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Tink Tink’s New Single “Arigatou”
Ok. Let’s get this out of the way. You may be asking yourself, “How is this a new single, hasn’t it been out before?”, and you’re not wrong. But. Here we have a 2024 release (originally released in 1993 and won a special award) with Tink Tink (not Rinken Band, the OG) covering it and…
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Miyazawa Kazufumi’s New Album “35” and Its Beautiful New Version of “Shima Uta”
Speaking of Oyakawa Haruka, here we find her on Miyazawa Kazufumi’s new album “35”, celebrating his 35th anniversary as a musician. Of course, no music of his is without heavy Okinawan music influences (he’s from Yamanashi in Japan), and this album showcases his sanshin talents and collaborations with HoRookies (the next generation BEGIN!) and Ryukyuan…
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We’re in Love with Kizuki Minami’s “Ranman”
The song “Ranman” from Amami-Oshima’s Kizuki Minami has been on our heavy rotation playlist for days now and it’s so awesome. The song is the title track from an album she released this year and while it treads more on the J-pop wave, there are a couple of shimauta tracks. Overall it’s an amazing release…
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OKIDOKI Featuring CHOUJI & Grace Aimi
Here’s the champuru mix we’ve been waiting for and we’ll make it our theme song to close out 2023: OKIDOKI featuring CHOUJI and Grace Aimi! Oh, and we can’t forget the special treat of Deigo Musume too! OKIDOKI is produced by Bigknot Records and is newly arranged from the Okinawan minyou song “Kokoro no Furusato”…
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Canae’s New Single “Usukaji” & Lead Actress!
Canae from i-Dushi recently released a new digital single “Usukaji (潮風-うすかじ-)” and get this, it’s the ending theme of a film she’s starring in! Yup, not only is she a talented artist of classical and shimauta pops, we can now add acting too! The film is “Nandekane Tsurumi” (Tsurumi is a ward in Yokohama Japan…
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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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i-Dushi’s “Kaanaa” Becomes “Kanae” as a Solo Artist
One of our favorite Okinawan pop duos, i-Dushi, went on hiatus at the end of last year after a tumultuous two years due to the pandemic and one of the things the artist formerly known as Kaanaa did was change her name to Kanae (which is her real name) to begin life as a solo…
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Grooving to Irei Shunichi’s “Nangoku Beat”
Irei Shunichi’s first album in TEN years is out! It’s called “Nangoku Beat” (tropical beat) and the emphasis is on the beat as the songs on the album have a nice groove to them. “Nangoku Beat” has a total of 8 tracks and is currently available on Apple Music. We’re totally grooving to the title…
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Higa Yuta’s “HiBiKi 〜Stereo Ver.〜”
We had this one on our YouTube saved folder and are finally circling back to give it another listen (or several listens 😂). The song is “HiBiKi” by a singer from Ginowan named Higa Yuta. In a tweet announcing the song, he mentions that the song represents him moving forward after making his debut at…
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HoRookies’s “Yui no Uta” New Shimauta Pops!
Having just released a full album (the fantastic “Focus“) in August last year, HoRookies is back with a lovely ballad called “Yui no Uta”. The song was written by the band’s drummer, Higa Shuntaro, who happens to also be the drummer for BEGIN (and if you’re following closely, is the son of BEGIN’s Higa Eisho).…
Karakui 