Matsubara was born November 28, 1959[2] in Kishiwada, Osaka in Japan. She spent her childhood in Hiraoka Town, Nishi-ku, Sakai, Osaka.
She grew up in a family of four, including a father, a mother and a younger sister. Her father was a board member of a hospital and her mother was a jazz singer who had sung with the Japanese jazz band and comedy group Crazy Cats. Matsubara started learning the piano at the age of three and later became familiar with jazz. As a child, she went to Sakai city's Hiraoka Elementary School and then in 1972, entered Poole Gakuin Junior High School. Around this time Matsubara became interested in rock music and joined the rock band "Kurei". In 1975 she started in Poole Gakuin High School and became active as a keyboard player of the band "Yoshinoya Band". They would play songs at a live house called Takutaku located in Kyoto. Matsubara was described as an excellent student and was expected by many around her to attend college, but at that time she had already made plans to pursue her dream of becoming a singer. In 1977, when she was still in high school, Matsubara went to Tokyo alone at the age of 17 to make her debut as a singer. The Japanese pianist Yuzuru Sera found her playing music and singing in various places in Kantō such as in the live music venue Birdland located in Roppongi, Tokyo.
Matsubara started her career in 1979 and is known from hit songs such as her debut and immediate breakthrough "Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me)" which has been covered by numerous artists,[5][6][7][8] including Akina Nakamori.[9] The song was ranked 28th on the Oricon Chart,[10] and according to that chart sold 104,000 copies and 300,000 copies announced by Canyon records. Some of her other known songs were "Neat na gogo san-ji (ニートな午後3時)" and "The Winner" among others.
After the release of the song "Neat na gogo san-ji" Matsubara became a well-known singer during that time. She was offered by many to perform in college festivals, concerts and so on. The song even gained a feature in a commercial of the famous Japanese multinational personal care company Shiseido, only less than two years after her debut.[3]
Miki Matsubara received a number of artist awards.[1] Amidst her career, she formed her own band called Dr. Woo.[3] Matsubara also had some international work with Motown jazz fusion group Dr. Strut in Los Angeles (becoming a backing band in the album recordings for "Cupid" and "Myself"), Tokyo and Osaka (Hall concerts), later releasing a jazz cover album entitled "BLUE EYES". In that album she covered some famous jazz songs like "Love for sale", she also covered the soft rock song "You've Got A Friend" originally written and sung by Carole King.[11]
Her vocal range was that of a mezzo-soprano.
During her music career she released 8 singles, and 12 albums. Despite her work being mainly domestic, outside of Japan she was also known for her work as an anime singer and songwriter, singing the opening and ending songs to anime such as Dirty Pair: Project Eden, although recently with the popularization of city pop her other work has gained overseas fans as well.[12] While singing theme songs for the anime Gu Gu Ganmo, she performed under the name Suzie Matsubara (スージー・松原). Matsubara's song "THE WINNER" was used as the opening for the Gundam OVA-series Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory.
From the 1990's forwards she especially worked on anime soundtracks and music for commercials. Matsubara composed songs for a couple of anime, some of her most known musical compositions were for the anime series Gundam. Matsubara composed songs for several singers, like Hitomi Mieno, but her most notable works were likely with the singer and actress Mariko Kouda, whom Matsubara composed multiple songs to. Kouda's song "Ame no chi special (雨のちスペシャル)", which Matsubara composed, was featured in the five-minute music television and radio series Minna no Uta as a music video in 1997. It attracted a lot of attention and ranked 28th place in the Oricon chart. The song was repeatedly rebroadcast until 2004.
At the end of 2000, Matsubara sent an email to those around her, including her company and the members of Dr. Woo, stating that she could not continue her music career and that she would not be reachable after the message went out. She stopped all music activities and disappeared from the spotlight altogether. In 2001, it was revealed that Matsubara's actions were prompted by a late-stage cancer diagnosis she had received at the time, after which she subsequently began treatment. Matsubara spent her final years battling her illness.
After being told by her doctor that she only had three months left to live, Matsubara died on October 7, 2004, at age 44 due to complications from uterine cervix cancer. Her death was announced to the public two months later.
Mayonaka no Door / Stay With Me
Miki Matsubara Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Yes, my love to you, you, to you
私は私 貴方は貴方と
昨夜言ってた そんな気もするわ
グレイのジャケットに
見覚えがあるコーヒーのしみ
相変らずなのね
Stay with me
真夜中のドアをたたき
帰らないでと泣いた
あの季節が 今 目の前
Stay with me
口ぐせを言いながら
二人の瞬間を抱いて
まだ忘れず 大事にしていた
恋と愛とは 違うものだよと
昨夜言われた そんな気もするわ
二度目の冬が来て
離れていった貴方の心
ふり返ればいつも
そこに 貴方を感じていたの
Stay with me
真夜中のドアをたたき
心に穴があいた
あの季節が 今 目の前
Stay with me
淋しさまぎらわして
置いたレコードの針
同じメロディ 繰り返していた
Stay with me
真夜中のドアをたたき
帰らないでと泣いた
あの季節が 今 目の前
Stay with me
口ぐせを言いながら
二人の瞬間を抱いて
まだ忘れず 暖めてた
Stay with me
真夜中のドアをたたき
帰らないでと泣いた
あの季節が 今 目の前
Stay with me
口ぐせを言いながら
二人の瞬間を抱いて
まだ忘れず 暖めてた
Stay with me
真夜中のドアをたたき
帰らないでと泣いた
あの季節が 今 目の前
Stay with me
The song "Stay with me" by Miki Matsubara narrates the story of a woman who longs for her past love to come back to her. It is a song that portrays the struggle of dealing with the emotions of separation, the memories, and heartbreak. The song has a melancholic feel to it and showcases the inner turmoil of a person who is stuck in the past.
The lyrics begin with the woman reminiscing about the past and how she and her love had a conversation the night before about being themselves. She describes the coffee stain on the grey jacket he was wearing, and how everything seems to be the same despite the time that has passed. The woman then imagines the two of them reflected in a shop window.
The chorus of the song, "Stay with me," is a desperate plea for her love to stay with her and not leave her alone. She cries and begs him to remember the good times they had in the past and to stay with her.
In the second verse, the woman remembers being told that love and infatuation are two different emotions, and she questions her own feelings. She recalls how the second winter has come and gone since their separation, but she still feels his presence around her. The woman then recounts how her loneliness is magnified by the records she left behind that repeat the same melody over and over, reminding her of the love she lost.
Overall, the song speaks to the pain of heartbreak and the struggle to move on from a past love. It's a powerful reminder of how time doesn't always heal all wounds, and the memories of those we've loved can linger on.
Line by Line Meaning
To you, yes my love to you
I am expressing my love to you
Yes my love to you, you to you
And I know you feel the same way towards me as well
私は私 貴方は貴方と
We are both our own person
昨夜言ってた そんな気もするわ
But I remember us talking about how we both felt this way last night
グレイのジャケットに
I see a stain on your gray jacket
見覚えがあるコーヒーのしみ
And it reminds me of a similar stain from a cup of coffee
相変らずなのね
You're still the same as always
ショーウィンドウに 二人映れば
When I see us reflected in the store window
Stay with me
Please stay by my side
真夜中のドアをたたき
Knocking on the door in the dead of night
帰らないでと泣いた
Crying and pleading for you not to leave
あの季節が 今 目の前
As the memories of our time together come flooding back
口ぐせを言いながら
Reciting our familiar phrases to each other
二人の瞬間を抱いて
Holding onto the moments we shared together
まだ忘れず 大事にしていた
And cherishing them deeply, never forgetting
恋と愛とは 違うものだよと
You said that love and romance are different things
昨夜言われた そんな気もするわ
And it feels like we had this conversation last night
二度目の冬が来て
Now it's the second winter since we've been apart
離れていった貴方の心
Your heart that has grown distant from me
ふり返ればいつも
Whenever I look back on the past
そこに 貴方を感じていたの
I can still feel your presence close to me
淋しさまぎらわして
Trying to fight off the loneliness
置いたレコードの針
By playing the same record over and over again
同じメロディ 繰り返していた
With its familiar melody that we both loved so much
まだ忘れず 暖めてた
I still hold onto those memories, keeping them close to my heart
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Yoshiko Miura, Tetsuji Hayashi
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind