Sumire Uesaka -- Katyusha (Катю́ша / カチューシャ)

I bought this gorgeous Soviet souvenir in the Ukraine booth in a traditional marketplace, called Feira da Providência, held in Rio de Janeiro last week.

Recently, I’ve been listening to some Russian Folk songs and Eurodisco gems from the 80s with Russia and/or former Soviet Union as their main themes. I was very surprised to come across so many Gorbatchov-era inspired synthpop songs, thanks to Perestroika and Glasnost.

In Japan’s case, we now have Sumire Uesaka (上坂すみれ), a young seiyuu that happens to be a Soviet Union enthusiast, who sometimes embraces Russian themes in her songs. I thought about introducing one of her Russian inspired songs today, but, in the end, I decided to work on her rendition of the classic “Katyusha”, a famous Russian anthem during World War II (or the “Great Patriotic War” in Russia).

“Katyusha” is a song I like a lot since I discovered it many years ago. It was composed in 1938 by MatveiI Blanter (Матве́й Бла́нтер), with lyrics written by Mikhail Isakovsky (Михаи́л Исако́вский). Also, although created in Soviet Union, it’s not a song full of political propaganda, so, instead, we get a patriotic song about a girl in love with a soldier who is fighting for Mother Russia in the war. It’s ironic how the song was written in 1938, a couple of years before the Soviet Union entered the war. You can listen to the version recorded by the great Red Army Choir below.

Back to Sumire Uesaka, I only discovered she recorded “Katyusha” after J-Canuck's comment on my post about her Eurobeat single "Kitare! Aakatsuni no Doushi". It was a very pleasant surprise as, like I said earlier, "Katyusha" is one of my favourite Russian songs.

Katyusha was recorded by Sumire Uesaka and Hisako Kanemoto (金元寿子) in 2012 for the “Girls und Panzer” (ガールズ&パンツァー) anime, which portrayed a world where fighting in tanks was somewhat a hobby, similar to other sports. I dind’t watch the anime yet (I’m planning to), but, apparently, Sumire and Hisako were the girls commanding Soviet tanks, and that’s why, in a scene, they appeared singing “Katyusha”. Singing in Russian was not a problem for Sumire, as she studies Russian language, but I wonder how hard it must have been for Hisako.

A funny thing about this anime rendition of "Katyusha" is that, due to copyright issues, it couldn’t be aired in the American version. Instead, the same scene aired with another Russian song in the background, “Korobeiniki” (Коробейники), which is widely known for being “The Tetris Song” (even I played this version of Tetris a lot during my childhood, although mine was probably from a cloned video-game).Don’t get me wrong, “Korobeiniki” is also a great song, but it was not very suitable for the scene. Here’s a video comparing the original Japanese version with the American one.

Finally, this anime version of "Katyusha" can be found in “GIRLS und PANZER Original Soundtrack” album, which was released in December 2012.

Source: Amazon.com