Ado does not appear particularly interested in respecting genre boundaries. After turning a Metallica song into one of the most unexpected moments of her Summer Sonic appearances, the Japanese singer has confirmed that “Enter Sandman” will receive a studio version on Ado no Utattemita Album Sono 2 (Adoの歌ってみたアルバム その２), her second full record devoted to interpreting other artists’ songs.
The album arrives on December 23, 2026, revisiting the concept of 2023’s Ado no Utattemita Album while dramatically widening its scope. Songs were selected from requests submitted by fans around the world, and the record will move between Vocaloid, J-Pop and, for the first time in this series, Western music. The full tracklist has yet to be revealed, although roughly ten songs are planned.
The first three choices already suggest there will be little interest in stylistic consistency for its own sake. Alongside Metallica sits 「妄想疾患■ガール」, a Vocaloid song from 2014, and 「くちばしにチェリー」 (Kuchibashi ni Cherry), originally released by EGO-WRAPPIN’ in 2002 and associated with the drama Shiritsu Tantei Hama Mike. They come from completely different musical worlds, connected mainly by what Ado’s highly elastic voice might be able to do with them.
“Kuchibashi ni Cherry” also carries some personal history. Before her official debut, when she was still 17, Ado recorded the song during an early trial session after being given material to perform by her record company. That recording remained unheard publicly for years before finally surfacing in March 2026. Its return now creates an unusual before-and-after portrait: the same song connecting an unknown teenager beginning to record professionally with an artist whose career operates on an entirely different scale.
With “Enter Sandman,” the process has happened almost in reverse because the cover has already survived its biggest possible test in front of a festival crowd. Ado used it to open her headline sets at Summer Sonic 2026 in Tokyo and Osaka, then returned to it for the encore. She described the choice as a gesture of respect towards the festival’s history and the artists who had previously headlined it, giving the forthcoming studio recording a direct connection to those performances.
Metallica originally released “Enter Sandman” in 1991 on the album commonly known as the Black Album, and it became one of the band’s defining songs. For Ado, its relatively controlled vocal melody and riff-driven structure provide an intriguing framework for a singer known for moving abruptly between clean tones, rasps, screams and dramatic shifts in dynamics.
Ado no Utattemita Album Sono 2 will be available in two physical editions. The standard version contains the CD, while a limited first edition adds an original acrylic stand and stickers. The remaining songs and retailer-specific extras will be revealed closer to release.
The album arrives six years after “Usseewa” turned Ado into one of the most explosive Japanese debuts of recent years. Since then she has gone from uploading performances while keeping her face out of public view to touring internationally, playing some of Japan’s largest venues and providing Uta’s singing voice in One Piece Film Red. Her next covers record appears designed around exactly that freedom: not choosing songs because they belong together, but because her voice might be able to pull them apart and rebuild them.
