I'm glad that Akina is healthy again and has been active recently. On July 1st, she just released her new single, "Gomen to, Suki to"「ごめんと、好きと」(Sorry, I love you). This is her first single in 10 years. She is also having a concert tour that started on the same day in Nagoya. After a detour to Osaka, the tour will end in Tokyo with 2 shows on July 13th (her birthday) and July 14th respectively. It's been 20 years since she did her last concert tour back in 2006! Building on her success last year, I'm pretty hopeful that she'll do another dinner show this year during the Christmas holidays.
All in all, 2026 has been a pretty good year so far for Akina and her fans around the world.
The new song, "Gomen to, Suki to", is a ballad. But unlike her past ones like Nanpasen (難破船) and Eki (駅), this one has a happy ending. The song talks about two lovers who parted but eventually got back together. The song was written by Jun Koami. Although not 100%, I'm 99.9% sure that this is the same person. Koami has apparently written quite a number of songs for idol groups such as AKB48 and SKE48. Lyrics was written by HZ Village, which is the name of Akina's own management company. I suspect it's Akina herself who penned the lyrics.
Her new single, according to this post on X.com, reached 7th place on the Oricon weekly chart upon its release.
It's good to see that Akina is healthy again. Having said that, when I listened to her new song, I can't help but think that her voice has deteriorated. I'm not sure if this is just how she interprets the song and sang it in a somewhat whispering voice, but I felt like her voice is not as stable as in the past.
Anyway, let's wish Akina-san good health for the years to come.
A nice track, typical of her softly-sung ballads which she has always seemed to love doing. Not my favorite style of song from her but I am so glad to see Akina active again, and that this release has been successful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I think Akina delivered Latin dance music really well in the past. But I’m happy to hear her ballads too.
DeleteHi all and Happy Akina Day! It used to be the tradition on July 13th that we gave our hopes that Nakamori-san was doing well during a time that we didn't know how she was doing. Well, happily for now, we don't have to do that anymore.
ReplyDeleteNope, ""Gomen to, Suki to" isn't going to bring back the old days of Akina dancing around and flaunting all those daring fashions, and it shouldn't. The video and her delivery make it plain that time has passed and she herself has changed into someone who's still singing in her sixties, but not nearly as often or as forcefully, and that's fine with me. I think if she is going to be releasing any more singles from this time forward, her voice won't be quite as strong so I'm going to imagine light pop songs and balladry and perhaps softer arrangements of some of her old material such as "Yokan".
Thanks Larry for the annual July 13th Akina article! 😁
You’re very welcomed. It’s usual for singers to lose their voices as they age, as we’ve been witnessing on Kouhaku every year, e.g. Seiko, Takahashi Mariko etc. I’m just glad to see Akina healthy again. She deserves it.
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