Professional Ranking: 30 Best Idol Songs of All Time, Voted by Idols
Looking at the polled results for the best idol songs ever as voted by idols themselves
This column is part of Idol Watch #25. You can return to the main newsletter here.
For its latest broadcast in April, TV program Professional Rankings put together a countdown of the 30 best idol songs of all time as voted by the idols themselves. The show tapped nearly 200 names across the eras, from today’s buzzed-about acts like FRUITS ZIPPER to Showa veterans like Yu Hayami, to cast their picks. Care to guess which song came on top?
You can check out the full list as a text list at the end.
This around-30s writer likes to yap about how Aya Matsuura is the greatest idol of my lifetime yet I was admittedly a little surprised to see “Momoiro Kataomoi” rank number one. It only takes a brief scanning of the full list — which I will provide at the end along with no. 31–40 as shared as an in-between segment — that the results lean toward what’s in the library of twentysomething idols working today with last year’s viral hits by Cho Tokimeki Sendenbu and the KAWAII LAB acts ranking pretty high among minted classics. Matsuura graduated right around the time a lot of these 25-and-under idols entered their preteens, some of them barely born when “Momoiro Kataomoi” introduced the idol image of Matsuura to the public, so it’s impressive to see she’s remembered fondly even by the youngest generation.
Matsuura also stands as a damn good median for this list. Released in 2002, “Momoiro Kataomoi” sits in almost equal distance between the poll’s oldest voted single, 1980’s “Aoi Sangosho,” and the newest from 2024. I suspect her songs showed up in a lot of the ballots, racking up points in aggregate, and ranking among the top especially by the late millennials, like known Hello! Project superfan Yuki Kashiwagi and Matsuura’s former groupmates Maki Goto and Miki Fujimoto, the latter who wrote in “Momoiro” as her number one.
“Hatsukoi Cider” by Buono! (2012), ranked no. 2
Had the show just asked for the opinion of today’s idols, who skew 30 and under, I am confident the number-one spot would instead go to the song that ended up at number two: Buono!’s “Hatsukoi Cider.” That 2010s Hello! Project classic won the top spot when another music program NaiNai Music polled performers at 2024’s Tokyo Idol Festival for a similar list of best idol songs. What sets this song apart from preceding classics is how it’s held up in the canon almost exclusively through the adoration of the idols themselves. During the segment on “Hatsukoi Cider,” Nogizaka46 alumna Sayuri Matsumura was shocked to hear how the staff interviewing her had no knowledge of the song, and the single continues to divide the heads from the normies. You either regard it as the pinnacle of Heisei-era idol music, maybe even aspire to become an idol through the trio, or have never heard of it all.
Aside from the high praise of “Hatsukoi Cider,” the voices of the younger idols were most represented through the 2020s titles, some of which are barely a year old since their release. It’s also what invited some vitriol after the list spread around on social media. Not long after the show aired, I saw tweets lamenting how idol music today have become creatively shallow compared to the days of AKB48, Morning Musume and Momoiro Clover Z — whose songs all rank in the top 10. Though the subject was often unnamed, you can deduce these people are talking about a song like CUTIE STREET’s “Kawaii Dake Ja Damedesuka?” from how they’re not so enthused about how the songs are not much more than tools to gain attention on a platform like TikTok.
“Kawaii Dake Ja Damedesuka?” by CUTIE STREET, ranked no. 21
These songs are truly on the verge of oversaturation especially if your feed is already geared to bring idol-related media: there has yet been a day I don’t hear a KAWAII LAB song within in a few scrolls. But this list also goes to show these hits are enjoyed by today’s idols as more than a part of a trend, and with sincere appreciation of them as an idol song. Discussing the list’s number three, FRUITS ZIPPER’s “Watashi No Ichiban Kawaii Tokoro” — arguably the song that set off the haters of today’s idol music— more than a few of the voters praised just how the song says what it wants to say without a need for it to be clever or poetic. What can seem as artless to others, it can be a new kind of voice and style unafraid to disregard what’s considered artful.
The discussion inspired by all of these songs in this list remind that idols are idol fans too. They got into their profession by looking up to somebody in the scene after all, and they get excited about the music from the perspective of a fan as much as a performer. These newer, self-referential hits like from the KAWAII LAB acts seem especially geared to captivate idols, who understands both sides of the idol-fan relationship as the worshiped and the worshiper.
Which makes the appearance of =LOVE’s “Zettai Idol Yamenaide” in the top 10 the most vindicating result from this list. The song is a meta-commentary about the minutia of idol fandom recounted by your favorite idol’s favorite idols, exploring in particular how the experience comes with an expiration date. =LOVE are well aware of the narrative arcs and subtext animating the “happily never after fairy tale” that is the idol-fan experience not only because they are the actors making them all come to life but they’ve also felt it all from following their favorites as fans too. It’s only appropriate such a song is voted high in a list that’s made for and by participants in the scene today.
The List
Aya Matsuura - “Momoiro Kataomoi” (2002)
Buono! - “Hatsukoi Cider” (2012)
FRUITS ZIPPER - “Watashi No Ichian Kawaii Tokoro” (2022)
Kyoko Koizumi - “Nantettatte Idol” (1986)
Seiko Matsuda - “Akai Sweet Pea” (1982)
Momoiro Clover Z - “Ikuze! Kaito Shojo” (2010)
Chisato Moritaka - “Watashi Ga Obasan Ni Nattemo” (1989)
Morning Musume - “LOVE Machine” (1999)
AKB48 - “Koi Suru Fortune Cookie” (2013)
=LOVE - “Zettai Idol Yamenaide” (2024)
AKB48 - “Heavy Rotation” (2010)
Keyakizaka46 - “Silent Majority” (2016)
Seiko Matsuda - “Aoi Sangosho” (1980)
Akina Nakamori - “DESIRE -Jonetsu-” (1987)
Minimoni - “Mini-Moni Jankenpyon!” (2001)
Cho Tokimeki Sendenbu - “Saijokyuu Ni Kawaiino!” (2024)
Iyo Matsumoto - “Sentimental Journey” (1981)
Morning Musume - “Renai Revolution 21” (2000)
Morning Musume - “Shabondama” (2003)
KARA - “Mister” (2010)
CUTIE STREET - “Kawaii Dake Ja Damedesuka?” (2024)
SPEED - “Body & Soul” (1996)
Nogizaka46 - “Synchronicity” (2018)
NewJeans - “OMG” (2023)
Momoiro Clover Z - “Hashire!” (2010)
Aya Matsuura - “Yeah! Meccha Holiday” (2002)
μ's - “Snow Halation” (2010)
Morning Musume - “The Peace!” (2001)
Shizuka Kudo - “Doukoku” (1993)
SPEED - “White Love” (1997)
Wink - “Sabishii Nettaigyo” (1989)
Onyanko Club - “Sailor Fuku Wo Nugasanaide” (1985)
Minako Honda - “1986 Nen No Marilyn” (1986)
Twice - “TT” (2016)
Yoshimi Iwasaki - “Touch” (1985)
Nogizaka46 - “Seifuku No Mannequin” (2012)
NiziU - “Make You Happy” (2020)
Yoko Minamino - “Toiki De Net” (1988)
Girls’ Generation - “Genie” (2010)
AKB48 - “365 Nichi No Kamihikoki” (2015)
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