Tsubasa o Kudasai

Japanese folk song by Michio Yamagami

Tsubasa o Kudasai (翼をください, lit. "Please Give Me Wings") is a popular Japanese folk song written by Michio Yamagami (山上路夫) and composed by Kunihiko Murai [jp] (村井邦彦).

General

The song was composed for the Nemu Popular Festival '70 (合歓ポピュラーフェスティバル'70, nemu popyurâ fesutibaru '70) that took place in Shima, Mie in 1970. The song appeared on the popular single record Takeda no komoriuta [jp] (竹田の子守唄) released by the folk group Akaitori [jp] (赤い鳥) on February 5, 1971, becoming nationally known. In September 1973, Sumiko Yamagata released a reprise of the song in the album Ano hi no koto wa (あの日のことは).

Shoji Hashimoto, the editor of the publishing house Kyouiku Geijutsu-sha [jp], decided to include the song in a choir textbook, causing it to be sung by choirs across Japan. By the second half of the 1970s, most people in Japan were familiar with the song.

Megumi Yokota once sang this song at a school competition.

The song was chosen as the official theme of the national team of Japan during the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

The song was used in the popular manga Goodnight Punpun.

A version of this song performed by Megumi Hayashibara is part of the soundtrack for the 2009 anime film Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance by Hideaki Anno.

Covers

Many Japanese artists have released a cover version of this song:

Babymetal
D=OUT
Sayaka Ichii with Yūko Nakazawa
Kazumasa Oda
Kanon
Houkago Tea Time
Hideaki Tokunaga
Megumi Hayashibara (present on the soundtrack of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance)
Ayaka Hirahara
Saki Fukuda
ManaKana
Mucc
Shūichi Murakami
Saori Yuki
Tanaka Yukio and Minami Maho (present on the soundtrack of BECK: Mongolian chop squad)
Misato Watanabe
Sakurakō Keion-bu (present on the soundtrack of K-ON!)
Sayaka Sasaki (Second end credits of Nichijou)
Misaki Iwasa
Yui
Megumi Toyoguchi (episode 7 of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School Despair Arc)