Itsuki, Takao and Hello! Project Seikatai -- Ai no Merry Christmas（愛のメリークリスマス）

 

I have to admit that this is one of the more unusual Xmas kayo that I've encountered in KKP's 8 years of tracking down Japanese Yuletide tunes.

Never would I have imagined that an aidoru group the size of Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）or Hello! Project（ハロー!プロジェクト）would mash voices with an enka legend and a famed kayo folk singer to create one of their own Christmas songs. But that is indeed what happened in 2002 in the form of Hiroshi Itsuki's（五木ひろし）114th single released in November that year.

Titled "Ai no Merry Christmas" (Merry Christmas of Love), it is sung by the collaborative group of Itsuki, Takao and Hello! Project Seikatai（五木・孝雄+ハロー!プロジェクト聖歌隊。...Itsuki, Takao and Hello! Project Chorus） with the second fellow being Takao Horiuchi（堀内孝雄）of the folk duo Alice（アリス）. And it seems like from the video that the chorus is made up of former and current members of Morning Musume along with Aya Matsuura（松浦亜弥）at least.

To be honest, the combination of Xmas jingle and Mood Kayo doesn't exactly mesh perfectly, starting with a slightly ominous intro then into a wistful and contemporary Yuletide melody before the singing commences with the typical Mood Kayo feeling. And unlike any Hello! Project song, this had no Tsunku（つんく）helping out on the songwriting. Instead, it was the kayo veterans, lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Toru Funamura（船村徹）behind "Ai no Merry Christmas" with Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）behind the arrangement. 

So, this particular J-Xmas song will probably have to grow on me over the next number of days before Christmas Day finally does dawn once more, but the Mood Kayo segments are fine with me.

(empty karaoke version)