HoRookies recently released their 2nd album “Focus” at the beginning of the month and held a release party for it on YouTube. They announced that it’s now available on YouTube as an archive so if you missed the livestream or just want to watch it again, here’s your chance! By the way, if you haven’t added “Focus” to your library, it’s definitely worth a listen.
I hope you enjoyed the two days of Uchinaa culture with HUOA’s 2021 Virtual Okinawan Festival (and if you haven’t, there’s always the archives). We were treated to a lot of amazing local talent and a few special guests and one that came to our attention is singer-songwriter Gus Hokama from Argentina and his song “Jikuu no Hana”. The video has been on his YouTube channel for a few years with Español subtitles (it’s sung in Japanese) but the version clipped above has English ones and is the Español version of the song. This particular song with Gus’s husky voice wouldn’t be out of place in a K-drama. It’s so good. The icing on the cake is that musician Brandon Ing makes a special appearance on sanshin for the song. “Jikuu no Hana” is from his 2018 album of the same name which is definitely worth adding to your music library (Apple Music link).
Gus recently released his single “Quiero oír tu voz” on June 19th and has a music video for it.
Following the release of their fun summer song “Root Beer”, HoRookies have announced the release of their second album “Focus”. The album has a total of 7 tracks and is available on all music streaming services.
Miura Daichi is on a roll for 2021 and is featured on J-pop singer AI’s single “In The Middle”. Daichi also helped pen the lyrics and compose the music for the song so it definitely works to both singers strengths. Available on Apple Music on other music streaming services.
Miura Daichi participated in a group project for Team Coca-Cola with other pop artists and the song “Colorful” has reached over 1 million views on YouTube. The music video had its YouTube premiere on 7/19 along with a single that’s available on all streaming platforms. He’s the first artist on the video so you can’t miss him!
Coming ahead of SPEED’s 25th anniversary tribute album, Shimabukuro Hiroko released a new single on 8/5 “Something Great”. The digital single is available on all streaming platforms (gotta love it). She mentions in a tweet that it’s a strange feeling to have released a new song in the 25th year (her last release was in 2013 although has been holding live concerts since going solo). It’s a nice song so please be sure to add it to your playlist!
We can’t believe that this is the group’s first tribute album but what better time than during their 25th anniversary? Set to be released on 11/11, “SPEED SPIRITS” will feature fellow Uchinanchu ISSA (DA PUMP) and BENI. The entire list of artists hasn’t been revealed yet so hopefully we’ll see more artists from Uchinaa.
HY have done two The First Take videos with their song “366days” being the channel’s 100th and it also happens to be during the band’s 20th anniversary. The second video was for their song “Good Bye“. Now both songs are available on music streaming services! It’s amazing knowing that the recordings are live and in one take. Links to both songs are on the band’s tweet.
THE FIRST TAKE is a YouTube Channel dedicated to shooting musicians and singers performing in a single take. ONE TAKE ONLY, ONE LIFE ONLY.
By the way, now that Nakasone Izumi has her own YouTube channel and we know of her personality, it can make it more interesting to see her in singing form. 😊
WAL (What at lazz) made a big announcement for the month of August with an upcoming new CD single “Sumaho wa Shimatte Dance Night” (8/29 release) and the MV release on 8/18. They will also start posting to their YouTube channel every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!
We are big fans of MATSURI and had her debut single “Kingyo Sukui” on heavy rotation so when she suddenly announced her 2nd digital single “Hotaru” we couldn’t wait to listen to it. There’s also a music video for the song so be sure to check it out and add “Hotaru” to your playlist.
MATSURI’s “Hotaru” MV
