"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 playe ...

'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 war ...

, 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 in ...

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 beca ...

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 Pro ...

. 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 N ...

. The single has been certified as being downloaded more than 1,000,000 times as a ringtone by the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include ...

, 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