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Okinawa consists of numerous islands located at the southern end of Japan. During World War 2, it became the only place in Japan to experience severe battles on land and many civilians lost their lives. It has a complicated historical background as after the war, Okinawa was ruled by the USA and returned to Japan in 1972. Okinawa has its own traditional culture such as a distinct Okinawan folk music, but it is also influenced a lot by American culture because of the American military bases still located in Okinawa.
The first time THE BOOM visited Okinawa was in 1990. The purpose was for the jacket photo shooting for their 3rd album "JAPANESKA". After the first visit, MIYAZAWA Kazufumi went to Okinawa several times and listened to many Okinawan folk songs and deeply explored the culture of Okinawa. Gradually he started to sympathize and think of the very sad history of the war behind the beautiful scenery of Okinawa. Air raid shelters nestled in the middle of sugar cane fields, telling how sad things had happened there without saying anything, and the great power of the lives of plants growing there. The scenery MIYAZAWA saw in his trips to Okinawa is the motif that lay behind "SHIMA UTA".
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"SHIMA UTA (ISLAND SONG)" is on the 4th album of THE BOOM "Shishunki (Adolescence)" released in January 1992 which sold over 1.5 million copies. The song was covered not only in Japan but also by numerous musicians overseas, for example, in China, UK, Jamaica and more. Of these, "SHIMA UTA (Cancion de la Isla)" sung by Alfredo Casero and released in Argentina has become a huge hit and received numerous awards- an exceptional case being sung in Japanese. It has received "Premios Gardel a la Musica" likened to an Argentine Grammy Award and also become a theme song for the Argentina soccer Team.
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THE BOOM has released Okinawa themed songs on every album since "SHIMA UTA". They released an album titledg"OKINAWA -WATASHI NO SHIMA-" a selection of all those Okinawa themed songs in June 2002.
Also on "MIYAZAWA", MIYAZAWA Kazufumi's 3rd solo album, he recorded Okinawa themed songs, "OKINAWA NI FURU YUKI (Snow in Okinawa)" and "CHIMUGURI UTASHA" both recorded in different locations from Brazil, Tokyo, New York to Okinawa.
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"SHIMA UTA (Cancion de la Isla)" covered by a multi faceted artist of Argentina; Alfredo Casero in December 2001 has become a huge hit.
Casero says that as soon as he happened to listen to "SHIMA UTA" by THE BOOM at a Japanese restaurant in Buenos Aires, he decided to sing it in Japanese. Even though there are many Japanese immigrants in Argentina, it has become an exceptionally massive hit (new record) as a song being sung in Japanese, and received 4 awards of "Premios Gardel a la Musica", which is called the Argentine Grammy Award. It was also used as a theme song for the Argentina soccer team, and has become one of the most beloved songs there. |
The long awaited and much wished for meeting of Casero and MIYAZAWA for the first time was in Buenos Aires in April 2002. They had a live concert at a Japanese garden in the city with more than 5,000 people coming to see them.
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The supporter group of the Japan soccer team (ULTRAS NIPPON) also choose "SHIMA UTA" as one of their support songs and 50,000 people together in the stadium sang this song for the games of the Japanese team during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. On New Year's Eve of 2003, THE BOOM sang this song with Alfredo Casero on the most popular TV music program in Japan.
Even after 10 years since its release, "SHIMA UTA" is loved by people of different generations in different countries across the globe.
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