"Chu-Lip" is

Ai Otsuka is a Japanese singer-songwriter from Suminoe-ku, Osaka, Japan. She is a popular artist on the Avex Trax label and is best known for her 2003 hit "Sakuranbo", which stayed in the Top 200 Oricon Weekly Singles Chart for 103 weeks. A piano player ...

's 14th single under the avex trax label. It is also her first single released in 2007. "Chu-Lip", marks the first time that Otsuka has released more than 3 singles before the release of an album. "Chu-Lip" is a play on the Japanese word for

tulip Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

, combining the sound of a kiss ("chu") with the English word "lip." The title track of the single is used as the theme song for the TBS drama ''Kirakira Kenshuii'', starring

Manami Konishi , also known as KONI-TAN, is a Japanese actress, singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Career Konishi appeared in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2006 film '' Retribution'', which was screened at the 63rd Venice Film Festival. She also appeared i ...

and

Eiji Wentz is a Japanese singer, entertainer, actor and a member of the singer-songwriter duo WaT and belongs to the production company Burning Productions. Early career Born in Mitaka, Tokyo to a Japanese mother and a German American father, Wentz be ...

from

WaT A wat ( km, វត្ត, ; lo, ວັດ, ; th, วัด, ; khb, 「ᩅᨯ᩠ᨰ」(waD+Dha); nod, 「ᩅ᩠ᨯ᩶」（w+Da2)) is a type of Buddhist temple and Hindu temple in Cambodia, Laos, East Shan State, Yunnan, the Southern Provi ...

. The b-side of the single is "Kimi ni Kaeru.", which is a med-tempo song. The term ''kaeru'' can mean "returning" or "frog," thus the title can also be translated into "Giving You a Frog.". Otsuka can sometimes be seen carrying a stuffed animal frog on her TV performances for "CHU-LIP" because of this. Otsuka also wore a frog ring at the 58th Kōhaku Uta Gassen. The single debuted at #3 during its first week with 55,362 copies sold. Altogether it has sold 105,233 copies and continues to chart on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

. The single has been certified as being downloaded more than 1,000,000 times as a ringtone by the RIAJ, and more than 250,000 times as a full-length download to cellphones.

Track listing

Charts

Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)

References

{{authority control 2007 singles Ai Otsuka songs Japanese television drama theme songs Songs written by Ai Otsuka 2007 songs Avex Trax singles