Yuuta Matsuyama -- Koi Hanabi（恋花火）

 

In yesterday's article on "All Those Casablanca Songs", I mentioned that a couple of singers had given their rendition of Ichiro Toba's（鳥羽一郎）"Casablanca Goodbye" (カサブランカ・グッバイ) during a segment on the most recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）.  Well, the segment involved one veteran enka singer graciously introducing a new singer to the fold, and in this case, the two singers were the eternally young Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）in the former role while the latter was represented by a fellow named Yuuta Matsuyama（松山優太）.

Matsuyama wasn't wearing the flashy suit or the yukata that the average male singer on "Shin BS Nihon no Uta" would often be garbed in. He looked like a fairly young guy in a rock n' roll leather suit who could have been pegged as Gen Hoshino's（星野源）brother. Plus, he even pulled off a tenor sax solo during "Casablanca Goodbye".

But once he got his feet wet with Yamauchi, Matsuyama performed his own single from February this year, "Koi Hanabi" (Love Fireworks). Described under the YouTube music video as a summer's-end love song with a bit of Latin taste, I figured from the choice of season that the story depicted in Matsuyama's own lyrics wouldn't have a particularly happy end to the romance. Ryusuke Taira's（平隆介） melody has been created so that although I'd first treated it as a potential New Adult Music tune, at the end, I put it down as a pop song without any big hints of either enka or Mood Kayo.

"Koi Hanabi" was Matsuyama's debut single as a solo artist. Back in 2004, he had founded a chorus singing trio called Juleps which came out with their own singles and albums including jingles for commercials. The group called it a day at the end of 2022. Along with also dabbling in acting, Matsuyama also has training as a mental health counselor.