RetroPanda
Mon, 22/05/2023 - 23:09
Moriguchi Hiroko (born: June 13, 1968, real name: Hanamura Hiromi) was an idol singer in 1980s. Born and grew up in Fukuoka city, she already dreamed to become a singer since the age of 4 with her mom was fully supportive of her dream. She was once a backup dancer when a 1980s idol held a concert in Fukuoka city. Moriguchi Hiroko also had participated in more than 100 auditions at that time but all failed. She finally won a second place in a talent show on TV, got a professional contract, moved to Tokyo, transferred to Horikoshi High School ( school with a lot of celebrities, with one of her classmates was Oginome Yoko) and this led to her debut as idol singer in August, 1985 (a tough year with a lot of big idols debuted at that same year).
Her debut song was moderately successful, ranked #16 in Oricon chart and was used as OST for Gundam anime. But from 1986 to 1989, her next six singles were ranked like this in Oricon chart: #87, not ranked (*too low), not ranked, not ranked, #88, not ranked. Nowadays, it's an honor to sing Gundam OST - a big anime franchise with 50+ years of history - but back then, singing Gundam song means she only catered to a small niche market. Her other regular songs flopped and she was relatively unknown in idol fanbase.
Her company was about to dismiss her and send her back to her hometown in Fukuoka while the resources used to support her would be allocated to other idol: Matsumoto Noriko (who debuted at the same year), but she cried and begged them to not fire her no matter what. They didn't fire her but she was given a new job as then so called "baradoru" (バラエティアイドル; baraeti aidoru --> "variety idol"), idol specialized in variety show (example: Yamase Mami) . Moriguchi Hiroko was said to be one of the first " baradoru".
Her new role landed her more jobs. She started to appear in more and more variety shows. Her speciality back then was to impersonate other idols.
^ impersonating Kudo Shizuka
^ impersonating Matsuda Seiko
She started to establish her name as "variety idol", but still, she wanted to sing. One day Moriguchi Hiroko went to a record store only to see Matsumoto Noriko records were set up on a special shelf while her own records were moved to the corner.
After years of hardship, her time to shine finally came in 1991 when she released this "Eternal Wind" song. Released in February 5, 1991, this song reached #9 in Oricon chart - the highest position she ever reached in her career - and sold 273,000 copies, her highest selling song. This song was again used as Gundam OST. More importantly, this song brought her to her first Kohaku Uta Gassen. She would later continue to perform each year in Kohaku Uta Gassen 1991 - 1996, so six times in total. This song has been covered by 16 singers from 2003 - 2021.
This song was used as OST for "Mobile Suit Gundam F91" (1991)
Her live performances of this song:
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As a singer, Moriguchi Hiroko has released a total of 34 singles and 11 original album. I can't find her total sales but it was said that from 1991 to 1995 she would regularly had singles with 100,000+ sales and at least one more with 200,000+ sales. As someone who has performed 6 times in Kohaku, it's safe to assume that she must have adequate sales. She is still an active singer now with her latest single released in June 2022. In her career, Moriguchi Hiroko has sang a lot of Gundam OST for several different Gundam series, she is called the "Gundam goddess".
She also has acting career, which she has starred in 33 dramas (1986 - 2019). And of course, she has appeared in a lot of variety shows.
Moriguchi Hiroko singing this song in modern days:
in 2012
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in 2015
in unknown years:
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And........ this was Moriguchi Hiroko in March 2023
May, 2023
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This is probably also in 2023:
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audio-only video of the full song: