Ayu's cover for Miyuki Nakajima's song "時代"
 

This cover will be used as theme song for TV Asahi's drama "Banpaku no Taiyo".

Digital single will come out from midnight on Monday, March 25th, immediately after the broadcast ends.

"I sympathized with the worldview portrayed by this drama, especially the story of the main characters who continued to pursue their dreams in an era when women were not allowed to advance into society at all, so I agreed to sing the theme song for it.
While paying homage to Miyuki Nakajima's great masterpiece, I worked with the best staff and musicians to express it to the best of my ability.
I would be happy if I could contribute even a little bit to this wonderful drama!

Ayumi Hamasaki"

https://avex.jp/ayu/schedule/detail.php?id=1105194

you can find snippets of the song on twitter

Oh wow as a Miyuki Nakajima fan this is especially precious.
Jidai is such a beautiful and timeless song.

Here a snippet of Nakajima preforming it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry_bpaKDcAo.

Fun fact, this song is from 1975 so its almost 50 years old. :luv2

Oooh so far the two new songs are tie-ins. How exciting.
Also, a Miyuki Nakajima cover is definitely surprising, at least to me.
This mini/album is looking really interesting.

i loved the song, it'll be even more delightful with ayu's voice :blove

Another song already!?!? OMG

I love her covers, can't wait for this new one!

I love Nakajima Miyuki, this is great news. A little concerned about how Ayu will be able to adapt the song to her voice, Nakajima has a very strong voice. However Ayu did a good job on Haru yo koi.

Here's a bit preview of ayu's cover 時代
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1zH...f952e7206ca6a0

OMG! It sounds so nice.

i loved the preview =) her voice fits the song :blove

IKR! Hopefully we can get the single sooner~ Can't wait for new song, "BYE-BYE" and "Jidai":luv2:luv2

It feels soooo weird to hear Ayu singing Nakajima Miyuki, even if the instrumentals are similar, their voices and singing techniques are so different and both versions are their own thing. I think I'll keep listening to both versions, I don't expect Ayuès version to be better than the original, or worse, it will just be different.

On a critical note, I wish they used another promo picture in the advertisement, that Leopard short dress fits in no way with the drama or the song.

I love this song so much, makes me wanna cry but empowered at the same time. Kamishiraishi Mone’s cover with orchestra is one of the favorite!

https://b23.tv/c4GcYrh

totally, hopefully the digital single will have a decent cover art :P

It is not at all bad, sounds different and refreshing. I never heard Ayu singing this type of ballad.

Can't wait to hear this! We're getting spoiled with all the song news!

she shared a story on ig yesterday about a new single being released today??

I read that she recorded a new song and immediately went for mv shooting, so we are expecting two new mvs at least

If we saw the same story, I think it mentioned that the Shooting was for today. I don<t think the release was today.

^ youre right =)

heard the ayu preview and a bit of the original… i just know this is abt to make me sob when it comes out

>> https://music.apple.com/jp/album/時代-single/1736666968

Not yet available in Europe due to time, it’s 8 hours earlier here

still not available in BR too.. gotta wait, anyways i loved the preview

i kinda liked the artwork too, classy and clean =)

Can someone please upload the song ? it's on JPS but I can't download torrents now .. thanks !

Another preview : https://www.tiktok.com/@kobasan1124/...56171215752449

^ i thought of HEAVEN when i first listened to it :blove

So, apparently, is not going to be released on Spotify in Europe (in Italy at least)? Here is already 1am of the 25th of March but the song isn’t on Spotify yet.

oh no I love this song. do we know whether this gets a video? it should, I think.

I think it is a bit closer to 'Pray' and 'The way you are'

yet the song is not available on Apple Music Brazil =\

The song fits her standards. It doesn’t attempt anything unusual but it will surely has a lot of replay value in the long term like many of her songs.

YALL WHERE IS IT

In the download section

Can't find it on Youtube either.

not available in Thai Spotify too

Still not on Spotify

Could it be related with the fact that nakajima miyuki’s music is not available to stream outside japan?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLlCtFBndp8
It's here but it might be restricted by country. I had to VPN to japan to see this pic+music youtube video lol

^ yeah it's restricted

what the heck, why are they making an exclusive japan release in 2024...

maybe? But you can find other artist's cover of Jidai on Apple Music, like the one from Naoko Ken
if that's not awful enough, the song is not available for purchase on Itunes as well... :no

Oh! I love Naoko Ken and I didn't know she covered that song!

I was kinda hoping Jidai might appear on Spotify on Friday but at this rate maybe I'll be hearing it when it appears on the eventual album!

^ i had the exact same thought, i think they won't leave it out of - what i hope to be - her next album..

This is a miss for me. I do not like her vocal technique in the song.

for those who want to purchase the song, it's available on OTOTOY:

https://ototoy.jp/_/default/p/2049274

btw it debuted #2 on Recochoku Daily Singles :blove

-------------

Oricon Digital Singles

Day 1: #2 1,112DL

it's also available on Recochoku, do you think it's purchasable outside Japan?

Yes, you can buy it on Ototoy
But I'm not sure if foreigners can buy through Recochoku

They have a preview for it on Apple Music and I thought it was pretty good. I am not familiar with the original version or the original artist, but overall it sounds just how I expect this style of song to sound coming from Ayu.

I do find her voice to be a little strained, but at this point I have kind of accepted that about her at this point.

where did she say that?

Bilibili got the full version of this song~
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1dZ42147Bw/

it debuted #31 on Oricon Weekly Digital Singles Charts with 1,790 downloads

there is no streaming chart?

Used FlyVPN set to Japan and the song comes up at Spotify

yes, oricon has a weekly streaming chart featuring the top 50 songs, this week the #50th song had over 2 million streams, it would be quite impossible for ayu to make it nowadays :(

If the song was available worldwide the numbers would be better

would oricon count downloads outsite japan?

That is absolutely insane!

I mean we have to face it that golden era of Ayu is gone. I'm not sure how much of an audience she can gather nowadays when it comes to new people. She's pretty much releasing stuff for the fans rather than new generation. She's a legend, that's all it is.

I have to say though, i don't really get the whole country locked stuff. It's weird to me. Like how much harm could release a song worldwide make??

^ yep, she and avex absolutely don't care anymore about charts for quite a time already, she had her time and enough is enough, she and her team can afford to be in the industry just for fun now