"Understanding the latest trends, checking the stock market on the way to work, joining a company with pure spirit/ these are the obvious rules for us workers. Huh?/ Shut the f— up," J-pop star Ado screams on "Usseewa."

Released in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, the blatant rejection of societal expectations and conformity on "Usseewa" felt like a cathartic scream breaking out of a body crammed with frustrations. Ado, then just 18 years old, pulled no punches on the track, diving straight into spitfire delivery set against an equally powerful, urgent electronic beat. Her voice swung between controlled rage, disparaging sneers, and periodic screams betraying her frustrations with the adult world. 

No one had ever seen Ado’s face at this point — no one still has — but listeners felt her vitriolic anger. The visceral anguish struck a nerve with a young population breaking under the weight of uncertainty, mental turmoil, and the pressure of compliance. As she told Billboard in 2023, "It was a rebellion against adults and this society, and I really wanted to win."

"Usseewa" reached 100 million plays in 17 weeks (the sixth-fastest song in Japanese history to do do), and Ado became the youngest artist to hit that metric. Eventually, it hit the top spot on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, Oricon Digital Singles Chart, Oricon Streaming Chart, and the Spotify Viral 50 chart in Japan – all without ever having had a physical release. The term "Usseewa"’ was among the winning buzzwords of 2021 in Japan, and there were also calls of banning the song from schools citing its negative effects on children.  

The song’s popularity signaled a shift in the Japanese music landscape, which is heavily dominated by physical releases. Additionally, it championed the ethos of Vocaloid subculture. Often used as a blanket term for what has become a genre of its own, Vocaloid originally refers to a synthesizing software which allows users to input lyrics and melodies and create songs. The introduction of platforms like Nico Nico Douga — also known as Niconico — propelled it into becoming a thriving creative playground, with many artists eventually crossing over and becoming mainstays on J-pop charts. 

Unlike numerous Vocaloid artists who had given up their monikers or anonymity after transitioning into the mainstream, Ado remained represented by an animated high school girl with a blue rose. That didn’t deter her upward climb; she soon delivered her first full-length album, Kyougen, and provided vocals for the character Uta in the massively successful anime movie One Piece Film Red. 

Ado’s recently released album, Zanmu, marks the crucial point in her artistic journey. Here, she reckons with identity, fame, and her dreams from a more mature perspective than ever. As you dive into Zanmu, here is everything you need to know before getting into the elusive Japanese superstar.  

Ado’s Roots Are In Vocaloid Culture

While it thrived on the periphery of mainstream J-pop for years, Vocaloid has become a phenomenon shaping contemporary Japanese music, with Billboard Japan launching their Nico Nico Vocaloid Chart in 2022. 

Ado — who refers to Niconico as a "childhood home" – was just 5 years old when she first discovered Vocaloid and was immediately taken with virtual popstar Hatsune Miku. There was an "air of mystery" around the music, and Ado wanted to unravel it. "I wanted to understand what was behind that strangeness. I couldn’t understand whether it was anime or a human being, or who made the music," she recalled in an interview with the Guardian in 2024. 

She started uploading covers of her songs on the platform, rising in popularity thanks to her covers of BIN and Syudou, the latter of whom later wrote and produced "Usseewa." Despite her mainstream breakthrough, she’s never let go of her utaite (a term typically used for cover artists who got their start on Niconico) roots. As she told NME, "Vocaloid really is who I am. It’s all of me. I would say that Vocaloid’s existence is one and only. It’s so unique. There’s nothing that comes close to it."  

Ado Loves Her Anonymity

Despite being a massive star, Ado has gone to great lengths to keep her identity under wraps. Her public identity is an animated character and she assiduously avoids appearing in videos or photos. At a meet-and-greet event, the singer shook hands with fans through an opening in a box. At her live shows, the introverted artist appears as a silhouette against a brightly lit screen. At times, her darkened form is also situated in a cage.  

Some fans speculate that the cage is an added layer of protection for identity to dissuade any stray photos or videos of the star. In fact, according to a TV Asahi interview, no one knows she is Ado except for a few close friends: "I haven’t told my classmates or anyone else, except for only my close friends."  

Over the years, the singer has also stated that her anonymity is a means to remove background noise and help people focus on the music: "When I perform live, it’s about what can be expressed purely through the songs, the lighting and my silhouette," she told the Guardian in an interview earlier this year. 

Ado Doesn't Like Watching Playbacks 

The singer has affirmed in multiple interviews that she’s not a fan of watching anything that remotely shows her form or silhouette. "It’s really uncomfortable for me. I really don’t like seeing myself in [any] media form — concerts, photos, video footage. Even if there’s a slight shadow of myself or a flicker, I just want to shut down the computer or turn it around so I don’t have to see it," she told Billboard. 

With fame and public appearances becoming such an integral part of her life, Ado admits she's become much better with handling recordings of herself — however vague.  

While watching a recording of herself performing "Odo" earlier this year, the singer could be heard screaming and cringing periodically. When asked about it in an interview later on, she confessed: "I am not good at looking at what captures my movements… like photos and videos. But recently, probably because of my improved performance, I have become able to see a little bit of it." 

She Hasn't Always Loved Herself, And That's OK

Ado’s anonymity at times protected her from her "personal complexes." As a teenager, the singer feared that she would never be able to do anything substantial. "I was never good at studying or exercising and I felt like I was useless," she said in a 2021 interview: "I developed a pretty big complex about it because I wasn’t confident about anything, I wasn’t an especially popular or interesting person in class, and it all compounded. You could say I was a very, very, very gloomy person."

The anonymous world of utaite was appealing to the budding singer. "Utaite don’t reveal their faces or their real names — people don’t know where they live or what they do — they’re really active on the Internet and lots of people pay attention to their work," Ado said in 2021. "That alone seemed so alluring to me." 

Despite experiencing the immense love of her fans first-hand, Ado confessed in a 2022 Billboard interview that how she viewed herself was leagues apart from how her fans revered her. 

"I would really love to be able to look at the footage or photos of myself and think it’s all great and really appreciate myself. See myself the way the fans see me. I think that would make everything much more fun, but I’m not quite there yet," she said. 

Parts of this internal struggle — particularly the dissonance between Ado the artist and Ado the person — have often bled through in her work. Yet Ado has hinted at long-awaited closure on Zanmu. Ado released a number of handwritten notes on social media, one of which detailed the aftermath of a lengthy emotional struggle and relief thereafter: "I had a dream where I fought against myself. It was more of a struggle or conflict, but I truly fought myself. A version of me that looked like a hero stood before me, and I lost to it. It was just a dream, but it really hurt and was tough. However, I felt a bit lighter in my heart. I want to be helped again." 

Some Of Her Early Songs Were Recorded In A Closet 

In a 2020 Real Sound interview, the singer revealed that a lot of her early work was recorded inside a closet in her home. "That was the only recording space I had. I'd go in like ‘Guess I'll record’ and slam it shut."

Interestingly, this particular holdover from her utaite days seems to have persisted well beyond her major label debut. In a 2022 NME interview discussing her role in One Piece Film Red, she revealed that her recording sessions often comprise just her and a recording engineer since it helps her relax. "I feel like I’m at home, and I can focus. It’s my own time."  

"Dreams" Are A Core Aspect Of Her Artistry 

On Zanmu, her second original album, Ado hurls listeners into a phantasmagorical dreamscape of chaos and introspection. Throughout, Ado’s deepest fears and concerns come out to play, juxtaposing the listener's own inner dialogue. 

"'Zanmu' is a real word, meaning an unfulfilled dream. A dream that lingers even after waking up. I’ve always liked this word and thought it represented the dreams I’ve fulfilled in my life, as well as the youth that didn’t come true," Ado explained in a press release. But this isn’t the first or only time that the singer has dwelt on dreams — the concept is a cornerstone of her artistry.  

In a 2022 stream titled "To Everyone Who Was Born in 2002," where Ado mulled over turning 20, the singer explained that the blue rose on her persona represented dreams coming true. Since they do not exist naturally, blue roses have canonically symbolized impossibility and the unattainable. However, in 2002, scientists created a genetically modified blue rose with the artificial blue pigment Delphinidin. Since then, interpretations of the meaning of a blue rose began to reflect the possibility of the impossible — literally, dreams coming true. 

Ado thought it was meant to be: "That message really appealed to me. So I thought: ‘I’ll use this motif’. That’s why I wear the blue rose on my chest, near my heart."