Canadian teen debut in Japanese on i-Tunes
01/09/2007 @ 1:13 pm
Alyssa Collins is a 16 year old Canadian high school girl who loves anime, manga, Japanese culture and language. She’s also a singer, from a musical family, and this article in French (maybe someone can translate for us) is from a recent newspaper in Ottawa Canada. It details the story behind the making of Hiragana Song
Thanks for posting this, lifted my day.
Une Ottavienne diffusée en japonais sur i-Tunes
by Stéphanie Rhéaume
La voix de Alyssa Collins, 16 ans, résonne sur la toile depuis le 25 décembre dernier par l’entremise du géant musical i-Tunes. Sur fond techno, la jeune femme réalise en japonais et en anglais un hommage à la langue nippone sur Hiragana Song.
Née un 25 décembre, s’agit-il d’un cadeau de Noël ou d’anniversaire pour elle? Quoi qu’il en soit, cette chanson, c’est quelque chose de «gros» dans la vie de la polyglotte d’origine italienne, qui parle couramment français et anglais, en plus de se laisser séduire par la culture nippone, suffisamment pour qu’elle assiste à un cours de japonais depuis septembre.
«En 2004, j’ai découvert les animations japonaises, mais je n’aimais pas les versions anglaises. J’ai commencé à regarder sur Internet les versions originales avec sous-titres, mais je n’aimais pas les sous-titres! J’ai donc décidé de prendre des cours. Je suis encore très débutante», soutient celle qui caresse le rêve de s’envoler un jour vers le pays insulaire d’Asie orientale.
More at LINK
January 9th, 2007 at 6:39 pmIf anyone wants, a (rough) translation –
“The voice of Alyssa Collins, 16, has been resounding on the fabric(?) since 25 December last year via the musical giant i-Tunes. To a techno backbeat, the young woman pays homage in Japanese and English to the Japanese language with ‘Hiragana Song’. Born on December 25, is this a birthday or Christmas present? Either way, this song is “a big thing” in the life of this polyglot of Italian extraction, who speaks French and English, as well as being attracted to the Japanese culture, to the extent that she’s been attending a Japanese course since September. “In 2004, I discovered Japanese animations, but I didn’t like the English versions. I started to look on the internet for the original versions with subtitles, but I didn’t like the subtitles! So I decided to take a course. I am still very much a beginner,” she says, (something, something) cherishing the dream to fly away one day to the insular east Asian country. Until then, Alyssa takes papers and pencils and sketches in the Japanese style, with elongated(?) bodies, arched hair(?) and large eyes marked by powerful emotions. She loves Japanese culture, its films, its series as much as its kimonos. “Japan is so different from our country. There are several stereotypes on the Asian culture where one tends to put everyone in the same basket, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Japanese… I like to defend this culture here,” Alyssa affirms.
On the way to Hiragana
Without telling her a single word about it, her father registered her in contest in a specialist music magazine and sent a demonstration of Alyssa. The 11th year studnet at the Deslauriers public secondary school will finally get her ticket for this universal experience, uniting the author of Hiragana Song, Danny Bloom, an American reporter in Taiwan, the producer posted in Los Angeles, Janet Fisher, and Alyssa, in Ottawa, who records her voice in the basement of her house and courrielle (don’t know what courrielle means) the whole thing to her acolytes (? I doubt it, but knowing what courrielle meant would help), and this, without ever having met in person.
As Hiragana is now available on line on i-Tunes, Janet Fisher in L.A. would like Alyssa to lend her voice to other songs. However, the young woman is keeping her feet firmly on the ground. “Yes, of course it would be fun to sing professionally. But you should always have a back up plan,” insists Alyssa, keeping a door open for a career in music and another door open for a career in international trade.”
Well that gives you an idea. Sorry for the roughness. No dictionary to hand!
January 9th, 2007 at 10:18 pmMerci beaucoup, Monsieur Over-souvent!:smile:
January 10th, 2007 at 11:36 amDe rien, M. Fleur.
January 10th, 2007 at 12:13 pmGoing global as easy as Japanese ABCs for teen
By ANN MARIE MCQUEEN,
OTTAWA SUN
A love of the culture’s animation is what first drew 16-year-old
Alyssa Collins to start learning Japanese.
Back then, she couldn’t have dreamed she’d be teaching vowel sounds
and rapping the Japanese alphabet in a catchy song on iTunes.
Hirigana Song is an international effort, set to a quirky, toe-tapping
dance beat which has already prompted one radio reporter to dub it a
“Velcro song.”
“My friends are all over it,” Collins tells the Sun. “One said, ‘I
knew you were going to get this far.’ ”
They are already divvying up their roles in her entourage when she
hits the big time, says Collins.
One wants to be her bouncer, the other her PR manager.
“It was pretty cool just to see how far this thing could go and how
cool it is,” she says. “And just to see your song on iTunes!”
Hirigana Song has only been available on the site since just before
Christmas, so it’s too soon to measure sales.
The song was the brainchild of Danny Bloom, an American
living in Taiwan who earlier spent time in Japan. He contacted L.A. songwriter Janet Fisher with the
idea for the lyrics. She sent out a call for an English singer capable
of proper Japanese pronunciation, Alyssa’s dad John in Ottawa heard
about it and the connection was made.
SIGHT UNSEEN
The song was created in a process where it was shipped back and forth
between a producing team in Los Angeles and the Collins family’s mini
home recording studio. The players involved have yet to meet.
“It wasn’t hard to sing, because I’ve been self-teaching Japanese
since 2004,” the teen explains.
Not only has she been speaking the language, Collins has been watching
the animation on television, drawing it and reading it.
The Laurier High School student comes from a musical family: Mom
Lucie, a national clinical manager, started studying classical piano
at the age of five and put herself through university by singing at
weddings; dad John, who works in marketing, writes his own music. John
and Lucie Collins are working on an album together, which they plan to
release independently later this year.
Alyssa’s younger brother Jonathan, 13, didn’t get the music gene but,
as his mom points out, is “a great dancer.”
Alyssa began performing in public at the encouragement of her music
teacher, who later invited her to record a demo at his music studio.
Next up, Alyssa would love to hear Hirigana Song playing on the radio.
“I hope so,” she says. “It’s a catchy tune, like the lady on the radio said.”
January 29th, 2007 at 10:19 pm