Well, since the Japanese "Buzzwords and Catchphrases of the Year" were announced last week, it was probably time for the Kohaku Utagassen lineup to be presented very soon. I think it's the first time that I've heard it coming on a Friday but that's no problem. As usual, the hoopla begins at 7:20 pm JST on NHK on December 31st 2025 at NHK Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo.
【Red Team】
AiNA THE END（1st appearance）
Aimyon（7）
ILLIT（2）
Lilas Ikuta（1）
Sayuri Ishikawa（48）
Hiromi Iwasaki（15）
aespa（1）
CANDY TUNE（1）
Fuyumi Sakamoto（37）
Mariko Takahashi（7）
Chanmina（1）
Yoshimi Tendo（30）
Nogizaka46（11）
HANA（1）
Perfume（17）
Humbert Humbert（1）
FRUITS ZIPPER（1）
MISIA（10）
Kaori Mizumori（23)
LiSA（4）
AKB48 (13)
【White Team】
&TEAM（1）
ORANGE RANGE（3）
King ＆ Prince（6）
Toshinobu Kubota（2）
Hiromi Go（38）
Sakanaction（2）
Junretsu（8）
SixTONES (4)
TUBE（3）
Number_i（2）
Leon Niihama（2）
Vaundy（3）
BE:FIRST（4）
Masaharu Fukuyama（18）
Akira Fuse（26）
Mrs. GREEN APPLE（3）
Hiroshi Miyama（11）
M!LK（1）
Radwimps (3)
【Special Guests】
Masaaki Sakai
Kiyoshi Hikawa
Your congenial hosts will be comedian Hiroiki Ariyoshi（有吉弘行）, actress Haruka Ayase（綾瀬はるか）, actress Mio Imada（今田美桜）and NHK announcer Naoko Suzuki（鈴木奈穂子）.
Some thoughts from me:
1) After some years in the wilderness following the Johnny Kitagawa incident, SMILE-UP (formerly Johnny's Entertainment) is allowing one act, King & Prince, to make its appearance on the New Year's Eve special. According to the website "Sports Hochi", fellow groups SixTONES and Snow Man had also received offers from NHK, but both of them politely declined.
2) There are a lot of new acts who I've never heard of...such as &TEAM and Chanmina（ちゃんみな）, so I'll be looking forward to what they will do on stage.
3) The one omission that I was surprised about was the one for enka singer Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）. He'd been on the show ten times and I thought that he was another shoo-in for an eleventh appearance with a song by Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）, who is also not appearing this year.
4) There will be a number of veteran performers who hadn't appeared in many years such as TUBE and Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）. However, I will have a special place in my heart for Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）, who is showing up for the first time in 37 years. She was one of the first singers who I fell for when I got into kayo kyoku in the first place and she was on the very first Kohaku I ever saw which was the 32nd edition in 1981.
5) For the fans, you may want to get your tissues ready for Perfume. The trio will be taking an indefinite break after their performance on the Kohaku (forever or not, I don't know).
6) LiSA is back. Will she be performing "Gurenge"（紅蓮華）from "Kimetsu no Yaiba"（鬼滅の刃）again?
What everyone will be singing probably won't be announced until December. And as has often been the case, there will be changes in the lineup through additions most likely. Any announcements on these changes will be posted below over the coming days and weeks leading up to New Year's Eve. You can also take a look at the J-Wiki article on No. 76.
December 3: AKB48 will be officially joining the show as part of the Red team.
December 4: The band Radwimps will be officially joining the show as part of the White team.
December 5: SixTONES will be officially joining the show as part of the White team.
Looking forward to seeing Iwasaki Hiromi.
ReplyDeleteSame here, Larry. I'm betting she's going to either sing "Sumire Iro no Namida" or "Madonna-tachi no Lullaby".
DeleteJ-Canuck, it might be nice if you added a spoiler alert to this post! Some people might want to be surprised on that special night at the very end of the year. I thought perfume was on hiatus, but they are going to break it for NHK Kohaku Utagassen? "Madonna-tachi no Lullaby", is probably Iwasaki's most popular hit so I bet it will be that, too. However, it would be a great surprise if Iwasaki sang ひとりぼっちの部屋, or キャンパス・ガール!
ReplyDeleteHi, Brian. I think the title for the article is large enough with that thumbnail in the way that folks who don't want to know the lineup can avoid reading it. Plus, unless they shun all media over the next six weeks, there's really no way that they can avoid finding out at least some part of it.
DeleteThe hiatus for Perfume begins when the Kohaku finishes up at 11:45 pm.
I'm surprised she hasn't appeared more frequently! I saw her perform in Hawai'i when she was a new aidoru, and even got her autograph!
ReplyDeleteHello, Owlchick. It's great that Hawaii gets a lot of Japanese artists coming over to perform. I hope you cherish that autograph.
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