“Five women who made our sleepless nights beautiful”… Ravi Nakayama, Kaori Momoi, Yukako Hayase, Maki Asakawa, ZUZU (Kazumi Yasui)

What do you do on sleepless nights?

I read books and listen to music.

At night, I keep wandering round and round on the same path, trying hard to clear the maze with no goal, so in order to give up, I try to find people who have the same way of thinking as me, and others who are similar to me. I will listen to a song by a woman who feels that she is a strong thinker and has a strong sensitivity so that her perspective will not be narrowed when she meets someone who is completely outside the box.

I'm a woman among women who is quite a "feminine" person and feels that being a woman is an advantage, so I wanted to be exposed to the various perspectives of women who have produced many songs related to "men" and "women." We would like to introduce you to singers who have a unique appeal to women.

[Rabbi Nakayama “It would be great if we met”]

______It's so unreliable that people love each other, there's nothing special about it (from ``The Troubled Woman'')

This is the one that helped me when I was faced with an indescribable darkness.

Ravi Nakayama is the only person who sings folk songs that I truly love.

I don't love Takuro Yoshida. I love you though.

When you're stuck in a rut and your worries spread out and rub off and stick in your brain for a while, like a piece of chewed gum, you're so fed up with yourself that you don't even want to put your worries into words, and it's hard to get back up from the roots. However, I like Ravi Nakayama's music because it feels like he's saying, ``I know how you feel even if you don't say it.''

Ravi's songs seem to say that motherhood is not about being pushy or giving up, but about being cool as a woman, and now that I'm a little older, I feel like this is my favorite music.

It's a piece I can't miss because it's the one that made me feel like I understood the charm that I didn't understand when I was a teenager.

It is the light of someone who has lived through such nights so many times that “I want to die” or “I want to be loved” can no longer satisfy me.

I think she is a person who sings about objective viewpoints, but ``Troubled Woman'' is particularly objective and has a wonderful intro that sounds like a boring day, and ``Where are you?'' is a song about motherhood. These two songs are my favorites because I feel strongly about it.

[Kaori Momoi “I was told something unpleasant”]

______Men are good, right? It wasn't until I met you that I became a kind woman (from "I was told something unpleasant")

I originally liked Kaori Momoi as an actress, but when I heard this song for the first time, I felt that the depth and sexiness of her life was reflected in her talent for writing lyrics and her singing voice, and I really liked her as a singer as well. I fell in love with it. The human atmosphere permeates through to the songs.

I like songs that express the singer's thoughts and life without trying too hard to represent the feelings of the masses, and I find that there are many of Kaori Momoi's songs that make me imagine her own life, so I listen to the entire album. It's so much fun.

This song is also included in the album "TWO", so please give it a listen.

I also love the songs ``Don't Stop Tobacco'' and ``Unto Younger Boyfriend,'' and I deeply fall in love with and adore the lyricist's talent for their dramatic lyrics that make us understand that there is a fine line between a woman's strength and delicacy. Masu.

I am often given the impression that I am ``feminine and strong'', but that is just one side of me; I have a very fragile foundation and am very sensitive, but I often express these feelings and understand them. I love Kaori Momoi's songs because they feel like they're hugging me.

I want the young people of the world to continue to understand that a woman's strength, weakness, and sex appeal all have a causal relationship.

[Yukako Hayase “Manic Depression” (album)]

______I don't want to show my true feelings to others, I want to play the role of a split personality with a dual personality (from "Sadist")

In recent years, internet idol suicide diaries have changed their names to selfie circles and menhera circles due to the spread of SNS, and with the resurgence of the menhera boom, sick content has become more familiar, but I have been exposed to SNS since I was young. Rather than living in a world without SNS, I feel that more and more people are exposed to a lot of different information and ways of thinking, and are becoming more anxious than they are objectively or multifaceted.

I can understand the idea that it's strange not to have opinions in a world like this, but there are so many opinions out there that I don't know what's right about my appearance, my personality, my life, and I don't think I'll go as far as cutting my wrists or overdosing. However, I think there are many people who feel depressed. Since the world is feeling depressed, there is a tendency for Menhera to become fashionable and become their own icons by seeking out depressing content and getting people to lean on them.

As Yukako Hayase sings, ``It's time to be cheap,'' I want those people to listen to this song ``Manic-Depression'' that expresses the feeling of ``I'm not sick just by pretending to be sick in a sick world.'' Most of the lyrics for this album were written by Yasushi Akimoto, and it is a wonderful album that was created because he is able to possess the lives of girls, boys, and women and run his brush with them.

The "sadists" recorded here do not have to live their true feelings, and women have a sadistic side just like motherhood, but they are often expected to be charming and motherly, but because they are "women" It doesn't have to be based on the words it starts with, but it's a song that says that everyone has a mean spirit lurking in their hearts, and I love it because it's very human.

``I Can't Sleep with Sartre'' says that even if a lover is rejected by those around him, it's okay if he loves him, and ``I Want to Die by Wednesday'' says that he doesn't have the courage to cut his wrists or jump, but he lives in a hurry. I want to die from this, and ``Cecil is Cecil'' has two sides of the same coin: jealousy and respect for the same sex, but I also know that others are others and I am myself, but when I fail in love, I wonder what will happen in the end. I blame myself

It's a very honest album about life, where good and bad are mixed together, and it's pleasant to listen to, and the atmosphere where a downer appears in the devilish sex appeal, cuteness, and sweetness of the singing voice makes us sleepless. It's perfect for the night.

We got sick because it was “life”.

[Maki Asakawa “If I become a prostitute”]

_____ _ If I become a prostitute, I'll buy a big bar of soap to wash the man I like (from "If I become a prostitute")

I feel that Maki Asakawa's lyrics are manly and refreshing.

On the other hand, I felt that the lyrics that Shuji Terayama provided to Maki Asakawa were in a sense the ideal of a man, or perhaps an image of Maki Asakawa, but they depicted a loving and lonely woman who was devoted to a man.

I am a person who strongly sympathizes with Shuji Terayama's lyrics and am fascinated by Maki Asakawa, but he also wrote the lyrics for the famous song "Kamome," so I'm sure there are other people out there who feel the same way. I think not.

All of the characters in Maki Asakawa's songs are endearing, and both ``Kamome'' and ``Hanaichimonme'' sound like men and women are in reversed pairs, but even though they are different types, what do they look like? I was really drawn to the fact that they were both empty-hearted women, and I asked them to get close to me.

This time we will be featuring a song written by Shuji Terayama called ``If I become a prostitute.''

"If I become a prostitute

buy a big bar of soap
To wash the man I love."

This phrase makes me feel very affectionate and even motherly, but I really like the way the woman is shining sharply somewhere.

On the nights when I hate everything and want to be reborn, I need her presence forever so that I can somehow remember the goodness of being a woman and somehow face tomorrow.

[ZUZU (Kazumi Yasui) “Things up to today”]

______The days when I thought about dying, and the days when I savored happiness, I know that there are many things that happen in life, even for me (from ``Things to Date'')

She is very famous as a lyricist, and apparently there was a time when she was exhausted from writing lyrics for popular songs, so it's hard to imagine how much her intentions are reflected in each song, but singer ZUZU Comparing Kazumi Yasui's own songs and the songs she provided, you can basically understand the sadness of men and women not being able to understand each other, and the motherly and gentle nature of women being objective and understanding everything, but still loving men. I like how it properly depicts a love that ends without a trace.

Among the songs provided, Asami Kobayashi's songs are all recommended.

I think this tendency becomes especially noticeable for many women as they grow up, but they are good at seeing themselves and others objectively, and they tend to add kindness and consideration to their tone and facial expressions as much as possible. I feel like there are more people.

I think there are many people like this who are so strangled by motherhood that they end up clinging to their sweetheart, and even though they say something, they end up leaving behind their tenderness.

Even when men become adults, there are many who want to carry on their boyish side or take over their motherly side, so don't just forgive the woman you love and say, ``I like bad men.''

I think "Things Until Today" is a song for when you, you, the world, look back and know all the good and bad, but there's no point in thinking about it, but even if you look forward... I was moved by ZUZU's representation of the thinking type of night, whether it was laughing or crying or doing anything.

ZUZU does not deny that to love is to become a kinder adult, or to be more mean than ever before. I'm just saying it is what it is.

Love is a creature that wanders between life and death, and life and death are two sides of the same coin.

In her later years, she passed away as the wife of Kazuhiko Kato, but people around her testified that she was the type of person who would be happy in a man's arms, and when they learned of her happy married life with Mr. Kato, Kazuhiko Kato's actions make me feel very sad, but I think that the lyrics that Kazumi Yasui left behind are a reflection of her kindness, and I feel like I want to hug her. She always speaks to me, so the fact that I was able to meet her means that I don't have to cry alone anymore.

Her delicate singing voice has a human touch that makes you feel like you're looking at someone's diary.

ZUZU's album "ZUZU" is the fruit of ZUZU's own love and kindness.

I myself write lyrics for Roasted Cherry Market and Milady♡Charm, and I always write with someone's night in mind, so I hope my songs are by your bedside when you can't sleep.

I don't really crave music when I'm happy or having fun, but I do crave music when I can't sleep at night or when I'm craving music because my thought process is running out, so I'll continue to write one page of someone's life. I think

Author Aya Akagi