Lip's -- Ai no Maryoku（愛の魔力）

 

I still don't know all that much of what was the tapering end of that part of the aidoru boom from the 1980s into the 1990s, but I have heard of the groups ribbon and CoCo and then single acts such as Wakako Shimazaki（島崎和歌子）and Eriko Tamura（田村英里子）.

However, this is one aidoru trio that I had never heard of before. Lip's, which consisted of Takako Kato（加藤貴子）, Natsue Yoshimura（吉村夏枝）and Kyoko Yamamoto（山本京子）, existed between 1990 and 1993. They formed in 1990 from their association as participants in the 1989 UCC Coffee Miss Contest Grand Prix, and during their relatively brief time together, Lip's released four singles and one album.

Their debut single from March 1990 was "Ai no Maryoku" (The Magical Power of Love) which dealt with the intoxicating power of that emotion of romance that takes hold of one lass. It's a cute aidoru tune with the brassiness of 90s J-Pop and a touch of 60s pop that was written by Mitsuko Shiramine（白峰美津子）and composed by Chika Ueda（上田知華）with arrangement by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）. According to the Wikipedia article on Lip's, the single peaked at No. 43 and was their best-selling song. Not surprisingly, "Ai no Maryoku" was used for a UCC Coffee commercial.

Once Lip's disbanded, Kato, Yoshimura and Yamamoto all went on their separate paths in the entertainment industry through acting, modeling and music.