This happens more often than you’d think, actually, and while any lesser song would certainly lose its impact-due to the law of diminishing returns (i.e., if you repeat it too much, it gets old)-”Don’t Lose Your Way” never falls victim to this. And it only plays during the most badass moments of Kill La Kill-usually when Ryuku reclaims the upper-hand in battle with a particularly tough foe. I’m talking, of course, about “Don’t Lose Your Way.” It’s an absolute alt-rock hit. Perhaps that Grammy isn’t far off.Like Neon Genesis Evangelion and “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” before it, Kill La Killis in possession of a gem of a banger. In 2005, a group of parents, recognizing that many of the children wanted to continue working together, helped establish a nonprofit to coordinate the choir’s creative direction and inspirational mission, On the horizon for Fukuda is an album featuring the choir singing original songs. Although he feels those qualities are important, he also wants the children to find the choir enjoyable. I was always exploring new types of music, and she thought it would be good to send me abroad.”Ĭhoirs in Japan are primarily about “technique and preciseness,” Fukuda points out. “She felt that, especially in the arts and entertainment, Japan was fairly limited as to the diversity and experience that we get. His mother enrolled him in the international school. “I was a different kind of a child, and I always wanted to be different from everyone else,” he recalls. At age eight, he was accepted into Japan’s Yamaha Music School. The song Fukuda selected was “Memories,” written by Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine about the death of a close friend.įukuda began as a music prodigy and composed his first song at age four. Each of the students was asked to record the same song at home alone. The pandemic prevented the choir members from gathering in one place, so colleague Nick Sales used a Zoom platform to create a virtual performance. The choir sings at the One Voice Children’s Choir Japan Festival in 2019.Ī few months ago, Fukuda, 44, wanted the choir to record something to counter the heartbreak that had come to define 2020. They have also made multiple trips to Japan, where they performed in Japanese and English, including an original song, “Kokoro o Komete” (With All My Heart), written by Fukuda with Cristi Adachi. Since its beginnings in 2002, the choir, which is composed of about 100 children ranging from elementary school age to high school, has sung at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, competed on “America’s Got Talent,” performed for President Obama, sung the national anthem at major events, and traveled to New York, Washington, D.C., and France. In this case, we’re fortunate to have the platform and accessibility for people to get a hold of our music … and not just the audio.” “Now that the world is operating in such a way that information gets around instantly to anybody in the world, it’s a blessing to us…if you use it for good. We owe so much to technology because we used to burn CDs one at a time, and we used to burn 300 CDs at most to sell at our events. ![]() “That we’re able to reach that many people in the world at once. He attributes the popularity of the choir’s videos, in part, to the current technology. The choir’s viral videos have included renditions of “Believer” by Imagine Dragons (123 million views), “Diamond” by Rihanna (114 million), and “Let It Go” from Disney’s “Frozen” (103 million), “Brave” by Sara Bareilles, and “See You Again” by Charlie Puth.įukuda says that the numbers don’t mean a whole lot, but when he reads stories of how the lives of those who have seen the videos have changed, “how they were inspired because of our music, then all of a sudden it hits us so hard, like ‘Wow, this is real!’” With the visual, it even makes it stronger. ![]() “It needs to match with the visual so you can connect better with the facial expressions, body language, and spirit that comes out of these kids. “Nowadays, I guess our generation is getting so spoiled (that) audio isn’t good enough,” Fukuda says. ![]() The intricate, layered arrangements of popular songs have consistently generated anywhere from 50 million to over 120 million views per song on Facebook and YouTube. It appears that he may be succeeding.īorn in Takatsuki, Osaka, Fukuda is the founder and choir director of Utah’s nonsectarian One Voice Children’s Choir, whose videos have become an Internet phenomenon. SALT LAKE CITY - While most music professionals dream of holding a Grammy one day, Masafumi “Masa” Fukuda has bigger goals that include inspiring the world through the power of music. Masa Fukuda, founder and director of the One Voice Children’s Choir.
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