Susan Boyle

Posts Tagged ‘Japan’

Finally, I have found an (abridged) performance of Susan Boyle with Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo on her birthday.

In other news, Susan Boyle recently rearranged her schedule so that she could sing at the funeral of the mother of her vocal coach. Molly Burnett, mother of Yvie Burnett, died recently aged 84 years of age. Susan moved the funeral mourners to tears with her rendition of Amazing Grace in the country church where the service was held.

Yvie Burnett is a vocal coach on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, and she continues to coach Susan.

Susan Boyle is to sing in a special concert by the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra on April 1st at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.

Susan will be singing “I Dreamed A Dream” and other songs including the “Wings to Fly”, the bonus track that appeared on Susan Boyle’s album in Japan. In Japanese, the track is called “Tsubasa-o Kudasai”.

Tickets for the event will go on sale on March 7th. If you are Japanese and would like to attend, call The Yomiuri Shimbun Culture Promotion Department at (03) 3561-6346, or visit the webiste at http://info.yomiuri.co.jp/event/music/.

Here is a video of Susan Boyle’s Japanese performance. Susan today performed on Japan’s biggest and longest running New Year’s Eve TV show Kohaku Uta Gassen. When Susan was asked to give her impressions of Japan, she replied: “Wow!”

(The time in Japan is GMT+9, the time in New York is GMT-5; hence 14 hours time difference between Japan and New York, which is why Susan’s performance is already available.)

Note: the last two videos I posted have been removed from YouTube by NHK due to a copyright claim, so I don’t know how the long the above video will be available – watch it while you can!

Update: sorry, it now appears that the above video doesn’t work anymore either and I can’t find another.

However, I did find this one of Susan speaking a little Japanese.

I’ve found a YouTube video showing Susan Boyle’s arrival in Japan. Most of the video is in Japanese, but you can hear Susan speaking. I know this site gets visitors from Japan, so at least my Japanese friends will understand what the news reporter is saying! According to the Daily Mirror, thousands of screaming fans greeted Susan’s plane and two of them begged Susan to marry them. However, Susan smiled, waved and continued on her journey. One fan told the Mirror: “There is so much affection for Susan. She is an idol to us. Everyone wants to meet her.

“I was near the front but got pushed aside when she appeared. One gentleman kept on saying Susan, kekkon shite kudasai! He was asking her to marry him over and over again. We have not seen scenes like this since the Beatles!”

Susan’s arrival in Japan, ahead of her New Year’s Eve appearance on Kohaku Uta Gassen, was widely broadcast on Japanese TV channels and crowds surrounded the hotel in which she is staying.

In case you have missed it, here is Susan’s rendition of Wings to Fly which appeared exclusively on the Japanese version of the album.

Susan Boyle arrived in Japan today in preparation for her appearance on a programme called Kohaku Uta Gassen, a long running Japanese end of year TV spectacular, which translates as “Red and White Song Battle”. Susan looked happy and relaxed on her arrival at Narita airport, situated east of Tokyo, and was presented with a large bunch of flowers.

Susan waved happily to fans, although she declined a request by one of the TV networks to give an impromptu rendition of one of her songs.

According to Tokyo newspaper Nikkan Gendai, Susan will receive 5 million yen for the appearance and a further 5 million yen for her entourage and travel expenses.

It is thought that Susan will sing a Japanese folk song and also perform Wings to Fly, a bonus track that appeared only on the Japanese version of her “I Dreamed a Dream” album.

In other news, Susan looks likely to hold onto her number one spot on the Billboard 200 for a further week, preventing Mary J Blige from achieving the number one spot. Last week, she held off Alicia Keys from the number one position.  Industry sources are predicting that “I Dreamed a Dream” could sell another 500,000 copies by Sunday night, and Susan is currently being tipped to take over from Taylor Swift to have the best selling US album of the year, although the final figures will not be known until Sunday.

Susan Boyle will be appearing on Japan’s annual TV music show by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) on New Year’s Eve. The show is called ‘Kohaku’ and has been running for nearly 60 years in Japan (it first aired in 1951).

According to sources at NHK, negotiations are currently underway as to whether Susan will perform live from England, or travel and sing live from Japan. If Susan decides to travel to Japan, it will mark her first live performance there and she will be one of the biggest stars ever to have performed on  “Kohaku”.

A source close to Susan told the Daily Mirror: “Kohaku Uta Gassen is a massive show watched by millions and lots of them who have seen Susan on You Tube will now get to see a new very special performance.

“Susan has been practising a Japanese folk song called Wings To Fly, which she is hoping to perform live for the first time.”

Wings To Fly was a bonus track on the Japanese version of her debut album, I Dreamed A Dream, which reached number one despite the fact that it was not promoted in Japan.

Thanks to Yoko for letting me know about this.

Susan Boyle’s debut album, I Dreamed a Dream, is still number one in Canada, for the week ending December 19th, in addition to continuing to be number one on the Billboard 200 for the third consecutive week. It is also number one in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Switzerland.

According to Susan’s official website, her album has also received RIAA-Triple Platinum Certification for shipping over three million copies to retailers in the US. The album is the biggest seller released in 2009, and the first album released in 2009 to hold onto the number one chart position consecutively for three weeks. In that time, it has also achieved the highest album sales ever for a debut artist.

Internationally, there have been over 7 million copies of Susan’s album  shipped worldwide and Susan also has thre record for being the fastest selling global female debut artiste.

Susan Boyle is singing the theme song “I Dreamed a Dream” for the anime movie “Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume The Movie 3 ~http://takanotsume.jp wa Eien ni~” . The film is the third Eagle Talon film, based on a series of  Flash animated Japanese comedy tv shorts.

“I Dreamed a Dream” is, of course,  the title track for Susan’s debut album which will be released on November 23rd / 24th.

The film is scheduled to open in Japan on January 16, 2010, and should increase Susan’s exposure to the Japanese market.

Update:

Yoko from Japan has found this clip on YouTube of the anime song, Wings to Fly.

“The song will be included, as a bonus track, in the Japan version of her debut CD on sale on 25th Nov here,” says Yoko.

Thanks, Yoko!