Introducing the Members of 20th Anniversary Project Vol.3

In this blog I’m introducing Minako Kawae. She wrote me the song called “Omoi no Hanataba” in my album “Kimi no Ne” released in 2003. Also her arms appear in the cover art of the album actually. (The photographer wanted to take photos of me being relaxed and natural and asked me if I wanted anyone to join the photoshoot to make me feel relaxed during the photoshoot. I said I wanted “Gyan-chan” (Minako’s nickname) to join the photoshoot) I love her dearly as my friend. She now writes songs for popular artist such as Miki Imai, Mika Nakashima, Hiromi Go, so lately I have hesitated to ask her to write me a song.. I would casually tell her like “I want you to write me a song again someday” when I had a chance to see her or text her, but didn’t have courage to officially ask her to write me a song. However for my 20th anniversary project, I strongly thought that I wanted to sing her song again, and this time I brought myself to call her to offer. Although she was busy touring with Miki Imai, on top of being a mom, she sent me a song immediately after the call. She told me that she already had ideas for the atmosphere of the song and the title of the song when we were talking on the phone. I was moved by hearing that story, but I was moved even more when I saw the lyrics for the first time. I was mesmerized by the beautiful lyrics and I’m so glad that I asked her to write me a song. The new song she wrote me is charming yet emotional. Usually when I hear demo songs, I always feel sort of nervous but excited like I open a love letter at midnight. When I heard the demo of this song, my excitement was even bigger than usual from the intro part. The title of the song is “Snow.” I haven’t done the recording of the song yet, so I will be sharing about the recording with you later. Kumiko Hasegawa will be arranging the song. I’d love to talk about the relation between Kumiko Hasegawa and Minako Kawae someday too. These days I’ve been thinking how I will sing “Snow.” I hope to do a great job at the recording!