Asian Music

Moumoon – It’s Our Time in Paris

July 17, 2017

Music video for It’s Our Time by Japanese pop duo moumoon, released in June 2015. Found this song after blogging them a couple of months ago.

The MV was shot in Paris when the band held their first solo concert (which was sold out) in the French capital in May 2015. The song is OK, but the video looks like a beautiful travelogue… feels like visiting Europe again after watching this.

By the way, half of the group name moumoon comes from French. “Mou” means soft in French, hence their name can be interpreted as soft moon in English =)

Moumoon, Shooting Star, Assassination Classroom

May 16, 2017

Japanese MV for Hello, Shooting Star by pop duo moumoon, released in February 2015. It’s an ending song for popular anime series Assassination Classroom.

I was a fan of moumoon’s Sunshine Girl in 2010. Haven’t heard much from the band since then, but they are probably doing well in their home country. Many Japanese commercials, movies and TV shows have used their songs over the years.

Jill Vidal ft. San E – Being Told Chinese MV

June 20, 2016

Hong Kong based British singer Jill Vidal is making her comeback, six years after her drug scandal in 2009. She was found guilty for drugs possession in Japan but escaped prison time. Her rising showbiz career was badly affected though.

Vidal was only semi-active since the scandal until signing with Warner Music HK in 2015. She released a new single, titled Being Told (被滿足的愛), in May 2016. She went to Seoul to record the song which featured popular Korean rapper San E.

It’s actually a decent song. There’s clear K-pop elements and it sounds different from standard Cantopop, which may be a good thing since Cantopop is going nowhere these days. This could just be the song she needs for a reboot.

ZARD Forever Best 25th Anniversary Medley

February 20, 2016

ZARD Forever Best 25th Anniversary medley video. A compilation album in memory of Izumi Sakai, the lead vocal of Japanese pop band Zard who died in 2007.

In memoriam

Izumi Sakai was the only permanent member of Zard until her death. And thus, Zard is synonymous with Sakai. The band has sold over 37 million records to date, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time in Japan.

Sakai released 42 singles in her lifetime. The extra songs in this compilation are either posthumous release, or songs written by her and performed by other artists.

Some of the clips in this video are quite precious and hardly found online. After all, Zard was most famous in the 1990’s when internet was not a thing yet.

North Korean girl group Moranbong Band

December 17, 2015

The Moranbong Band [wiki], also known as Moran Hill Orchestra, is an all-female music group in North Korea whose members were selected by the country’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un. Debuted in 2012, they are the first female band from DPRK.

The group, which is said to be hugely popular in their homeland, made headlines earlier this month when their show in Beijing was cancelled last-minute, with rumours of possible defection (which has been officially debunked).

There are suggestions that the creation of the group is to counteract the rise of South Korean pop culture in North Korea. Some foreign media actually branded Moranbong Band as North Korean version of South Korean pop group Girls’ Generation, but it’s probably in terms of popularity instead of musical style.

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