A couple of days ago, we caught the most recent episode of NHK's "Hayauta"（はやウタ）, the early morning kayo kyoku show. I have to marvel at how the national broadcaster ever had the bright idea of showing a music program on Mondays at eye-blearingly early 4:15 am. I can only gather that there are folks out there who are either waking up or going to bed in the wee hours but they still need some sort of entertainment. Whatever the case, the idea is working since the show has been going on for some time now.
In any case, this song must have jolted a few folks since it is so super dynamic. Singer Leon Niihama（新浜レオン） may have begun his career as an enka singer (I wrote about his first digital single back in 2020) but with his latest 6th single from March, he's gone for something very upbeat and pop. This is "Subete Ageyou" (Let's Give It Our All), a song of giving into one's very ardent desires, preferably not while alone. On "Hayauta", Niihama mentioned that the inspiration for the song was the late great Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹）more emotion-laden tunes from the 1970s and indeed, Niihama does it give it his all here.
Veteran entertainer George Tokoro（所ジョージ）was behind words and music while smaller Tunnel Noritake Kinashi（木梨憲武）was in charge of production, and now that I know that Nori was the producer, I can even hear some of his vocal licks within "Subete Ageyou". Maybe Niihama is heading for a more tongue-in-cheek pop direction for his music, perhaps with a bit of a wink from Ikuzo Yoshi（吉幾三）, another enka veteran who's also been rather comical.
Well, whaddaya know? There he is along with Nori in dreads and George in yellow.
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