Hi everyone. Happy new year 2017 😊 I hope you had a good start of the new year. It's been quite chilly in Japan, and they had a heavy snow in the north part of Japan; 242 cm a few days ago, my goodness… 😲
I have just uploaded a video on my YouTube channel. It is a cover of some of my favorite Japanese songs "Tsubasa o Kudasai (翼をください)" / Wings to Fly. "Tsubasa o kudasai" literally means "Please Give Me Wings". This Japanese folk song is popular all over Japan and was originally sung by the group "Akaitori". Later, the British singer Susan Boyle covered it in English. (Wings to Fly)
Written by Michio Yamagami (山上路夫)
Composed by Kunihiko Murai (村井邦彦)
It's a beautiful song, and I hope you'll enjoy it. I look forward to your "Likes" on the video. 😊 I'd be happy, if you subscribe my channel. 💖 Thank you for your support. Ciao!
December has come and we feel the Christmas atmosphere everywhere in the cities, towns or villages. I love Christmas time and Christmas carols. They are not just beautiful but remind me of my happy Christmas time that I spent with my wonderful parents and family during my childhood and having practiced and sung for the mass at schools. I'm sure you also have some lovely episodes about Christmas. What are your favourite Christmas carols?
I'd like to share the video with you which I recorded my singing "Silent Night". I hope you will have some peaceful moment listening to it. Thank you for visiting my blog.
It's been exactly five years today since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami occurred (the 11th of March 2011, at 14:46 Japan Time).
The afflicted people the affected area and Japan are still struggling to recover even now. Watching the footage of the disaster or the tragedy on TV the past few days, it hurt my heart a lot and I am sincerely sorry for the victims and those who were killed and who still remain missing in the earthquake and the tsunami.
I got a fresh reminder of the elements, the natural threats or the terrible power of nature. the forces of nature is immense.
We, especially people of Japan or those living in this country, must not forget the tragedy. I would like to exert effort in my way to support them. I express my heartfelt condolences to relatives of the victims.
Here is the song that I covered a few years ago. It was composed and dedicated to the disaster victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.
Here are the videos of the concert (Concerto del libro, poesia e musica a Faenza, Italia) where I performed 9 Japanese songs in public in December 2015 at a hall of Ms. Muky's beautiful mansion in Faenza in the region of Emilia Romagna, Italy. Thank you very much for coming to listen to my voice. I hope to come to Italy to sing for you again. Grazie mille di tutto!
- Chiharu :-)
"Hanamizuki"
(a cover performed by Chiharu *originally performed by Hitotoyo)
"Kokoro no hitomi"
(a cover performed by Chiharu *originally performed by Kyu Sakamoto)
5 days have gone by since the beginning of the new year 2016. I hope you spent a heartwarming Christmas with your family and loved ones and welcome the new year happily. I wish all of you a wonderful, peaceful and healthy year and a lot of happiness and love in 2016.
I was thinking about my new year's resolutions. Hmm, my mind is filled with lots of hopes, challenges and ideas. This year, I will try more things than these past years. I'm kind of excited. I hope to try something new; something I have never done before. It could be different types of art, collaborating with other artists from different fields, creating something unique etc.
My new year's resolutions in music is that I will try to sing in different languages and upload the videos of me singing them on YouTube and SoundCloud.
Here below is the link to one of my videos at the concert in Faenza, Italy.
I hope to make an international singing group again one day outside Japan, sharing the joy of singing and multi-cultural exchanges heart to heart through music across national boundaries.
I wish you, your family and loved ones once again a happy, prosperous and healthy year :)
I covered the song "Hana wa saku" (Flowers will bloom). I really like the music and also the lyrics. It reached my heart as soon as I heard the music for the first time. It was composed by a Japanese composer Yoko Kanno (music) and lyrics was written by Shunji Iwai. It is a song dedicated for the disaster victims of Great East Japan Earthquake / Tsunami 2011.
The lyrics is a message from those who lost their lives in the earthquake to the loved ones that they left behind. The soothing melody and the lyrics that speak kindly to those who try hard to live handling their griefs, tragedy and sadness touched my soul. Without knowing the meaning of the lyrics, many people will like this song, as the music itself is beautiful. The lyrics seems to be sad, but it has a message to encourage the people who are left behind from the disaster victims, that they watch them from above and they support them to lead them to find a hope in the future.
I think this song can be also dedicated for the people who feel discouraged, get depressed, who are trying to get better from the sickness, who are lost in grief because of the loss of their loved ones etc. It is for everyone who is in a difficult situation and needs comfort in his/her heart.
Since the song was released, it has been sung by many people in the different parts of the world in Japanese, English and Italian as far as I know. Some professional singers such as Il Divo, Hayley Westenra etc. also covered the song.
I covered and sang it with true feelings from the bottom of my heart. It could be just a small thing, but I wanted to do something I can do to heal someone's heart and mind that really need comfort.
Here is the link to the lyrics in Japanese / English and the music (musical score)
Summer Greetings from Japan! Is everyone of you doing well? It's been blistering hot here. This kind of heat wave makes me feel very tired and I just don't feel like doing anything but staying home or inside buildings until the sun sets. I wonder till when this kind of weather goes on... Way too hot!
Anyway, I've uploaded a cover of another popular Okinawan song " 涙そうそう/ Nada SoSo (Great Tears Are Spilling) ", originally performed by Begin. (Music by Begin / Lyrics by Ryoko Moriyama.) Here is the link to my sound: Nada SoSo 涙そうそう - cover - by Chiharu It is covered by many Japanese artists such as Rimi Natsukawa and also those around the world; the song became popular in Hawaii as well, covered and sung in Hawaiian by Keali'i Reichel, a wonderful Hawaiian musician. It became popular as the different title "Ka Nohona Pili Kai". I also like Keali'i's version quite a lot. I'd like to cover the Hawaiian version of Nada SoSo one day. I'd like to add the background of the song to this post, so that you can grasp what the song says or how/why this song was made. Here is the explanation from Wikipedia ( "Nada Sōsō").
Background, writing
Moriyama and Begin met after performing at lives together in the late 1990s. Moriyama asked Begin to write her an Okinawan-style song. The song's title on the demo tape she received was "Nada Sōsō," an Okinawan language phrase meaning "large tears are falling" (to compare, the Japanese phrase would be namida ga poroporo kobore ochiru (涙がぽろぽろこぼれ落ちる?)). When Moriyama found out the meaning of the phrase, it reminded her of the death of her older brother.[2] She kept the title, and based the lyrics she wrote around these feelings.
Moriyama and Begin met after performing at lives together in the late 1990s. Moriyama asked Begin to write her an Okinawan-style song. The song's title on the demo tape she received was "Nada Sōsō," an
The lyrics speak of looking through an old photo-book at pictures of somebody who has died. The protagonist of the song is thankful to them for always encouraging them, and for being happy no matter what. They believe they will meet them again one day, and cries as they send thoughts of sadness and love to that person.[3]
As you can see, this is a sad song, but this heart-warming melody and lyrics reminds you of the happy moments that you spent with the person who left this world. I hope you will explorer Japanese music through my music activity even if it's a tiny bit ;) I wish you a lovely summer days (to you who are in the Northern Hemisphere) or a lovely winter days (to you who are in the Southern Hemisphere)!
