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I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Akina Nakamori -- The Heat ~ musica fiesta ~


It's a little more than four hours into July 13th over in Japan as I type this, and July 13th on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" signifies that Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）is having her birthday so all the best to her wherever she is right now.


To commemorate this, I'm going with something a bit more recent (relatively speaking) and seasonal as we here in Toronto are in the middle of a heat wave. "The Heat ~ musica fiesta ~" is Akina's 41st single from May 2002 and is the song coming from her 20th studio album "Resonancia" which was released a few weeks later.

The J-Wiki writeup on "Resonancia" has the album taking on the theme of Latin-infused R&B, and aside from bossa nova, I'm not too knowledgeable on my Latin music, but I think "The Heat" is done like a samba (?). Over her career, Akina has dabbled in a lot of Latin music with examples like "Caribbean" and "Milonguita", and so I wonder if the singer could be born again whether she would choose to come back as a Spanish, Cuban or Brazilian chanteuse. It's just my opinion but my impression has been recently that she she's been at her happiest when she tackles the music of those nations.


"The Heat" was written by Adya and composed by URU. Adya is someone that I just mentioned in the previous article as the vocalist for Seikou Nagaoka's（長岡成貢）"Dancing Until Dawn" so I'm assuming that this is the one and the same person here. The single peaked at No. 20 while its source album "Resonancia" hit as high as No. 15.

Once again, if I've gotten the genre wrong here for "The Heat", let me know. Heck, if Ms. Nakamori herself reads this, I'd be really happy for the correction!


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2 comments:

  1. Joana BernardoJuly 12, 2020 at 3:54 PM

    Hi, J-Canuck!

    I remember watching an interview from around when Resonancia was released where Akina said she would really like to live in Spain. I don't know if it was just a marketing-imposed comment lol, but I also get the feeling she really admires Latin sounds.
    I don't think The Heat should be considered samba because it's more reminiscing of Latin countries other than Brazil - it reminds me of early Shakira songs. I would categorize it as Latin pop or maybe R&B.

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    1. J-CanuckJuly 12, 2020 at 4:11 PM

      Hi, Joana! I hope you and the rest of Portugal are doing well. Yeah, I think you're right about her loving Latin sounds...and for that matter, she seems to enjoy dancing to them as well.

      Latin pop sounds good to me. In fact, I think that I could use a lesson on the various types of Latin music that exist in the world. I like bossa nova and salsa but that's all the knowledge that I have. Marcos put up an article over 6 years ago about some Carnaval-inspired tunes with some specific genres: https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2014/02/marcos-vs-top-three-carnival-inspired-j.html

      All the best!

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