There has been quite a bit of speculation about which artist is going to be chosen to open this year’s Kouhaku~Red and White Song Fest, but If I had it MY way, I would have the show open with the cute, happy and jangly pop song “Hi wa, Mata Noboru” by six member band ALADDIN!
The Kouhaku tends to open with a bright low impact pop tune to start the show fresh (witness MIHIMARU GT’s appearance last year), and this song’s got everything the show could want: a happy tune with genki dance moves, and lyrics shouting “GANBARE NIPPON!” as they sing about the virtues of Instant Ramen, Canned Coffee, Mechanical Pencils and Karaoke: This country invented these!!
Off their album ALADDIN THE SECOND, this single was in the Oricon charts for a while earlier this July, and their resemblance (to me) of AAA struck a chord and made me sit up and take notice of them!
Made up of two groups off the HEXAGON II Quiz show: Shuchishin (Tsuruno Takeshi, Kamiji Yuusuke, and Nokubo Naoki), and Pabo ( Satoda Mai, Suzanne, Kinoshita Yukina), ALADDIN’s got those AAA “Disney High School Musical” vibes down pat!
MY first thoughts upon hearing Hi wa Mata Noboru (The Sun Will Rise Again!) was “Wow, this song sounds like the theme for a Sentai show!”. Then I had a chance to check out the video and WOW again when I saw those girls, Ahahaha! I’m not saying that I KNOW that this song will be the Kouhaku opener…who knows WHAT song they’ll sing at this point. But It’s the song I WANT them to sing! And I think an opener like this one will TOTALLY set the mood for the whole show! (crosses fingers)
Car, who's not a fan at ALL of Aladdin, said, "This song is TERRIBLE! If anything, it'll be that mid-show act where all the guests come out and sing, NOT the opening song!" Well, it might be a zany song, but I wouldn't call it TERRIBLE! At best it's a silly little song, and if you can't get silly during a New Year's Celebration, when can you?!
