Otsuka Ai talks about her music career 19 years since her debut

Back in 2003, Otsuka Ai made her major label single debut with “Sakuranbo” which debuted at #5 on the Oricon Charts and sold over 589,000 copies.

Bunshun Online interviewed Otsuka about her music career as she is reaching the goal of her 20th year anniversary and Otsuka telling the publication “I haven’t achieved my goal yet”.

Otsuka talked about how she felt uncomfortable because she was regarded as “cute”.

What is surprising is Otsuka said that when her 16th single “Pocket” (her fourth single released in 2007), she was featured on television. But during production, the battery of the earphone went dead and there was no sound, so she managed to pick up the sound from outside and sang to it as best as she could. But it was live on television and she was scared and her voice trembled, so she couldn’t sing well at all. She remembers how traumatic it was that she cried a lot in the dressing room after it was all over.

When asked if she talked to her friends or family when she has difficult experiences? Otsuka said she isn’t the type to talk to someone and she doesn’t really talk about herself to her parents. Otsuka said she really doesn’t talk to much people and even when she was in elementary school, while she was bullied once, instead of making friends with many different people, she felt it was better to be with one or two people that she could trust. Otsuka said she became more sociable after she had her first child and then she became sociable little by little.

Otsuka says work is not fun. Otsuka explained, “It’s fun to have something that has nothing to do with launching or work, but even when I’m on TV or live, I always think about the big picture and judging herself while singing. I’ve never done it with the feeling that it would be fund”.

When asked about writing a song, Otsuka said it is the only moment when you can feel the joy and say, “Oh, well done. So, basically, work is not fun (laughing)”.

When asked about her goal, Otsuka said that it’s to reach a level that she is satisfied with or equal to the image of the world. She wants to be an artist who can say that she likes herself very much and others can say, “I like Otsuka Ai” with confidence.

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