"Aldebaran" is a song recorded by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Ai, released on November 1, 2021, by

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succes ...

and

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. The song served as the theme song for the Japanese television drama, ''

Come Come Everybody is a Japanese television drama series and the 105th NHK Asadora series, following Okaeri Mone. It premiered on November 1, 2021, and concluded on April 8, 2022. The story is about 100 years-old family, three generations, Yasuko (grandmother), R ...

'' and subsequently served as the third single from Ai's twelfth studio album, ''

Dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensation (psychology), sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around ...

''. Upon its release, "Aldebaran" received critical acclaim from critics for its composition and lyrics. The song debuted and peaked at number 37 on the ''

Billboard Japan ''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine '' Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway), holding an exclusive licence fr ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

and number 6 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

Digital Singles Chart. In May 2022, "Aldebaran" was certified Gold by the

Recording Industry Association of Japan 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 pro ...

Background

On September 27, 2021, Ai announced on her social media of a song she recorded for an upcoming

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

TV series. Written by

Naotarō Moriyama (born April 23, 1976) is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter. His mother is Ryōko Moriyama, a well-known folk singer. Moriyama came out with the album "Kawaita Uta wa Sakana no Esa ni Chōdo Ii" in 2002, including the song "Sakura". Discogra ...

and featuring arrangements by

Neko Saito , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese violinist, conductor, composer and music arranger. Saito is the leader of the Saito Neko Quartet, and is known for his many collaborations with musician Ringo Sheena. Biography Saito began playi ...

, the song is named after the star of the same name in the

Taurus Taurus is Latin for 'bull' and may refer to: * Taurus (astrology), the astrological sign ** Vṛṣabha, in vedic astrology * Taurus (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Taurus (mythology), one of two Greek mythological ch ...

constellation. Regarding the song,

Mone Kamishiraishi , is a Japanese actress and singer. She is the older sister of actress Moka Kamishiraishi. Early life and career Born in Kagoshima, Her family lived in Mexico for three years due to her father's work. She can speak English and a little bit of ...

, one of the actresses to be in the film, commented that the song was "beautiful" and "nice and encouraging".

Eri Fukatsu is a Japanese actress. She won the award for best actress at the 18th Yokohama Film Festival for '' Haru'' and the best actress award at the 2010 Montreal World Film Festival for her performance in ''Villain''. She also received acclaim for her r ...

also commented she was wary of Ai's recording but stated, "My heart was shaken, robbed and filled." Actress

Rina Kawaei is a Japanese actress and former singer, represented by Avex Inc., Avex. She is a former member of the girl group AKB48. As an actress, she has starred in television series such as ''Come Come Everybody'' (2021) and was nominated for Blue Ribbon ...

, also an actress in the film, commented that she was "impressed by the gentle singing and the wonderful lyrics". The song was originally written by Moriyama on New Years in 2021 about environmental issues and was originally titled "Daphnia Pulex". "Aldebaran" was not intended to be the theme song for ''Come Come Everybody'' until Moriyama allowed Ai to record the song with reworked lyrics.

Promotion

To promote "Aldebaran", Ai was to appear on NHK's ''

Utacon is a Japanese weekly music show produced by NHK, airing on Tuesday night from April 12, 2016. The show replaces ''NHK Kayou Concert'' and ''Music Japan''. Description ''Utacon'' presents a range of music artists from Enka and J-Pop at NHK Hall ...

'' to preview the song on September 28, 2021, however the event was cancelled and moved to October 4 due to an emergency deceleration. Universal Japan issued a compilation chapter titled ''Self Selection "Piano Ballad"'' on the same day the single was announced. On

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

, a 30 second television version was released to the service. On October 4, a radio edit of "Aldebaran" was sent to Japanese radio stations. An official audio of the radio edit was uploaded to Ai's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel. On October 26, Ai performed the song on an NHK broadcast show.

Commercial performance

"Aldebaran" debuted at number 5 on the

Daily Digital Singles chart on November 2. The song later peaked at number 4 on the Daily Digital Singles chart. On the weekly Oricon Digital Singles chart, "Aldebaran" debuted at number 11. For the week of November 16, 2021, "Aldebaran" reached a new peak at number 6 with 8,331 total downloads. On the ''

, "Aldebaran" debuted and peaked at number 37. "Aldebaran" marked Ai's first appearance on the ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 since her 2017 single, " Kira Kira". In March 2022, "Aldebaran" peaked at number 12 on the ''Billboard Japan'' Top User Generated Songs chart. The song was later ranked at number 29 on the ''Billboard Japan'' Top Download Songs year-end chart for 2022.

Accolades

Music video

A music video for "Aldebaran" was announced on October 25, 2021 and premiered on YouTube on November 5.

Live performances

Ai performed "Aldebaran" on the day of its release during her 20th anniversary tour ''It's All Me'' at the Tokyo International Forum Hall. Ai performed "Aldebaran" at the ''

72nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen The was the 2021 (Reiwa 3) edition of NHK's television special Kōhaku Uta Gassen, held on December 31, 2021, live from the hall A of Tokyo International Forum (Tokyo, Japan), and broadcast in Japan through NHK General Television and NHK Radio 1 ...

'' on December 31, her fourth appearance on the show. Ai appeared on 193rd episode of ''

The First Take ''The First Take'' (stylized as ''THE F1RST TAKE'') is a Japanese YouTube channel that invites singers to perform a song recorded in one take in a white studio. ''The First Take'' is a trademark of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Concept The ...

'', a YouTube channel where singers perform a song recorded in one take. She performed an excerpt of "

Story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Narrative, an account of imaginary or real people and events ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting ** News story, an event or topic reported by a news orga ...

" prior to "Aldebaran". It marked her first appearance on the channel.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from ''

'' liner notes and

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. * Ai Carina Uemura – lead vocals, production *

– songwriting *

– production, arranging * Midorin – drums * Tomohiko Ohkanda – bass * Fumio Yanagisawa – guitar * Satoshi Onoue – guitar * Hideaki "Lanbsy" Sakai –

latin percussion {{for, the company, Latin Percussion Latin percussion is a family of percussion, membranophone, lamellophone and idiophone instruments used in Latin music. Instruments Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican styles Folkloric and Santeria * Trap drums * Abaku ...

* Tomoyuki Asakawa – harp * Great Eida –

concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German language, German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (UK) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (clarinet or oboe in a concert band). After the Conducting, conductor, the concertma ...

, strings * Jo Kuwata – violin * Nagisa Kiriyama – violin * Haruko Yano – violin * Yukinori Murata – violin * Akane Irie – violin * Ayumu Koshikawa – violin * Akiko Maruyama – violin * Yui Kaneko – violin * Masahiro Miyake – violin * Yuji Yamada – viola * Mayu Takashima – viola * Ayano Kasahara – cello * Yoshihiko Maeda – cello

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

External links

"Aldebaran" Special Site
{{Authority control 2021 singles 2021 songs Ai (singer) songs EMI Records singles Universal Music Group singles Universal Music Japan singles Japanese television drama theme songs Songs about friendship 2020s ballads Song recordings produced by Ai (singer)