The first "Uta no Oneesan" (song sister), Mari Yoshiko, will appear on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko no Heya" (TV Asahi), broadcast on March 25th at 1pm. She passed an NHK audition in 1961 and became a singer. Even now at the age of 86, she continues to sing children's songs on stage. Last year, she and fellow singers won a special prize at the Japan Children's Song Awards.
This time, they will be singing a medley of children's songs in the studio. They will be singing "Omocha no Cha-cha-cha," which won the 5th Record Award for Children's Songs in 1963, as well as "Inu no Omawari-san" and "Zou-san," creating a warm atmosphere in the studio.
She and Kuroyanagi were close friends, having spent their 20s together at NHK. Though they never worked together, they chatted about old times, such as eating snacks together in the hallway of the recording studio. She said that she was strictly disciplined about her private life during her time as a singing sister. She also revealed an episode where she was called into the station the day after eating oden at a food stall with her seniors on her first payday.
