HALCALI have released ‘Guin Guin Guin’, their first original song in around 14 years, a day after TikTok named their 2003 track ‘Otsukare SUMMER’ the number-one Japanese song of summer 2026.
The single arrived on September 2nd as the September “tsukiuta”, or song of the month, for TV Tokyo’s infant and preschool programme Synapusyu. HALCA and YUCALI’s last original material appeared on the 2012 two-disc album ‘HALCALI no Okawari’.
RIP SLYME’s RYO-Z and DJ FUMIYA returned to produce the track as O.T.F, handling the lyrics, composition, and arrangement. O.T.F were the production team behind HALCALI’s launch in 2003, overseeing their debut and much of the duo’s early material. HALCA, YUCALI, and the production team are all now parents, with the release announcement noting that they wanted to make something they could enjoy with their own children. The digital release also includes solo versions from HALCA and YUCALI, and an instrumental titled ‘2人ともいないヴァージョン’, literally ‘Version with Neither of Them Present’.
RELATED: HALCALI make their THE FIRST TAKE debut with viral revival hit ‘Otsukare SUMMER’
Recording again follows a revival that started overseas, without a release campaign behind it. TikTok put ‘Otsukare SUMMER’ top of its Japanese Songs of the Summer 2026 list on September 1st, reporting that videos using the song during 2026 had passed 10 billion views by August, a first for a Japanese song. Sakanaction’s ‘Yoru no Odoriko’ placed second, while Katy Perry’s ‘The One That Got Away’ topped the global ranking.
‘Otsukare SUMMER’ originally appeared on HALCALI’s debut album ‘HALCALI BACON’ in September 2003. Fantastic Plastic Machine’s Tomoyuki Tanaka produced it, one of several guests on a record O.T.F otherwise oversaw. Spotify plays are also approaching 100 million.
Renewed interest in the song since 2025 has already pulled HALCALI back into activity, from reissues and streaming releases to their THE FIRST TAKE reunion in May and a SUMMER SONIC set on the Spotify Stage on August 16th, which drew the biggest crowd on that stage this year. They play KOYABU SONIC 2026 at INTEX Osaka on September 22nd.
HALCALI
Guin Guin Guin
Release Date: 02/09/26
Label: TTM Records
Stream: Links
About HALCALI
HALCALI are a hip hop duo from Meguro, Tokyo, made up of HALCA and YUCALI, who met at the same dance school as primary school pupils. They won a female rapper audition in 2002 and were signed to For Life under the full production of O.T.F, or Oshare Track Factory, the unit formed by RIP SLYME's RYO-Z and DJ FUMIYA. Their first public performance came before any record existed. On July 26th, 2002, RIP SLYME called them up from the crowd at a free Nippon Budokan show, and the pair performed what would become their debut single in front of 10,000 people. That single, 'Tandem', arrived on January 8th, 2003 and reached number 19 on the Oricon chart, with music channel play across WOWOW, SPACE SHOWER TV, MTV, and M-ON! pushing it well beyond the usual reach of a new act. 'Electric Sensei' followed on April 9th, 2003 and went two places higher, and 'Giri Giri Surfrider' took them into the top 10 that July. Debut album 'Halcali Bacon' landed in September 2003, drawing on O.T.F alongside a wider set of producers, and became an unusually large hit for a new hip hop act. Albums 'Ongaku no Susume' (2004), 'Cyborg Oretachi' (2007), 'TOKYO GROOVE' (2010), and 'TOKYO CONNECTION' (2011) followed, with the duo touring in the United States and Europe as their audience spread outside Japan. Double album 'Halcali no Okawari' arrived in May 2012, pairing early singles with three new recordings, after which HALCALI stopped working as a unit. Their catalogue found a second audience more than a decade later. 'Otsukare SUMMER', an album track from 'Halcali Bacon' produced by Fantastic Plastic Machine's Tomoyuki Tanaka, began trending on TikTok in 2025 across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Southeast Asia. TikTok named it Japan's number-one Song of the Summer for 2026, reporting that videos using it that year had passed 10 billion views by August. HALCA and YUCALI reunited on THE FIRST TAKE in May 2026 and returned to the stage at SUMMER SONIC 2026, then released 'Guin Guin Guin' on September 2nd, 2026, their first original song in around 14 years and their first work with O.T.F in the same span.
