Kaori Mizumori on "Tetsuko's Room" August 26th broadcast: "Seven years was a long time" until she had a hit

Singer Kaori Mizumori appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi), which aired on August 26th. This year marks the 30th anniversary of her debut. Known as the "Queen of Local Songs," she spoke about her journey leading up to her success as a Red and White singer.

The family business was an automobile factory. Her father would work until he was completely smoky, then take a bath and go to a nearby bar afterwards. "I was taken there with my older sister. I couldn't read kanji, so my mother whispered the words into my ear and I listened and sang along," she recalls. "I was singing adult songs by artists like Masako Mori and Aki Yashiro at the age of four or five," she says. When she began appearing on "Nodo Jiman," her father taught her how to sing. "He taught me the finer details of emotion, like how to sing certain parts. He wasn't strict, but he wasn't gentle either," she says.

After that, she made her debut as a singer. She says that "it was a long seven years" until she had a hit. In her third or fourth year after debuting, she was told, "Your next song will be your last." The song she released in her eighth year was "Tojinbo." She smiles and says, "I thought what a place it was set in. It was like a (cliff-edge) place in a suspense drama."

When asked why she chose Tojinbo as the setting for her song, the lyricist replied, "It's been eight years since your debut, and you're on the brink of failure as a singer. That's why I chose Tojinbo." Composer Tetsuya Gen encouraged her, saying, "So sing with all your might." He also told her, "Don't worry about what kind of face you have when you sing, or how pretty you have to look when you sing, or how pretty you have to look," and "Sing with all your might, with all your might, without caring about appearances."

The reaction to this song was completely different from anything she had experienced before. Up until then, even when she sang in shopping districts, most people would just pass by, but with "Tojinbo," people "stopped in their tracks, were drawn in, and listened to the song as if they were being drawn in." "Tottori Sand Dunes," released the following year, was also a hit. "I think I was only able to come across these songs because of the song Tojinbo, so these two songs are very important to me," she says with conviction. Since then, she has appeared on the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen for 22 consecutive years.