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Mr. Children wins Japan's "Song of the Year" for 2004!

MHtrStevie

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13 Jul 2002
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Greetings!

Since I hadn't seen this mentioned so far, I figured I'd start my own non-VK thread by telling you that the Kazutoshi Sakurai-led band Mr. Children took the top "Song of the Year" Award at the 2004 Nihon Record Taisho... after three straight years of Ayumi Hamasaki winning the award, this was a refreshing change!

Here are the winners since 2000:

2000: Southern All Stars - Tsunami
2001: Ayumi Hamasaki - Dearest
2002: Ayumi Hamasaki - Voyage
2003: Ayumi Hamasaki - No way to say
2004: Mr. Children - Sign

I have nothing against Ayu, and I understood the awards for "Dearest" and even "Voyage"... but "No way to say" didn't really seem like a particularly special song. It seemed like they wanted to give it to Ayu that year simply so she would set the new standard of three-in-a-row (a few artists have won it twice).

OTOH, it's nice to see Mr. Children win with "Sign", but while a good song, again this one doesn't seem all that special either... to me, "Hero" would have been a better award winner in 2003, but Ayu's song ended up winning. Is this payback for a perceived oversight, considering Ayu didn't even receive a nomination for 2004? Who knows?

Anyway, no matter the circumstances, it's good to see Sakurai-san and Mr. Children recognized again by the Nihon Record Taisho (they won in 1994 for "innocent world").

Any other Mr. Children fans want to share their fave tracks? Which of their songs was your first introduction to this group? Mine was "Namonaki uta", theme song to the drama series "Pure"...

👍
 
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Ahh Mr.children, one of my favourite group right now. My first introduction to them would have to be Te no Hira. after listening to it once, I was hooked.
 
Yeah, "Tenohira" is quite an awesome song... but this group never fails to impress me...

I've said this in another thread as well, but I'll say it again... if there was one Japanese group I'd like to see live, Mr. Children would be it. They seem capable of doing a number of cool live styles... I saw a video of the 1999 Discovery tour where they acted the part of pop idol, blasting out all the hits with an adoring crowd singing along, and that was amazing... then I got to see the video of the tour for the album Q, and they were doing a Pink Floyd-like live set, just flowing along from one great song to another with very little crowd interaction, just letting the music speak for them... and they didn't even touch the big singles until about 2/3 of the way through the show, but still the crowd was completely captivated by the experience!

😌

Definitely great stuff... have you been uncovering some of their non-single gems from their albums? Have any favorites of that song type? Currently my off-the-beaten-path fave is "LOVE hajimemashita" from the "It's a Wonderful World" album...

Hmmm... with their big award, perhaps I should do a three-hour Mr. Children block on my show soon... that would be sweet...
 
abit disappointing

you know, I find it slightly disappointing that only two people have replied to this thread. Mr Children is a great group and I know there are more fans out there. Come on in guys and state your favourite Mr.Children songs. It's safe, we dont bite. :)
 
wow thats new.
I guess it would have been annoying though if Ayumi won again for the 4th time, she is a great singer and all but yay for Mr. Children !^.^!
 
That is really cool!
I have yet to hear that particular song. :(
But I do like Mr. Children...they are a good group.

btw: That is funny how Ayumi Hamasaki won the 3 years before that.
 
Black Piano said:
wow thats new.
I guess it would have been annoying though if Ayumi won again for the 4th time, she is a great singer and all but yay for Mr. Children !^.^!
Like I said before, I really have no problem with Ayu at all... while perhaps not my favorite artist, I've enjoyed all of her music since her career started. I just felt like a song taking the top honors at the Nihon Record Taisho should be something truly "special", and while I had that feeling about "Dearest" and "Voyage" I didn't about "No way to say" especially considering the competition that year (like "Hero" as an example)... so it wouldn't bother me at all for an artist to win the award multiple times in a row, as long as the songs deserved it. It felt to me like she deserved to win twice, and her third win was more so that people could say, "I was there to see it when Ayu set the new record."

As far as people replying, I figured having a Mr. Children thread would be nice since many people under other threads were mentioning how much they liked this group... but the thread title is more of an announcement than an invitation. Maybe that's why people haven't picked up on it yet...?

Anyway, whoever is motivated enough, feel free to post about your first/favorite song by this group... I'm always interested to see how people have discovered new groups, and if those experiences are similar to my own.
Nice to meet you all, if I haven't met you before...

🙂
 
fav songs

There are so many Mr Children songs I like.Youthful days is another one of my favourites. slightly upbeat, yet a smooth calming beat. This is a song I recommend to anyone.Just listen to a few of their songs and you will be hooked.

P.S MHtrStevie, having a 3 hour special for Mr Children would be Super sweet 👍 :) 👍
 
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