Awadama Fever: Literal bubblegum pop

To be honest, this song wan't on my list for review, but it triggered an unexpected memory for me from a long time ago that I decided to make a record of it.

This performance of 'Awadama Fever' opens with Kami band's super impressive solos getting the audience hyped and rockin'. Enter the girls, their vocals effortlessly slicing through the thumping beat. The song title translates to 'bubble' (awa) 'ball' (dama), so it's a song about being carried away in a bubble gum bubble. To get around the physics of bubble gum being heavier than air, flight is achieved by unlocking the power of dreams. Quite a Studio Ghibli conceit, and clearly a fun one for performers, musicians and the crowd to create the fantasy together. Ah, yay!

There's a lot more mime I observe in this dance. The girls' arms form the shape of the bubble, their hands shape the secret box, turn the locks, open the door, and I'm sure there a fox and sox in there somewhere too (says the voice of Zeuss). The recurring image is the giant bubble the girls maneuver around the stage, taking it anywhere, or maybe it's taking them as they 'ride on the wind'. They even mime the sensation of being lighter than air during the instrumental bridge.

I'm speculating that 'Awadama Fever' is an updated, upbeat, metallized version of the traditional children's song, 'Shabondama', or soap bubble in English. The two songs have the same idea, of ephemeral bubbles floating upwards on the wind, except that the latter focuses more pessimistically on the fragility of the vehicle and briefness of the flight, while BABYMETAL is more excited about the prospect of flying on dream-powered bubbles, even if it lasts only as long as an hour-long nap. Po! Po!

I'm not sure how far back the 'traditional' song goes, as I believe soap to be a fairly recent invention, but at least old enough for my dad to have learned it as a child, and in turn, he taught it to me when I, too, was little. Learning this song in Japanese school was probably one of my dad's more pleasant memories of the Occupation. It stayed with him at least long enough to pass it on to me, though I had since forgotten it over time. And now I have a reawakened memory, recently unlocked from my secret box of forgotten things. A 'mint-flavoured time machine' indeed.