Saburo Kitajima -- Heisei Ondo（平成音頭）

As the Heisei Era（平成時代）comes to a close over the next few months, the TV programming in Japan is probably going into warp speed to bring out retrospectives on the thirty years that made up this period under Emperor Akihito. There was some of that in the warmup shows before last month's Kohaku Utagassen, and the first show for NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）had that very theme tonight. Watching all of those songs between 1989 and 2019 made me realize that the soundtrack of my life in Japan was streaming in front of my eyes. Saw everyone from Wink to Arashi.

Enka legend Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）was one of the guests on the show tonight, and of course, one of his songs had to be featured. Since the theme was Heisei, that song was his 96th single "Heisei Ondo" (Heisei Folk Music) released in 1989, the first year of the era.

Written by Tetsuro Hoshino（星野哲郎）and composed by Kitajima himself under his pen name of Joji Hara（原譲二）, and being an ondo, it is indeed a festive song about the arrival of this fresh time. After the 64 years of the Showa Era（昭和時代）, I think people were looking forward to a change although except for media outlets and publishers, probably most of the population weren't supremely affected with the transition from Showa to Heisei.

I have seen a "Showa Ondo"（昭和音頭）out there on YouTube, so I'm wondering if by the summer there will be an ondo for the new era, whatever it's announced as on April 1st. And who will be the one to sing it? Sabu-chan himself or one of the new (relatively newer) generation such as Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）?