78-year-old singer Saori Yuki appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) broadcast on June 19th. She talked about her interactions with French pop singer Paul Mauriat and her memories of singer Ayumi Ishida.
When Yuki was searching for a direction, the song that had the biggest influence on her and made her think that if she went down this path, she would be able to sing songs that were true to herself was Paul Mauriat's "Love is Light Blue." Having visited his home in Paris, she said of her impression of him, "He has such a gentle face. Just like him. He never once raised his voice or seemed like that at all, and he was just like him."
There was a time when she and singer Ayumi Ishida, who passed away in March this year, met every day, about five days a week. When she was going to sing Ishida's "Blue Light Yokohama" with the Portland, USA, musical group "Pink Martini" at a party, she told Ishida, "Don't sing it better than me." "This (Blue Light Yokohama) is Ayumi's song," she recalled.
She will soon be 80 years old. "My sister (Yasuda Sachiko) and I have been singing children's songs together for 39 years. My sister will be 84 this year. I'm dangling a carrot, but I'm saying that when I turn 80, I'll do my third concert at Carnegie Hall (in New York)," she said. The first performance at the same venue was in 1995, and the second in 2001. She has a few more years until she turns 80. "I think it will come in the blink of an eye, but if I can do it, I'll aim for it," she said, setting her goal.
