I've said it before and I'll say it again. If my first encounter of 1980s aidoru Minako Honda（本田美奈子）hadn't been that horribly off-tune rendition of one of her hits on one of the 80s music shows, I would have been far more entranced by the late singer.
For example, listening to her third single from August 1985, "Aoi Shuumatsu" (Blue Weekend), I just thought that Honda had a wonderfully clear and upbeat delivery surrounded by Kyohei Tsutsumi's（筒美京平） melody and arranged in a happy-go-lucky synth-heavy style by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）. On the other hand, Masao Urino's（売野雅勇）lyrics relate a tale of a couple who didn't have the happiest trip to the beach that day. But hey, it's a Japanese pop song so happy music paired with sad words isn't any surprise. For me, this is pure aidoru Honda without the dance club or rock trappings that I would often hear from her music during that decade. The song reached No. 23 on Oricon.
It is hard for me to believe that Minako Honda might have slipped and been off-key. Maybe she was sick, nervous, or something that day. The usual image I have of Minako Honda is that she is a legitimate artist and an idol only in name or simply because she was cute, but I think she was a skilled vocalist.
ReplyDeleteIt could have been one or all of those things but the performance that night stood out for all of the wrong reasons. Many years would pass before I realized that I had been overly harsh on her abilities.
DeleteDepending on whether you believe Mariah Carey's claim of vocal range, Minako Honda is the most technically accomplished pop singer I've ever heard. Both in range (perfect control whilst singing lyrics in 4 octaves), and in length of note (Tsubasa, which has one line lasting 26 seconds in the recorded version, and longer live). The only better singers I've heard are opera-trained.
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