is the third single by Japanese pop singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Kohmi Hirose

Kohmi Hirose

is a J-pop singer-songwriter. She started piano lessons at the age of 4 and within a year was writing songs.-Biography:Asami Yonemitsu graduated from Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University and then Kunitachi College of Music in 1989. During her student days, she visited Los Angeles and decided to pursue a...

. Originally released on December 1, 1993, the song, translated as "The Cupid of Romance", is Hirose's most successful to date, selling over one million copies in Japan. It was also the first of Hirose's songs to be used by the Alpen company, a Japanese winter sport

Winter sport

A winter sport is a sport which is played on snow or ice. Most such sports are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally such sports were only played in cold areas during winter, but artificial snow and ice allow more flexibility...

s store, in their winter advertisements, resulting in the Japanese public affectionately calling her the .

Charting and sales

While on the Oricon

Oricon

, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...

 charts for 21 weeks, the song hit number 1 for the week of December 27, 1993. "Romance no Kamisama" remained in the number one spot through the week of January 17, 1994, before losing the spot to Dreams Come True's "Winter Song" for a week before returning to number 1 on January 31, 1994. The Oricon also recognized it as the number 1 song of January 1994, the number 1 song for the first half of 1994 by the Oricon, and the number 2 song for the whole of 1994, just behind Mr. Children

Mr. Children

, commonly called , is a Japanese rock band formed in 1988 by Kazutoshi Sakurai, Kenichi Tahara, Keisuke Nakagawa, and Hideya Suzuki. As a group, they are one of the most successful Japanese rock artists, having sold over 50 million records and creating the in the mid 1990s in Japan...

's "Innocent World

Innocent World

-Overview:"Innocent World" was Mr. Children's first No. 1 single on the Oricon Japanese charts, managing to sell 1,935,830 copies during its run on the chart and was the No. 1 selling single for Oricon's 1994 yearly chart. The title track was used as the promotional song for the soft drink and...

".

"Romance no Kamisama" ultimately sold 1.75 million copies. In an October 16, 2010, Ustream.tv recording of her Hirose Kohmi Radio de Follow Me radio show (later broadcast by JOLF

Nippon Broadcasting System

, or JOLF, is a Japanese radio station in Tokyo. Together with Nippon Cultural Broadcasting it is a flagship station of the National Radio Network...

 on October 21), Hirose stated that before the song was released the Victor Entertainment

Victor Entertainment

is a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...

 president jokingly promised that if the single sold a million copies, he would take the entire recording staff to Disney World

Walt Disney World Resort

Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...

 in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. Once it sold 1.7 million copies, the president followed through on his promise and sent 10 staff members to Florida for nine days.

Appearances

Although the song was initially included on her third album Success Story, "Romance no Kamisama" has also been featured on her compilation albums The Best "Love Winters" (which has sold 2.4 million copies), Alpen Best, and Tie-Up Collection: Hirose Kohmi no Terebi de Kiita Ano Kyokutachi. The Alpen Best album also featured a which was a piano only arrangement; this was later featured on her 2008 studio album Making My Life Better.

Covers

Several artists have covered "Romance no Kamisama", including the Exit Trance

Exit Trance

Exit Trance is a compilation series released in Japan specializing in the Japanese J-Trance genre, a niche sub genre of J-Pop. The most prominent influence of J-Trance is to be found in Trance added to this are elements from Rave, Drum and bass and Speed core....

 DJ Starving Trancer featuring "MAKI" on vocals, Haruko Momoi

Haruko Momoi

is a Japanese voice actress and singer/songwriter. She was born in Tokyo, Japan and is affectionately referred to as 'Halko' by her fans, a nickname she gave herself which is inspired by HAL 9000, the onboard computer of the Discovery in 2001: A Space Odyssey....

 on her more & more quality RED ~Anime song cover~ album, Marty Friedman on his Tokyo Jukebox

Tokyo Jukebox

Tokyo Jukebox is a studio album by the American guitarist Marty Friedman. The album is a collection of his cover of 11 J-pop songs and 1 J-Rock song, produced and arranged by Marty Friedman himself. The songs were chosen in part by the readers of Nikkei Entertainment! and in part by Marty Friedman...

album, and Italian vocalist Judy Crystal recorded an English language cover titled "God of Romance" for the Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...

video game series.

Track listing

External links

• "Romance no Kamisama" on Kohmi Hirose
  Kohmi Hirose
  is a J-pop singer-songwriter. She started piano lessons at the age of 4 and within a year was writing songs.-Biography:Asami Yonemitsu graduated from Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University and then Kunitachi College of Music in 1989. During her student days, she visited Los Angeles and decided to pursue a...
  
  's official website