Sakurada Junko’s 45th anniversary live anthology box set to be released on March 21st

Sakurada Junko is one of Japan’s most favorite idols from the ’70s.

She was part of a female trio “Hana no Chu 3 Trio” (The Trio of Third-Year Junior High High School Students) alongside Yamaguchi Mome and Mori Masako who appeared in the TV program “Star Tanjo!”.

As a solo artist, she had nine top five singles, 18 top ten singles and her most popular song was “Hajimete no Dekigoto”.

In 1973, she won the 15th Nihon Record Taishou’s “Best New Comer Award”, performed on NHK’s “Kouhaku Uta Gassen” nine times and also performed overseas in Finland.

Sakurada was also an actress who started in 13 films from 1973-1993 and won numerous awards.  She published her memoir “The Gift God Gave Me” in 1991.

Her last single was her 34th single “Misty” released in 1981, her 19th studio album “Naturally” in 1983 and her seventh live album “Shishousetsu” was released in 1980.

On March 21st, to commemorate her 45th anniversary, the 3 CD+ 1 DVD box set titled “Thanks 45 ~Shiawase no Ao Tori [The Live Anthology]” will be released (Y,6000 + Tax).

The first two CD include Sakurada’s recital as a 16 year-old from 1974, 45 tracks selected from live albums plus covers of songs from ABBA, Donna Summer, Janis Ian and more.  Plus original songs performed at concerts, instrumental songs and a wide range of music performed live.

The third CD is a special CD featuring music from 1980-1981.  Featuring a 22-year-old Junkyo with music from her performances on “Say! Young”.

The DVD features 100 minutes of performances from various TV programs, including NHK’s “Kouhaku Uta Gassen”, “Let’s Go Young”, “Quiz Do Re Mi Fa Don”

In addition, included is a booklet with liner notes, information of the song and memories from composer Takemura Jiro, producer Nagai and Sato.  Behind-the-scenes information and more.

Sakurada said of the release, “45 years!  What?  It was awesome to debut as an idol at an early age and had a lot of passion.  It was very difficult for me to memorize many songs while participating in TV, movies and magazines… But I had a great time!  I think that from these experiences, it gave me a chance to show a wide range of emotions as an actress, for example “Annie yo ju o tore”. I am very happy you can feel the performance unique to the stage, which is different from a TV music program”.

---