Naomi Kawashima -- Namida ~ Copacabana（涙・コパカバーナ）

 

Living here in the Great White North and unfortunately never having set foot in the Southern Hemisphere, when I hear the word Copacabana, my first thought will always go to the famous disco song by Barry Manilow that has been covered through the Reminiscings of Youth series. It doesn't surprise me that there would be Japanese songs which have been created with that famous beach in Brazil in mind. After all, Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）had a hit with his Japanese-language cover of Bertie Higgins' "Casablanca" back in 1982 which in itself was probably inspired by the famous city in Morocco and the classic movie. The Japanese have often showed their pride within their own country through their go-touchi songs, but they have shown fascination and curiosity for other nations.

I think that the last time that the late actress/singer Naomi Kawashima（川島なお美）was up here on KKP was in 2016, so it's good to have her back with "Namida ~ Copacabana" (Tears in Copacabana). Her 7th single from February 1984, it has that dramatic City Pop arrangement thanks to Akira Inoue（井上鑑）based on Katsuo Ono's（大野克夫）melody which brings in some of that samba taste, too. Masao Urino（売野雅勇）provided the lyrics about a woman attending a former flame's wedding in Rio and having all those mixed feelings.

One thing that I've noticed, and it isn't just because I have been a persnickety English conversation teacher, is that Kawashima was pronouncing that ample amount of English as naturally as possible. Good work on those consonant clusters, especially. 

In any case, "Namida ~ Copacabana" only hit No. 90 on Oricon and made its first appearance on an album via Kawashima's 4th release "MI-RAI-JING"（未・来・人...The Futurist）; no idea why that final [g] is on the English title but that's what it shows on the album cover. According to J-Wiki, there has yet to be any re-release of the original album on LP or CD although an MP3 can be bought at Amazon. Of course, there is the auction route if any of the original owners ever decided to give up their copies.