As I noted several days ago in the article for "The 73rd NHK Kohaku Utagassen Lineup"（第73回NHK紅白歌合戦）, one of the participants who will be making his debut is musician and singer-songwriter Vaundy. I actually found out about him a few weeks before that when I was checking out some of the newer acts within urban contemporary or Neo-City Pop such as TENDRE.
His debut single from November 2019 caught my eyes and ears. "Tokyo Flash" is a groovy and laidback number whose lyrics hint at perhaps a rather salacious affair going on between an older fellow and a younger lady (maybe in Shibuya?), but you can check out the English translation here if you agree or not (the video below also has English translation). The music by Vaundy has got all sorts of instruments but I think the piano is supporting the arrangements. I also enjoy his vocals which have that certain raw soulfulness on the level of a young and much less rough-edged Joe Cocker.
I think the music video was filmed in Shibuya, Shinjuku and Asakusa at the very least, although the story there is just Vaundy himself making out like a night owl until the morning. The interesting thing is that during his nocturnal escapade, any writing on trucks and buildings are backwards before they get back to normal once the sun comes back up. A bit of "Tenet", perhaps? What doesn't change is the singer's face which stays all fuzzy. Apparently, the video got a million views within a couple of months of its uploading onto YouTube (a couple of months before its release as a digital download single), and when I last checked today, it has gotten 51 million views. On Billboard's Hot 100, "Tokyo Flash" managed to reach No. 64, and it's been included on Vaundy's debut album "strobo" which came out in May 2020 and peaked at No. 5 on Oricon.
As for Vaundy himself, he hails from Tokyo and is still attending art college while going on with his music career. In his high school years, he was involved with Vocaloid songs via NicoNico. He also studied at vocal training facility Ongaku Juku Voice（音楽塾ヴォイス...Music School Voice） in Azabu-Juban in the capital. I did mention that he had also provided one song "lemonade" for the group Chilli Beans. which is also a graduate of the school. According to his J-Wiki profile, he has a thing for creating music that is "genre-less" through thoroughly mixing rock, hip-hop, R&B, synthpop, etc. although he has said that he does like anison. He also added that he hasn't been influenced by any particular other artist. But for "Tokyo Flash", he came up with the song by checking what was popular on radio stations such as J-WAVE and researching any trends that he noticed.
In any case, I'm looking forward to hearing what Vaundy is going to provide on the Kohaku in about a month.
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