Mademoi 54th -- Victoria（ヴィクトリア）

 

Indeed today being the third Monday of May in Canada, it's the holiday Monday known as Victoria Day, named after Queen Victoria, the great-great-great-grandmother of the currently reigning Charles III and the Mother of Confederation. Practically speaking, though, we Canadians recognize the long weekend as the first big holiday going into the summer and I figure later this afternoon and this evening, folks will be heading back to Toronto after some well-needed R&R. Are you not amused?

Just out of a sense of whimsy, I tried to see if there were any kayo kyoku or J-Pop tune that actually had the name "Victoria" in its title. Crazily enough, I could find "Victoria" in Yahoo.jp, and it is the second single by the short-lived aidoru group known as Mademoi 54th（まどもあ54世）, pronounced as Mademoi Go-juu-yon-sei. The name was formed from a combination of the French word "mademoiselle" and the number 54 to coincide with a father-daughter-ish relationship with the producer behind the group, comedian Louis Yamada LIII of the manzai duo Hige Danshaku（髭男爵...The Bearded Baron）.

I figure that at least a video showing Hige Danshaku in action can help explain what the duo was all about. Louis Yamada LIII is on the right as the jaunty nobleman while on the left is his butler Higuchi-kun（ひぐち君）. Although I remember watching these guys on television, I had no idea that Yamada had the time and energy to put together his own aidoru group which follows Hige Danshaku's gimmick of being nobility

Lasting between October 2014 and November 2016, Mademoi 54th put out two singles with "Victoria" as the latter release which was out in September 2015. Written by S. Manaka and composed by juri, I'm not sure why but "Victoria" certainly liked taking some swatches from the opera "Carmen". Otherwise, it was the usual super-cheerful aidoru tune. There were four members in the group: Serina Ohtomo（大友千里菜）, Yuu Muroi（室井ゆう）, Nodoka Sakurai（櫻井悠） and Ruki Furuse（古瀬瑠希）.