Juri Hamada -- Sincerely

 

About 4 1/2 years ago, I wrote about an aidoru and actress with a relatively brief career in the geinokai by the name of Juri Hamada（浜田朱里）. She was part of the Post-Momoe craze in which the powers-that-be in the music industry had been searching high-and-low for that female aidoru to become the next big star in the wake of Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）retirement. Can't imagine what the pressure was like on some of these young women but I think the only ones to rival Yamaguchi's success was Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, although I don't think the latter, who did have some comparisons made to the legendary 70s aidoru, was ever considered part of the Post-Momoe pack.

However, during her singing phase between 1981 and 1984, Hamada was able to release 11 singles and 4 albums, and on her 3rd album, "Hitomi ~ Sentimental"（瞳・センチメンタル...Eyes - Sentimental） from December 1981 is the track "Sincerely". Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Kiyoshi Hattori（服部きよし）, for an aidoru song, it's quite light and mellow almost like an AOR. A bluesy saxophone and perhaps a flugelhorn are there to greet the ears as Hamada provides some lower tones in her delivery. I'd probably say that her voice is perhaps a little closer to Momoe's than Seiko's. Also, for a song on an album released in the Xmas month, "Sincerely" is quite summery.