Song History
"Distance" originally appeared in the Distance album, and was planned to be released as a single. However, Utada heard of a school stabbing rampage in which 6 year old schoolgirl Rena Yamashita (山下玲奈) had died. Rena had previously won an essay competition; writing about how she wanted to become a singer just like Utada. Utada decided to rearrange the song into ballad form, creating the song "Final Distance". The Japanese Ministry of Education decided to incorporate Hikaru Utada's ballad "Final Distance" in the high school music textbook starting spring semester 2001, which was announced on 8th of April. In order to pass the proposal, they needed 313 points. The proposal was passed with 319 points. They will be targeting high school students in their second year to test the new curriculum. According to the publisher of arts in education, the song was chosen because it is closely familiar with high school students.
Read more about this topic: Final Distance
Famous quotes containing the words song and/or history:
“The quarrel of the sparrows in the eaves,
The full round moon and the star-laden sky,
And the loud song of the ever-singing leaves,
Had hid away earth’s old and weary cry.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The history is always the same the product is always different and the history interests more than the product. More, that is, more. Yes. But if the product was not different the history which is the same would not be more interesting.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)