Sunday, 15th December 2024
I went to Akiko Yano's concert at NHK Hall
Akiko Yano is a Japanese singer-songwriter and pianist.
She is 69 years old this year and worked as a musician since she was a teenager, performing at camps in Japan for the US military.
She was also known early on as a studio musician.
She made her solo debut at the age of 21 with the album Japanese Girl.
She toured the world in her twenties as a supporting member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra.
I have loved Akiko Yano's music since I was 15 years old.
Every December, Akiko Yano gives a concert at Tokyo's NHK Hall, and this year will mark the 29th time she has performed there.
Akiko Yano lives in New York, USA.
I have been to several of her 29 concerts at NHK Hall.
I went again today.
The last song was GREENFIELDS.
I saw a man sitting in front of me take off his glasses and wipe his tears.
During the encore, I was surprised to see MISIA as a special guest.
I was overwhelmed by the beauty of MISIA's singing voice.
It wasn't that she was a good singer or anything like that, it was more like her voice was a big mass that reached directly into my heart.
MISIA is a Japanese singer who debuted in the 1990s.
It was in 2022 that MISIA asked Akiko Yano to compose a song.
It is a song called 'Song of Hope'.
This year, I heard that Akiko Yano had self-covered Songs of Hope in a piano recital.
So I was hoping she would play it at the NHK Hall today.
I love Songs of Hope.
To my surprise, MISIA sang Songs of Hope with Akiko Yano today.
It was like a dream for me.
Before going to the concert, I went to Tokyo Dome City and bought a snow globe.
It was made in Austria.
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