Mandopop: Wang Lin - I am a singer (我是歌手)

Some of my chinese friends won't like it when I say this, but this video is a very typical chinese video - cheezy, overloaded kitsch...and very charming. Wang Lin has been one of my favorite KTV (karaoke music) singers for a while, she has this semi-nerdy charm that really makes you love all of it.

• Wang Lin - I am a singer (我是歌手)

Wang Lin - Yami Butterfly (雅美蝶)

"Yami Butterfly" is really rather trivial KTV (chinese karaoke) music, but I am somewhat weak for Wang Lin's charming and happy songs.

• Wang Lin - Yami Butterfly (雅美蝶)

Mandopop: Phoenix Legend (鳳凰傳奇)

The folk music duo Phoenix Legend got their big breakthrough in 2005 with their participation in a talent show, but it is their hit "Most Dazzling Folk Style" that is their big hit up to date. With the new "Best of Times" they try to update their style. It actually works quite OK, as long as you are used to Chinese KTV (karaoke) as the baseline for this kind of music. Curiosa: they are part of a military music unit who has as their duty to entertain the army's nuclear weapons division. ;-)

• Phoenix Legend - Most Dazzling Folk Style (最炫民族风)
• Phoenix Legend - Most Dazzling Folk Style (classical concert!)
• Phoenix Legend - Best of Times (最好的時代)
• Phoenix Legend - Blue day (天蓝蓝)
• Phoenix Legend - Lotus Pond (荷塘月色)
• Phoneix Legend - I come from the steppe (我从草原来)
• Phoneix Legend - Galloping Horse (策马奔腾)

Mandopop: Wang Lin - Simida (思密達)

Obviously Wang Lin is taking her cue from Korean dramas in this video where she uses korean loan words like "oppa", and I am pretty sure the name of the song "Simida" is a korean word but I'm not sure which. It could be "습니다" which is a general ending for making a sentence more formal. A chinese friend says it should be meant as a chinese spelling of the korean word for darling (which one would that be, "salang"?). But I don't know. Anyway, for some reason I love this KTV (karaoke) song. The prelude is just fantastic electronica too. Don't miss her other good songs like "Shang Bu Qi".

• Wang Lin - Simida

Trip to Sapporo: Day 9 - Karaoke

(Click here for first day, yesterday or for all trips)

So, even though I have been to Japan twice before, I missed out on the Karaoke experience. It has its obvious explanation that I really -really- suck at remembering lyrics. It goes as far as, with my favorite songs which I may have heard hundred of times, me being able to actually remember the tones of the swedish/english lyrics like a person who don't speak a language can mimic the singer, but I still don't can't seem to get the texts "Into focus". I have the same problem with names of people.

So anyway, this other night I got invited suddenly at midnight from some friends here who was at at karaoke bar in Susukino, so I thought "carpe diem" and off I went. I was lucky to actually catch one of the last subway trains for the night.
This would be obvious for those of you have done this several times, but what you do is that you rent a room (quite small, maybe 3-4 square meters I would say) where you squeeze together on a sofa. Then you order drinks and snacks as you go along, and use small iPad-looking screens to selects songs that then get put in a queue. If you look, you can find latin letters to help you search for songs you know.

Most of the songs we sang that evening was unknown for me, which was no surprise, but AKB48 I recognized and I have heard of EXILE (very popular), and there was a reasonable number of western songs that my fellows chose. I chose ABBA's "Dancing Queen" and Europe's "It's The Final Countdown", both of which I managed to destroy properly as expected. Sake helps a little, at least, the free the artistically side.

So how do you manage as a non-native speaker to get along with all the Japanese songs? Well, fear not, it is not so hard as you may think. You ably need to learn the two basic hiragana/katakana letter families (not the Chinese looking kanji) and to be able to fake well that you know the songs. This meant I managed to have great fun actually, and if you just let go, it doesn't matter that much that you don't know what you are singing. The passion of your co-singers in the refrain makes it all worthwhile, I think.
Afterwards, six o'clock in the morning when the trains starts again, we went for a simple ramen breakfast and then headed home. Reaaally tired but happy to have experienced something thoroughly Japanese.

(Click here for the next day)