TOKYO, May 21 — Ayumi Hamasaki, who is the best-selling Japanese solo artist of all time, is losing her hearing.
The 38-year-old singer shared the news with her fans via her blog Team Ayu yesterday, according to Japanese entertainment sites.
Nonetheless, she plans to defy the odds and continue performing.
“The stage is where I belong. It’s the only place I really, truly exist. I don’t know anything else,” she wrote.
Hamasaki said doctors have confirmed that she is going deaf, after running a battery of tests on her.
“I was told after various hearing tests that my right ear (which has been working overtime to compensate for the deafness of my left ear) is quickly weakening,” she wrote.
“I was experiencing crippling dizziness. I was unable to walk in a straight line, and was often vomiting in the restroom while at the rehearsal studio.”
Hamasaki has been deaf in her left ear since 2008. Her condition can be traced back to a cold and an ear infection that she caught in 2000.
