Portrait of a Lady
Hara Yuko is Back! And...

Date：23, Dec, 2022
Investigated and Written by Misaka Youhei
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Portrait of a Lady Release: October, 19, 2022 Victor Entertainment

01. 千の扉～Thousand Doors 02. オモタイキズナ 03. Good Times～あの空は何を語る 04. 旅情 05. スローハンドに抱かれて (Oh Love!!) 06. ぐでたま行進曲 07. 夜の訪問者 08. ヤバいね愛てえ奴は 09. 鎌倉 On The Beach 10. 初恋のメロディ

In 2022, we got a kind of the surprising news about Japanese pop music. It said that Hara Yuko would release her 4th studio album in 2022 October. Hara Yuko? Who is it? you may ask. She was born in 1956 Kanagawa, formed a rock'n'roll band Southern All Stars with other 5 male musicians including Kuwata Keisuke when she was a university student. The band made their major debut in 1978. She has worked on keyboard and vocal of the band. And they have been on the front line of pop music with lots of hit songs like Tsunami, I Am Your Singer, Love Affair and Miss Brand-new Day. In their activities, we can hardly hear the song written by her. Most of their songs were written and sung by Kuwata Keisuke.

She made her debut as a solo singer with Kuwata's help in 1981. Next year, they got married. And Hara Yuko left 2 studio albums and 9 singles in 1980's. After she released her 3rd album "Mother" in 1991, we'd heard nothing about her new album for a long time. She would never release her new album except compilations, many people must have thought. She published her new album in 2022 October, however, breaking the long-time silence. Having got surprised is reasonable.


How about the songs? Some were written by Hara on her own. And of course Kuwata Keisuke helped her activities on several phases. Kuwata Keisuke said he would like people to enjoy this one instead of the new album by Southern All Stars, when it was released. It sold close to 50 thousand copies, ranked at the 4th on Oricon Weekly Chart.

・Southern All Starts Official Site (Japanese)