Hiroshi Itsuki & Fuyumi Sakamoto -- Last Dance（ラストダンス）

Watching last week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, I wasn't quite sure whether the theme of cover songs came off all that successfully. However, when the singers went into their own works, things stabilized a lot better.

Case in point, the duet between kayo vets Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）and Fuyumi Sakamoto（坂本冬美）. Itsuki's latest single as of this writing, "Last Dance" from February this year, is a snazzy collaboration with Sakamoto whose general theme of love in a nightclub is a well-trodden Mood Kayo trope. However, what gives the brio to "Last Dance" is a nice shot of downtown soul thanks to an enthusiastic brass section that sounds as if Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）had kindly lent it to the two singers (coincidentally, he was also a guest last Tuesday).

(short version)

Give thanks to lyricist and composer Yoshiki Mizuno（水野良樹）and arranger Masayuki Sakamoto（坂本昌之）for this nice update to the Mood Kayo genre. Nothing like a nice stroll down in Ginza or Akasaka in 2018 with "Last Dance". Incidentally, Sakamoto was the arranger behind Ayaka Hirahara's（平原綾香）hit "Jupiter" back in 2003.

Good golly! The video has backup dancers and even hand gestures from the singers. Maybe there's even a bit of AKB48 in there. 😆