Yup, I figured that it would be sometime this week that this year's lineup for the 71st edition of NHK's Red-and-White Song Festival would be announced, and sure enough, the national broadcaster made the grand presentation earlier today. Unfortunately, with COVID ever present, there will be no audience for this show on New Year's Eve with probably a lot of remote performances along with the appearances of acts at Shibuya Hall in Tokyo. Speaking about the location, it'll be the final time that the Kohaku will be held there for at least a couple of years since it is undergoing renovations next year. Kohaku No. 72 in 2021 will be at the Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho, just north of Ginza.
Anyways, the lineup for the Red and White teams is as follows:
Red Team Number of appearances
Aimyon 2
Sayuri Ishikawa 43
Fuyumi Sakamoto 32
sakurazaka46 debut (under its new name; it was keyakizaka46)
JUJU debut
Superfly 5
Yoshimi Tendo 25
Tokyo Jihen debut (although Ringo Shiina has made 7 appearances)
NiziU debut
Nogizaka 46 6
Perfume 13
Hinatazaka46 2
Foorin 2
BABYMETAL debut
Seiko Matsuda 24
Misia 5
Kaori Mizumori 18
LiSA 2
Little Glee Monster 4
White Team
Arashi 12
Hiroshi Itsuki 50
Eito debut
Official HIGE DANdism 2
Kanjani 8 9
Kis-my-ft2 2
King & Prince 3
Hiromi Go 33
Generations 2
Junretsu 3
Masayuki Suzuki 3
SixTONES debut
Snow Man debut (had to pull out due to one member coming down with COVID)
Kiyoshi Hikawa 21
Masaharu Fukuyama 13
Hey! Say! Jump 4
Gen Hoshino 6
Mr. Children 2
Hiroshi Miyama 6
Keisuke Yamauchi 6
Yuzu 11
The band GReeeeN will also make its debut as a special guest, probably to perform its theme song for the currently running NHK morning serial "Yell".
Some other predictions include LiSA coming on to showcase her theme song for the cinematic entry for the "Kimetsu no Yaiba" series, and Masayuki Suzuki, who's celebrating his 40th anniversary in show business, perhaps doing a medley of his old hits and new tunes especially since he's been pretty busy this year with various theme songs for dramas and anime; would definitely be thrilled to hear his two anison for the "Kaguya-sama" franchise. Speaking of anniversaries, enka legend Hiroshi Itsuki will be celebrating 50 years next year for his breakthrough song "Yokohama Tasogare", so maybe that will be his entry. Finally maybe enka singer Hiroshi Miyama will try to break his own world record in kendama again.
The main hosts will once again be comedian Teruyoshi Uchimura and NHK announcer Maho Kuwako with actress Fumi Nikaido as the captain of the Red Team and actor Yo Oizumi as the captain of the White Team.
You can take a gander at the official page for the 71st Kohaku Utagassen and the site even includes the lineup for the Red and White Teams in Japanese.
How're you doing? Not much has changed on my side. I think it'll be long time before I can go to Toronto. And oh! JUJU! I'll be watching her. I have a few songs from her on my phone. I like her song "Sign", which appears on the sound track of the movie "Kirin no Tsubasa" (麒麟の翼). That's also the first time I realized how cute and beautiful Aragaki Yui (新垣結衣) is. The song has nothing to do with the movie though.
ReplyDeleteHi, Larry. Good to hear from you again. How are things in Oakland? Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that you won't be able to make it up to Toronto this year but I'm hopeful that you will be back sometime in 2021. So far, it looks like Kingyo is hanging in there.
DeleteNot much has changed on my side. I'm keeping things within the neighbourhood.
JUJU has become a regular presence on NHK due to her weekly stint as co-host of an information show called "Sekai wa Hoshiimono ni Afureteru". We also get it here on TV Japan. I do like the jazzy theme song also performed by her, "Remember The Good Times".
All the best!