Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Miki Matsubara
Japanese singer and songwriter (1959–2004) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Miki Matsubara (松原 みき, Matsubara Miki; 28 November 1959 – 7 October 2004) was a Japanese singer, songwriter, and television personality from Kishiwada, Osaka.[1] She contributed to the opening and ending theme songs of the TV anime Gu-Gu Ganmo under the name "Suzie Matsubara".
Her 1979 debut song "Mayonaka no Door (Stay With Me)" became a hit, reaching number 28 on the Oricon chart, selling 104,000 copies according to Oricon survey, and selling 300,000 copies announced by Canyon Records. In addition, since around 2020, the song has become widely heard not only in Japan but also overseas thanks to the video sharing platform TikTok and the resurgence of city pop.
Remove ads
Early life
Summarize
Perspective
Matsubara was born 28 November 1959[2] in Kishiwada, Osaka in Japan. She spent her childhood in Hiraoka Town, Nishi-ku, Sakai, Osaka.
She grew up in a family of four, including a father, a mother and a younger sister. Her father was a board member of a hospital[3] and her mother was a jazz singer who had sung with the Japanese jazz band and comedy group Crazy Cats. Matsubara started learning the piano at the age of three and later became familiar with jazz. As a child, she went to Sakai city's Hiraoka Elementary School and then in 1972, entered Poole Gakuin Junior High School. Around this time Matsubara became interested in rock music and joined the rock band "Kurei". In 1975 she started in Poole Gakuin High School and became active as a keyboard player of the band "Yoshinoya Band". They would play songs at a live house called Takutaku located in Kyoto. Matsubara was described as an excellent student and was expected by many around her to attend college, but at that time she had already made plans to pursue her dream of becoming a singer.[3] In 1977, when she was still in high school, Matsubara went to Tokyo alone at the age of 17 to make her debut as a singer. The Japanese pianist Yuzuru Sera found her playing music and singing in various places in Kantō such as in the live music venue Birdland located in Roppongi, Tokyo.[4]
Remove ads
Career
Summarize
Perspective
Matsubara started her career in 1979 and is known from hit songs such as her debut and immediate breakthrough "Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me)" which has been covered by numerous artists,[5][6][7][8] including Akina Nakamori.[9] The song was ranked 28th on the Oricon Chart,[10] and according to that chart sold 104,000 copies and 300,000 copies announced by Canyon records. Some of her other known songs were "Neat na gogo san-ji (ニートな午後3時)" and "The Winner" among others.
Matsubara became a well-known singer after her song Neat na Gogo San-ji was released, performing at college festivals, concerts and so on. The song gained a feature in a commercial of the Japanese multinational personal care company Shiseido.
Miki Matsubara received a number of artist awards.[1] She formed her own band, Dr. Woo.[3] Matsubara also had some international work with Motown jazz fusion group Dr. Strut in Los Angeles (becoming a backing band in the album recordings for "Cupid" and "Myself"), Tokyo and Osaka (Hall concerts), later releasing a jazz cover album titled Blue Eyes. On that album she covered some famous jazz songs like "Love for Sale" and the soft rock song "You've Got a Friend", originally written and sung by Carole King.[11]
Her vocal range was that of a mezzo-soprano.
During her music career she released 8 singles and 12 albums. While Matsubara was a star in Japan, she was known internationally for her work as an anime singer and songwriter, singing the opening and ending songs to anime such as Dirty Pair: Project Eden. The popularization of city pop has attracted new audiences outside of Japanl.[12] While singing theme songs for the anime Gu Gu Ganmo, she performed under the name Suzie Matsubara (スージー・松原). Matsubara's song "The Winner" was used as the opening for the Gundam OVA-series Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory.
From the 1990s on she especially worked on anime soundtracks and music for commercials.[13][1] Matsubara wrote songs for anime and some of her most known musical compositions were for the anime series Gundam. Matsubara wrote songs for several singers, including Hitomi Mieno,[14] but her most notable works were likely with the singer and actress Mariko Kouda. Kouda's song "Ame no Chi Special" (雨のちスペシャル), which Matsubara composed, was featured in the five-minute music television and radio series Minna no Uta as a music video in 1997. It attracted a lot of attention and ranked 28th place on the Oricon chart. The song was repeatedly rebroadcast until 2004.[15]
On November 12, 2024 (her 45th anniversary), producer Tetsuji Hayashi re‐arranged Matsubara’s debut hit “Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me)” and released it digitally as “2024”.[16]
Matsubara’s unreleased cover of Hi-Fi Set’s song “Sky Restaurant” was issued as a digital single on December 5, 2024.[17] The Pony Canyon press release explains that Yumi Arai (Yuming) wrote the lyrics and Kunihiko Murai composed the music (this was a hit for Hi-Fi Set), and Matsubara’s vocals from a stored tape were given a new city‑pop arrangement by Tetsuji Hayashi.[18] (The same source also notes a new music video: directed by her nephew Tsuyoshi Matsubara and featuring her grand-niece Moka[19].)
Remove ads
Personal life
Little is known about Miki Matsubara's personal life. She married Masaki Honjo (1953-2007), a support musician (drummer) for her band. Later Masaki became a dentist and died in 2007 at the age of 54.
During Matsubara's years as a student, her eyesight deteriorated due to fatigue from a part-time job. Her eyesight was, however, fixed with surgery.[20]
Health problems and death
Summarize
Perspective
At the end of 2000, Matsubara sent an e-mail to her company, the members of Dr. Woo, and others stating, "I can no longer continue with my music for a certain reason. I am cancelling my phone, cell phone, and email. So please do not reply. Please live your life without regrets."[21] She stopped all music activities and disappeared from the spotlight altogether. She burned all her cherished sheet music and records. In an e-mail sent to her cousin at the time, she wrote, "Please forget all the times in the past when I was singing and composing."[21]
In 2001, it was revealed that Matsubara's actions were prompted by a late-stage cancer diagnosis, after which she began treatment. She associated her career with the time when she became ill, so putting music behind her was in hopes for a new chance at life. She regretted doing music as she wished she got to enjoy life more instead of focusing on her career. Matsubara returned to her parents' home and spent her final years battling her illness.[21]
After being told by her doctor that she only had three months left to live, Matsubara died on 7 October 2004, at age 44 due to complications from uterine cervix cancer.[22][23] Her death was announced to the public two months later.[21]
Remove ads
Legacy
Summarize
Perspective
An increased interest in city pop during the 21st century,[24] particularly the 2010s,[25] contributed to Matsubara gaining global recognition and "Stay with Me" (真夜中のドア, "Mayonaka no door") becoming a resurgent hit in the West and throughout Asia in 2020.[24] Billboard Japan credits Indonesian YouTuber Rainych for the song's initial surge in popularity, after she shared a cover version with her almost 1.3 million subscribers on the platform in October that year.[26] To capitalize on her posthumous resurgence, Pony Canyon reissued Matsubara’s first album Pocket Park as a 180g LP on March 31, 2021.[27] This campaign was announced by music news site BARKS, noting the reissue date and a reproduction of the original poster art.[28] (BARKS also highlights that “Stay With Me” had just spent 20 consecutive days at No.1 on Spotify’s Global Viral chart[29].) This rediscovery of the song in Indonesia—indicated by an upsurge of streams on digital music platforms Apple Music and Spotify—then spread to other countries worldwide and it continued to gain traction, especially in North America. The song became well-known on the multimedia streaming app TikTok, most notably during December 2020—prior to this, it was already somewhat popular in the platform's anime community—where it sparked a trend among users of Japanese descent, who shared videos of themselves playing the song for their mothers and filming their reactions when they recognized the track. One such video garnered over 23 million views and 6 million likes.[24][30] As of February 2021, the sound has been used in over 200,000 videos on the platform.
Although Matsubara passed in 2004, a new “Director’s Cut” music video for “Mayonaka no Door” was released via her official YouTube channel in November 2022. (The updated video was re-edited by the original director Tell Sato.) This is mentioned in Pony Canyon’s promotion.[31]
In October 2024 at the Paris Paralympics, Matsubara’s “Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me)” was played on the center court at Stade Roland Garros after Japanese wheelchair tennis players won gold.[32] (According to sports news site Real Sports, the song celebrated Kaito Oda’s and Yui Kamiji’s victories, illustrating the song’s ongoing cultural resonance.)
In fall 2024, Pony Canyon released color‐vinyl editions of three more Matsubara albums (Cool Cut, Blue Eyes, and Lady Bounce) for Japan’s Record Day (Nov 3, 2024).[33] (For example, an HMV Japan announcement confirms colored vinyl reprints of these 1980s albums.)
Remove ads
Discography
Summarize
Perspective
Studio albums
Compilations
Magazines
Singles
Some notable compositions
Remove ads
See also
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads