It still feels like summer here in Japan, even though it is September. This week’s temperatures are still in the low 30s (Celsius)/90s (Fahrenheit). Speaking of summer, one of the prime summer places to go is Okinawa. It is the southernmost prefecture made up of 55 islands. Okinawa is home to a lot of pop stars from the 90s and 00s. One of them sang today’s song choice: “Wing”.
Keeping up with the theme of Song Lyrics Sunday (Bird/Fly/Sky/Wing), brought to you by Jim at A Unique Title For Me, I choose Rina Chinen’s “Wing” for this week for two reasons. One is because one of my favorite pop groups, MAX, just released all their songs on Spotify. Hallelujah! Japan is starting to cave into streaming sites. Two is because next week is Namie Amuro‘s birthday. MAX and Namie went to the same school as Rina: Okinawa Actors’ School.
I can admit I been on a late 90s Jpop listening party this weekend, especially when the 20th anniversary of the release of Morning Musume‘s megahit single “LOVE Machine” is tomorrow. The 90s had some great music in Japan. “Wing” was one of them!
(By the way, check out another great Wing-related song: Troop’s “Spread My Wings” from the 90s)
Singer Turn Actress: Rina Chinen
Rina Chinen got her start when she joined the school Okinawa Actors’ School when she young. Okinawa Actors’ School was a famous performing arts studio that produced the biggest acts in the 90s: Namie Amuro, Folder, MAX, Da Pump, Hipp’s, and others. In the height of the school’s popularity, Rina decided to become an actress as well as a singer. She made her acting debut in the 1996 drama Gakkou no Kaidan R. She also made her singing debut a few months later with the single “DO-DO FOR ME”.
The singer/actress was a fairly popular singer with most of her singles released in the late 90s being in the top 20s. Only the singles released in 1998 and the early part of 1999 were in the top 10. They were “Wing”, “Be yourself”, “YES”, and “GOD BLESS THE WORLD”.
By the early 2000s, Rina’s popularity in the music world decline. She released fewer singles but did attend prolific events like the 2001 G8 Summit that was held in her hometown. In 2003, Rina appeared more in musical theater roles, starring in such productions like Les Misérables, Jekyll & Hyde, and Miss Saigon.
Ironically, Rina will release her first single in 18 years next month, entitled “Twinkle Stars”. The song is a movie version of the theme song for the Pretty Cure Twinkle Stars series.
Fly to the blue sky. Good-bye my lonely days
“Wing” is Rina’s fifth single that was released in the spring of 1998. To this date, it is still the singer/actress’ best-selling single with over 309,500 copies sold. The song’s lyrics were penned by Hiromi Mori. As a kid, Mori dreamt of being a baseball player after reading the manga Star of the Giants. However, he gave up that dream when he grew up and took on many jobs before becoming a lyricist in 1983. His first penned-hit song was Yoko Oginome’s 1986 song “Dance Beat wa Yoake Made” (Dance Beatは夜明けまで; The Dance Beat is Until Dawn). He has penned many hit songs for artists over the years, including MAX, SMAP, Key-a-kiss, Black Biscuits, AAA, and KinKi Kids.
(An interesting fact about Hiromi Mori is that he did a homestay in Washington state and then went to college for one year in Los Angeles.)
“Wing” is one of my favorite songs as it is soothing yet uptempo. I love the music video as I swear it was filmed on a beautiful beach in Okinawa. Meanwhile, the lyrics are you basic message of believing in yourself by using the allegories of “spread your wings” and “soaring past the blue skies” to become your better self.
What is your favorite part of the song? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
