It's been a little over four years since I posted my last Akemi Ishii（石井明美）article and that was for her "You Make Me Happy" song from her debut album "Mona Lisa"（モナリザ）from November 1986.
"You Make Me Happy" was something that I noted as a City Pop contribution to "Mona Lisa", and listening to it again after a while, yep, it's very much of the Japanese urban contemporary stripe. However, its track mate on "Mona Lisa", "Ai wa Arashi" (Love is a Storm) is quite different in that it sounds more like a European synthpop tune. The late Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）provided the lyrics but then I saw the composer whose name was Romano Musumarra, an Italian composer and arranger.
And sure enough, with a bit of digging, I realized that "Ai wa Arashi" is indeed a cover of a synthpop tune originally recorded and released by Princess Stéphanie of Monaco in March 1986 titled "Ouragan", French for "windstorm". According to its Wikipedia page, the official English title though was "Irresistible". It was a big hit in France as it went all the way up to No. 1 and it didn't too badly in Spain and West Germany either since it reached No. 2. There isn't all that much different between the original and Japanese versions aside from a breathier delivery by Ishii.
Princess Stéphanie of Monaco dreamed of becoming a singer, while some singers dream of becoming a princess. Akemi Ishii cover is pretty good. It almost sounds like it was done by the same person, almost.
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