The 73rd NHK Kohaku Utagassen Lineup（第73回NHK紅白歌合戦）

 

I figured that it would be sometime this week that NHK would do it, but indeed earlier today, the national network announced the lineup for the 73rd Kohaku Utagassen. In an earlier blog entry this year, I had wondered whether the reformist-minded top 2 fellows would be swinging the axe at this venerable New Year's Eve special that has been around since the middle of the 20th century since they were willing to chop down a few shows that had been on NHK for decades. But it's back on and to be honest, I think that the board probably had to face the question of what else to put on in that huge 4-hour-and-25-minute hole that would appear on the December 31st schedule. As 2022 went by though, I figured that the show was returning, especially when "Uta Con"（うたコン）returned to the revamped NHK Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo and showed off its new bells and whistles.

Anyways, here is the lineup for No. 73.

Red Team                                 White Team

Artist No. of Appearances Artist No. of Appearances

IVE         1                                 Official HIGE DANdism 3

Aimyon 4                                 Kanjani Eight 11

Sayuri Ishikawa 45                 Kinki Kids 2

Uta (by Ado)            1                 King & Prince  5

Aimer                         1         King Gnu     2

Shizuka Kudo    9                     Hiromi Go 35

Fuyumi Sakamoto 34                 Saucy Dog 1

Ryoko Shinohara 2                     JO1  1

Superfly 6                                 Junretsu 5

Sekai no Owari 6                         Masayuki Suzuki 5

Yoshimi Tendo 27                         SixTONES  3

Twice 4                                     Snow Man  2

NiziU 3                                         Naniwa Danshi 1

Nogizaka46 8                         Vaundy  1

Perfume     15                         BE:FIRST  1

Hinatazaka 46  4                         Masaharu Fukuyama 15

Misia  7                                         Gen Hoshino  8

Kaoru Mizumori  20                 Daichi Miura  4

Milet  3                                     Hiroshi Miyama 8

Ryokuoushoku Shakai     1         Keisuke Yamauchi 8

Le Sserafim  1                                 Yuzu 13

Special: Kiyoshi Hikawa 23

(December 6: Fujii Kaze has been added to the White team for his 2nd appearance.)

(December 7: Yumi Matsutoya has been added as a special guest for her 6th appearance.)

(December 11: Yuzo Kayama has been added as a special guest.)

(December 11: milet, Aimer, Vaundy and ikura will perform for the Red team.)

(December 23: Anzen Chitai, The Last Rockstars, Jidai Okure no Rock n' Roll Band, back number

have been added to the show.)

The hosts for the special will be actors Yo Oizumi（大泉洋）, Kanna Hashimoto（橋本環奈）and NHK announcer Maho Kuwako（桑子真帆）. Special navigator Sho Sakurai（櫻井翔）, formerly of the group Arashi（嵐）, will also appear.

It will be nice to see Ryoko Shinohara（篠原涼子）and Superfly, Kinki Kids and Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）again. I'm also looking forward to hearing Misia and Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）once more. I only heard about Vaundy within the last few weeks, and I've liked what I've heard so far so definitely anticipating his contribution. There will be some poignancy since both one member of Junretsu（純烈）and enka singer Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）will be leaving singing for a while at least. Junretsu's Ryohei Odai（小田井涼平）will be going solo in some undetermined fashion in show business while Hikawa is taking a break. 

What the participants will sing on stage will probably be known sometime in the next few weeks, most likely into December. If any of you have any feelings on this lineup and/or, for that matter, any dashed hopes, please let us know. Also, I figure that there will be some last-minute surprises in store.

P.S. The songs that the participants will be singing have now been announced on Tokyo Hive.