Sakiko Ito -- Kimi Kawaii ne （きみ可愛いね）

The name Sakiko Ito（伊藤咲子）barely rings a bell but somehow I think I may have seen her through some variety shows in Japan. However, she did start her professional life as a 70s aidoru. Ito had a successful run on the audition show "Star Tanjo"（スター誕生!...A Star Is Born）when she was 15 back in 1973 and then made her debut the following year with "Himawari Musume"（ひまわり娘...Sunflower Girl）.

Nearly a couple of years later, she had her 7th single, "Kimi Kawaii ne" (You're Cute) from March 1976 which became one of her bigger hits since it punched her ticket for her lone appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen that year.

Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Takashi Miki（三木たかし）, the springtime release was an appropriate one since the song was all about falling in love and having things being all wonderful in the world. Watching her perform in the video of her Kohaku appearance, she almost sounds like the second coming of earlier 70s aidoru Mari Amachi（天地真理）although Ito's vocals have a little less fragility.

That Kohaku performance was notable in that her backup singers were Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）, Hiromi Ota（太田裕美）, Masako Mori（森昌子）and the Candies（キャンディーズ）. Also, the other thing I noticed which was quite quaint was the fact that Iwasaki and the bunch were all wearing red jackets to signify their team in the NHK special. Yup, it was a different time back then.

"Kimi Kawaii ne" broke into the Top 10 with it peaking at No. 9. It also became the 56th-ranked song of 1976. Ito continued her career until her 22nd single in 1985 before calling it a day on the recording front, at least. However, she released a couple of additional singles in 2010 and 2014.