When music director and producer Konnie Aoki was tapped to make an English version of “Yoru ni Kakeru” (titled “Into the Night” in English) — a breakout song by duo Yoasobi — the pressure he felt was overwhelming.
After all, the single was arguably Japan’s biggest hit of 2020: It topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart last year, and the accompanying music video has received almost 242 million views on YouTube since it premiered there in November 2019.
Rendering something that’s already hugely popular into another language would be intimidating for any seasoned translator, but it was even more daunting for Aoki, who isn’t a professional translator and had never translated a major Japanese song into English before.