbeat song “New Genesis,” as featured in “One Piece Film: Red.” Ado danced in her box, with her movement being accentuated by the lack of visual clarity.
Her silhouette bounced as her voice pierced even the loudest cheers from the crowd. After wrapping up the first song, she immediately switched characters, shifting into “Usseewa” with the screens turning red and blue.
Ado’s roaring voice evoked a sense of anger and madness as she began screaming the lyrics. The concert was like a non-stop shot of adrenaline. Songs would play back-to-back with only brief moments of rest in between, many of them embodying Ado’s uniquely aggressive sensibilities set to a mixture of musical style.
With elements of pop, jazz, EDM and hip-hop all set to a voice that belongs in heavy metal, Ado’s music pushed fans to their feet, jumping, screaming and waving their color-changing light sticks to the beat.
The set list included a plethora of music ranging from the tone of demented childhood heard in “Aishite Aishite Aishite,” to the dark menace of “Tot Musica,” to a few joyous and triumphant melodies like “I’m invincible.”
Through it all, Ado’s silhouette strutted around the cage, kicking, flipping her jacket, laying on the ground, like a mime trapped in a visible box.
At one moment, the screen projected a record player, as a familiar riff came on. Fans screamed to the tune, as Ado returned to her roots as a cover artist for her rendition of Miki Matsubara’s iconic city pop song “Stay With Me.”
The song was a moment for fans to catch their breath after a heavy setlist full of high-energy and furious intensity. They bobbed their heads and sang along to the lyrics while waving their blue and pink light sticks.
Once the song was finished, Ado spoke her first words to the audience. “Hello everyone!” she exclaimed.
She thanked the audience in English. “To be honest, I was worried at first,” she said. “But it is so good to see you are having a good time.”
For the last song on the setlist, she sang “Show.” In front of a screen featuring dancing zombies, Ado demonstrated her vocal range, from dark raspiness to operatics to high-pitched voice cracks.
With a final “Shout it out!,” Ado took a bow and the stage went dark. While the band took their leave, fans continued to cheer. For minutes, they called for an encore, and Ado delivered.
Re-emerging from behind the box’s projection, Ado sang another batch of songs, including the high-octane “FREEDOM” and her cover of Vocaloid song “Senbonzakura.”
As she finished her performance, she spoke one last time to the audience.
“This is my passion and I hope to share it with as many people as possible,” she said in English. “Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.”
She closed the night with the fan favorite “Odo,” albeit trading out its usual EDM melody with sounds of heavy bass and hard rock. Fans jumped up and down, and as the song came to an end, Ado’s silhouette posed in front of a flashing red screen, waving goodbye to the audience.
A digital avatar took her place projected on the box before quickly vanishing.
In some ways, it may seem like she sings like a caged bird. However, for Ado, her voice has become her identity, and a greater freedom has been found in allowing those booming melodies to reach the ears of an audience unconstrained by the limits of the eye.
To fans, Ado is “seen” as many things: an animated girl with a long coat and a piercing gaze or even an idol with white and red hair from a world of pirates. But regardless of that perception, the one “true” Ado is the one that can only be heard.
*In a previous version of this story, “Ashura-chan” was misidentified as one of the songs performed in the encore. The story has now been updated to reflect this correction.