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HY’s New Single “LOVE”
HY recently released a new digital single “LOVE” on 11/6! The single has been chosen to be the theme song for the Haisai Project (ハイ祭プロジェクト) which is a collaboration between entertainment professionals creating an event together with children. The name of the project is a play on the word haisai using hai in katakana and…
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Mateus Asato, Guitar God
While it’s still rather difficult to find any Asian rockstar in the West, it’s even more difficult to find one who’s Okinawan. Perhaps the most famous are James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins (his solo album “Look to the Sky” is one of our favorites) and after him we have Guitar God Mateus Asato. Mateus…
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When Worlds Collide Cycling and Music
Pro cycling team Bahrain Victorious was recently in Japan for the Japan Cup Cycle Road Race in Utsunomiya and for their reception singer-songwriter Ishigaki Yu (from Yanawaraba) performed! As you may know we’re big time cycling fans and our favorite road race cyclist is the 🐐 (G.O.A.T.) Arashiro Yukiya who is on the Bahrain team.…
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MONGOL800 Tribute Album 800TRIBUTE
Released on 10/25 (so many amazing released on this day!) is a tribute album for our favorite punk rock band MONGOL800. The new album is called “800TRIBUTE-champloo is the BEST!!2-“ and has a total of 9 tracks featuring Okinawan artists Awich and Mitsushima Hikari (we love that she returned to being a singer!). As far…
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Our Voices Through Rapper Awich
If you’re a new reader of Karakui, you may think it’s mainly a blog about Awich (and YU-KA) because of how often we post about her. It’s just that this is how BIG she’s become and it’s very much deserved. Being a female rapper in Okinawa and Japan and becoming famous enough to command a…
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Nanaironote x i-Dushi
Perhaps one of the best YouTube channels around is Nanaironote who does covers of J-pop songs in Uchinaaguchi (although they use Okinawa Hougen in their music video descriptions) with many of the top musicians from Okinawa. We’ve featured their videos on Karakui before but here’s one featuring our favorite now-on-hiatus duo, i-Dushi, covering J-pop star…
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Ishimine Airi’s Memorial Song “Minazuki no Hana”
Having recently performed with her group Aimamire, to an enthusiastic crowd at this year’s HUOA Okinawan Festival, singer Ishimine Airi (who we proclaimed to have one of the best voices in the industry) released a beautiful single on 6/23 as a tribute to Irei no Hi (Okinawa’s Memorial Day) titled “Minazuki no Hana” (June’s Flower).…
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Agena Sisters Announce New Music Group “Unaikanai”
Singer-songwriter Agena Mana announced that she and her sister Halu started a new music duo called Unaikanai. (There’s a third sister who often appears on Mana’s YouTube channel that’s currently not part of this unit.) The name of the duo is a play on Niraikanai with Unai meaning sisters and Kanai make it come true…
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YU-KA’s “Hoshizukiyo (Starry Night)” Reaches 12 Million Views on YouTube!
Wut. It was just April of this year that YU-KA announced that her music video for “Hoshizukiyo (Starry Night)” reached 6-millions views and a few months later it’s doubled that and is now at 12-million! Could being on The First Take have that much of an impact? The answer is yes. Yes it can. Un.…
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YU-KA on The First Take (YouTube)
Singer-songwriter YU-KA continues her dominance on the new music scene with an appearance on the prestigious YouTube channel The First Take! YU-KA performs her song “Hoshizukiyo (Starry Night)“. Episode 330 welcomes YU-KA, a singer-songwriter fluent in both Japanese and English, to THE FIRST TAKE for the first time. She will sing “Starry Night,” a song…
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