Junretsu -- Junretsu no Happy Birthday（純烈のハッピーバースデー）

Happy New Year and welcome to 2020! Also, a good friend and fellow translator is celebrating a birthday today, so I did find the perfect J-Pop song to commemorate the occasion. It also received the biggest attention on New Year's Eve when it was featured on the Kohaku Utagassen last night.

That's right...that would be "Junretsu no Happy Birthday" (Junretsu's Happy Birthday), the May 2019 single by the kayo vocal group Junretsu（純烈）. The guys had some personnel issues about a year ago, but it looks like things are back to smooth sailing.

This time, its less about the enka/Mood Kayo and more about the Latin and the dancing with "Junretsu no Happy Birthday". Apparently for that latter aspect, the choreography got the public's attention so I can only think about how active the karaoke boxes were last year...but then again, it was really about those "pincer" hand gestures.

Miyuki Kohei（幸耕平）, the same songwriter responsible for Junretsu's other hit "Propose"（プロポーズ）from 2018, was also behind words and music here. "Happy Birthday" peaked at No. 3. For all those of you who are celebrating a birthday on January 1st as well, enjoy!