today is the 30th anniversary of ZARD's "Makenaide" (don't give up) the song was voted by Japanese fans as their favorite ZARD song ever
Izumi Sakai died tragically in 2007 during an accident while being treated for cancer, after being diagnosed she was optimistic she was going to recover
Quotethe Japanese weekly magazine Friday ran an interview in which said Sakai thought that modern treatments would enable her to live long. Her mother said that she greeted her visitors cheerfully and did not seem to show the effects of her illness
but her condition quickly deteriorated
a well known story related to "Makenaide" told by another patient that was also being treated along her in the same hospital, she told the story of how they would go on walks around the hospital and Izumi would sing her "Makenaide" when she mention how she was having trouble walking
not much later Izumi died after falling from a slope near an emergency exit, according to her mother she liked to go meditate there, the day she died it was raining and this area was slippery and at this point she was already very weakened due to her illness, unfortunately this resulted in her falling, she was discovered unconscious and a few hours later was reported dead
to this day she is still considered to be one of the most successful and influential Japanese artists ever
the music video released today was compiled from footage of this performance
