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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Jero the enka singer

Jero, a 3/4 American and 1/4 Japanese, is the first black enka (演歌) singer that made it to the main stream by releasing his debut single Umiyuki (海雪) this past month. It's getting good reviews on amazon japan.

He's making frequent appearances on daytime TV and music shows as of late, which give him a lot of exposure beyond the usual gaijin attention. He's a decent singer and with his unique hip-hop fashion style he may very well be here to stay.

Another interesting fact is that the lyrics are written by Uzaki Ryouto (宇崎竜童), who also wrote the majority of Yamaguchi Momoe's (山口百恵) biggest hits in the 70s and 80s.

Street clothes + Enka = sure, why not? I'm rooting for him.



Guy has a blog: blog.goo.ne.jp/jeroenka

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