Daily Yomiuri

By Mark Austin

Having debuted on the acoustic stage at 10 a.m., diminutive folksinger Maaya took the main stage at 4 p.m. Despite her petite frame, Maaya is possessed of a voice that surely could go the distance with that of any fuller-figured opera diva. Pacing around apprehensively backstage before her afternoon set, the pleasantly unaffected 22-year-old, who has just been signed up by Sony, told me that she always suffers from nerves before going onstage, but that the moment she starts singing, the tension evaporates. Judging from her stellar performance on Saturday, This is a voice with which music lovers in Japan are going to become very familiar, very soon.

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