Yuzu -- Hey Wa（Hey和）

Almost a couple of weeks ago, there was a special concert program in honour of Hiroshima broadcast through NHK. It was all J-Pop so I think some of the alphabet aidoru groups were represented.

There was also a female vocal group called Little Glee Monster who I first heard about when they were selected for last year's Kohaku Utagassen for the first time. And they did a rousing number with the rest of the other singing guests called "Hey Wa" which was originally performed by the pop duo Yuzu（ゆず）.

Written and composed by one-half of Yuzu, Yuujin Kitagawa（北川悠仁）, it was released as their 33rd single in January 2011. I've never thought that Japan was particularly all that religious, and perhaps it may be the only really secular nation among the G-7 nations but "Hey Wa" is quite spiritual in words and music. The title can be a pun on the term heiwa/平和 which means "peace" but perhaps it can also be translated as "Hey Japan" or "Hey Harmony".

Right from the start, Kitagawa sings about having God in everyone's hearts and so no one is truly alone on Earth. Not being religious myself, I still found myself quite entranced by the Yuzu original and the cover by Little Glee Monster. It reached No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies and Yuzu even performed it at the 2011 Kohaku Utagassen. "Hey Wa" was also used as the campaign song for the Japan Red Cross.

Well, it looks like that Little Glee Monster performance at that Hiroshima concert is up on YouTube. I will have to write up about one of their singles very soon.

Yuzu -- Natsuiro (夏色)

I remembered first seeing Yuzu (ゆず) through the video of their debut single "Natsuiro" (Summer Colour) in June 1998. Man, I thought these two were the happiest performers I had ever seen in my life. They could busk in front of Shibuya Station on a rainy day and the clouds would part immediately for them.

Yujin Kitagawa and Koji Iwasawa（北川悠仁・岩沢厚治）from Yokohama were indeed performing on the street. In fact, it all started when Kitagawa saw Iwasawa singing away (they actually have known about each other since elementary school) and got inspired. After a powwow, the duo was born in March 1996 and immediately got into the business of writing new songs while busking. Over the period of a year, Yuzu started to attract a following and by the time they did their last session on the street in August 1998, 7,500 people gathered to hear them...and this was on a day that a typhoon hit the area.

As for the duo's nom du guerre, Kitagawa and Iwasawa had first called themselves Light's after a brand of cigarette that the two of them had smoked but eventually Kitagawa came to believe that the name simply didn't match their image and sounded rather lame. Then, one day they were having some dessert in the form of a sherbet with the Japanese citrus fruit known as yuzu so they became Yuzu. Considering all of the happiness bursting from "Natsuiro", I personally thought that Yuzu was the perfect name with all that bright and spritely flavour.

And "Natsuiro" just has that nice mix of good-ol'-boy guitar folk and pop wonderfully enhanced by that official music video of Kitagawa and Iwasawa just frantically strumming away and beaming at the camera. It's a pity that I can't find the video on YouTube. Kitagawa wrote and composed the song, and it managed to reach No. 17 on the Oricon weeklies, later becoming the 91st-ranked song of 1998.

Yuzu wouldn't make their first appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen until 2003 where they did a medley starting with "Natsuiro". And there has been some further legacy built at Kamiōoka Station in the guys' hometown in Yokohama where the boarding chime has been using the melody from the song since 2008.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/malfet/6459456959