For me, singing Japanese songs is the best way to learn phrases, words, and pronunciation while enjoying what I'm doing. Even when learning a new language stresses me out, I still feel like I'm doing something fun when I start singing. So I trick my brain into practicing more Japanese. I even picked up some grammar by doing these ones!
Usually, the process looks slightly different when I'm learning a song in a different language to record compared to when I'm just learning a new song in English. This is because I don't get the meaning of the song in one go (since I don't know what all the words in the lyrics mean), and it takes me time to figure out what each pronunciation is like.
For most songs nowadays, people seem to have put up translations on Google, so that's not a hard problem to tackle. Sometimes, I'll try to translate some parts myself because of the nuances I want to get through. It's only when I fully understand the song that I can sing in tune with the right emotion.
I noticed that the faster the song is, the harder it is for me to pick up the pronunciation. Sometimes I have to listen and sing back on repeat more than a hundred times to get the smallest details correct. This is probably why my pronunciation seems to improve quite a lot after I record a song. But after that, it's just me and GarageBand, trying to get the recording done. Sometimes, I'm done in 30 minutes, but sometimes, I'm stuck for about two hours. It's all worth it, though, when I hear the final product, and I'm satisfied.
The reason why I like these two songs, in particular, is because the lyrics tell a story. So many pop songs these days are just phrases in repeat matched to a catchy tune. I want more! I want the song to break my heart, to heal my soul, to set me up on an adventure. Then I listen to the melody. And these ones both have an amazing tune. While I'm not usually very picky, I do have a preference for certain types of voices. I can't really explain it, but I know it once I hear it.
I hope you enjoy it!
(the cover arts for the videos were created by me, with the images and tools provided by Canva)