Bonnie Pink -- So Wonderful

Over the years I'd seen excerpts of videos on the Japanese music cable channels such as MTV Japan of singer-songwriter Bonnie Pink (aka Kaori Asada...浅田香織). My first image of her was this lean, slightly punkish looking young lady with the short straggly pink hair singing indie music. But in later years, she dropped the hair dye and then one day, I saw this video, shown above, which caught my attention.

I used to see Bonnie Pink with that small pout in her videos, so it was surprising to see her this time strutting toward the camera on a runway, cavorting with dancers and showing a big wide smile. And the song, "So Wonderful", was short but heavy on the fun. Created by Bonnie Pink and released in August 2005, the song was produced by Tore Johansson and Burning Chicken. I remembered the name of the Swedish producer from his work with The Cardigans and Tomoyo Harada（原田知世）; for them, the musical feel was that of 60s London/blue-eyed soul. But for "So Wonderful", there is this element of 70s Electric Light Orchestra disco anchored by a thrashy guitar. Although her 23rd single (also a track on her 2005 8th studio album, "Golden Tears") got no higher than No. 46 on the Oricon weeklies, it definitely stood out to me. I got my first CD of Bonnie Pink.