is a song recorded by Japanese singer

Shizuka Kudo , known by her maiden name , is a Japanese singer, actress and former idol, born in Hamura, Tokyo, Japan. She was a member of Onyanko Club between May 1986 and September 1987 and went on to have a successful solo career with 11 number-one hits. ...

. It was released as a single through

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

on August 21, 1992. The song was featured on the AX television series ''Kyōshi Natsuyasumi Monogatari''. It made its first album appearance on the compilation album, '' Best of Ballade: Empathy'', released later that same year.

Background

"Koe o Kikasete" was written by

Gorō Matsui is a Japanese lyricist born 11 December 1957 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, though he considers Tokyo to be his hometown. Beginning with participation in the Yamaha Popular Song Contests, he made his debut writing the lyrics for the 1981 Chage and As ...

and composed and produced by

Tsugutoshi Gotō is a Japanese songwriter, bassist and music producer. Gotō broke into the Japanese music industry playing bass on tour for artists like Sadistic Mika Band, Bread & Butter and Shiro Kishibe. He went on to write and produce songs for other artist ...

, marking the fourth consecutive single of Kudo to have resulted from a collaboration between the two. Lyrically, the song describes a narrator trying to persuade her listeners to overcome their fears and cowardice, imploring them to speak up and not "close your heart off anymore". The song is noted for its use of a gospel choir. Kudo was praised for her presence on the record; she received acclaim for delivering vocals befitting of the genre with ease and critics noted that she was never drowned out by the "grand" backing orchestra of the

Southern gospel Southern gospel music is a genre of Christian music. Its name comes from its origins in the southeastern United States. Its lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as ...

-influenced track. In 2017, during a retrospective talk show on

Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese internet company originally formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! (later divested by Verizon into Altaba) and the Japanese company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Kioi Tower in the Tokyo Garden Terr ...

's GyaO, held in celebration of her 30th anniversary, Kudo stated that "Koe o Kikasete" is one of the few songs whose recording she approached with a conscious desire to make her voice appear bigger and bolder, to match the intensity of the song.

Chart performance

The single debuted at number five on the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

, selling 61,000 copies in its first week. It stayed in the top ten for the following two weeks. The single hovered around the top 20 for the next six weeks before dropping to number 41 on its tenth charting week. It spent a total of 12 weeks in the top 100 and ranked at number 61 on the year-end Oricon Singles Chart.

Track listing

Charts

Certification

References

{{authority control 1992 songs 1992 singles Songs with lyrics by Gorō Matsui Songs written by Tsugutoshi Gotō Japanese television drama theme songs Television drama theme songs Shizuka Kudo songs Pony Canyon singles