Mika Bridgebook & Philadelphia -- MIRAI

Thank you, Ms. Bridgebook for the use of
this photo.

I'm starting off this final article for tonight with a bit of an announcement. City Pop maestro Van Paugam and I got together over the airwaves last weekend to tape a podcast centering around the singer-songwriter Miki Matsubara（松原みき）to talk about some of her albums and about that particular song "Mayonaka no Door ~ Stay With Me"（真夜中のドアー）which became a big sensation last Xmas on TikTok. We also had some time to talk about what City Pop was all about as well. If you're interested, have a listen to us at "City Pop Podcast EP IV: The Heart of City Pop" which is now up at Van Paugam's site.

At the end of taping, I believe that I also complimented Van on his podcast's ending theme, and he was kind enough to tell me that the song is "MIRAI" (Future) by soulful Mika Bridgebook & Philadelphia. It's some nice groovy Neo-City Pop and I find Mika's vocals very reminiscent of Mai Yamane（山根麻衣）back when she was tackling some of the original City Pop in the early 1980s. Come to think of it, I'm also reminded of Haruko Kuwana（桑名晴子）. Nothing says a Tokyo night out on the town more than "MIRAI", and it sure would be nice to get back to my old stomping grounds someday.

https://www.facebook.com/mikabridgebook/posts/3159275664190911

Ms. Bridgebook also happens to be a good friend of Van, so he was able to tell me a little about her. If I've read correctly, "MIRAI" was also placed on the 2020 album "1964 Tokyo Olympic to 2020 Tokyo Olympic", a release that regrettably has yet to happen due to factors including the pandemic. Hopefully, it will see the light of day sometime soon. For the rest of her biography, I'll quote directly from Van through Twitter:

Mika is a singer/song writer/guitar player who has been in the industry for many years and has worked with a lot of artists. She visited Chicago and I was introduced to her during the filming of "Hisashiburi City Pop", the short documentary about the genre, in which Mika can be seen performing towards the end. Mika herself sang on the Captain Harlock OST under the name TIA. We became friends and she invited me to DJ in Tokyo in Shinagawa at a venue called Live Cafe Again, where the owner was very close friends with Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）, him having performed there various times himself. The event was titled "Chicago to Tokyo", and featured Mika and her music family singing covers of city pop. 

I've also been given permission by the singer via Van to put up some of her links at Facebook, Wixsite, Youtube and Soundcloud.