Enka (演歌) is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modernenka, however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ryūkōka music, popular during the prewar years.
Ryūkōka is a Japanese musical genre. The term originally denoted any kind of "popular music" in Japanese, and is the sinic reading of hayariuta, used for commercial music of Edo Period. Therefore, imayō, which was promoted by Emperor Go-Shirakawa in the Heian period, was a kind of ryūkōka. Today, however, ryūkōka refers specifically to Japanese popular music from the late 1920s through the early 1960s. Some of the roots of ryūkōka were developed from Western classical music. Ryūkōka ultimately split into two genres: enka and poppusu. Unlike enka, archetypal ryūkōka songs did not use the kobushi method of singing. Ryūkōka used legato. Bin Uehara and Yoshio Tabata are considered to be among the founders of the modern style of kobushi singing.
NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, more commonly known simply as Kōhaku, is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK network and by some overseas broadcasters who buy the program. The show ends shortly before midnight. Before the show began broadcasting on television in late 1953, the show was held on 3 January and only consisted of a radio broadcast.
Sharam Q was a Japanese rock band composed of lead singer Tsunku (つんく), Hatake (はたけ) on guitar, Makoto (まこと) on drums and Taisei on keyboards.
Kayōkyoku is a Japanese pop music genre, which became a base of modern J-pop. The Japan Times described kayōkyoku as "standard Japanese pop" or "Shōwa-era pop".
"Kōjō no Tsuki" is a Japanese song written in the Meiji period.
Junko Utada, known primarily by the stage name Keiko Fuji was a Japanese enka singer and actress. She had success in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s with her ballad-type songs. She was married on-and-off with Utada Teruzane, and was the mother of Japanese pop singer Hikaru Utada.
"Namae no Nai Sora o Miagete" is the fourteenth single by Japanese recording artist Misia. It was released on July 7, 2004 as the first and sole single from Misia's sixth studio album Singer for Singer.
Ultraman Mebius & Ultraman Brothers is a superhero and kaiju film released in Japan on September 16, 2006, serving as a threatical tie-in to the Ultraman Mebius series. It is the 10th original film in the Ultraman franchise, and celebrates the 40th anniversary of the franchise. The film peaked at 3rd in the Japanese box offices.
Kazuhiro Moriuchi known professionally as Shinichi Mori is a Japanese male enka singer and composer, who also sings folk and pop music. He has sold more than 90 million records, making him one of the best selling Japanese musicians.
Jerome Charles White Jr., better known by his stage name Jero (ジェロ), is an American enka singer of African-American and Japanese descent who is the first black enka singer in Japanese music history. In 2018, Jero announced that he was taking an indefinite hiatus from his music career to focus on a career in computers.
Sarbjit Singh Chadha is an Indian singer, who is said to be the first non-Japanese enka singer. He went to Japan to study the agricultural industry, and there he began to prefer enka. He earned popularity via the Japanese television program Kinyō 10 Ji: Uwasa no Channel. He debuted as an enka singer with the single "Omokage no Hito" (面影の人) under JVC in 1975. The single reportedly sold over 100,000 copies. He soon returned to India because of a visa problem. However, he returned to Japan in 2008.
The 51st Annual Japan Record Awards took place on December 30, 2009. TBS broadcast the event, which will take place again at New National Theatre in Shibuya, Tokyo. The nominations for the Awards were announced on December 1.
Aki Yashiro, real name Akiyo Masuda née Hashimoto, was a Japanese enka singer and painter. Her stage name "Yashiro" was adopted from her hometown Yatsushiro (八代).
Meimi Tamura is a Japanese actress and singer. She is a former member of the Hello! Project group Angerme.
Japan Cable Awards are an annual set of music awards, sponsored by the National Cable Music Broadcasters Association (全国有線音楽放送協会).
The 58th Japan Record Awards (第58回日本レコード大賞) took place at the New National Theater in Tokyo on December 30, 2016. The ceremony was televised in Japan on TBS.
Japanese enka singer Kiyoshi Hikawa has released thirty-eight studio albums, three extended plays (EPs), forty-two singles, eight promotional singles, and twenty-eight video albums. In 2000, Hikawa released "Hakone Hachiri no Hanjirō" (箱根八里の半次郎) as his debut single. This single reached number eleven on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart and has sold over a million copies nationwide. His second single "Ōi Okkake Otojirō" (大井追っかけ音次郎) reached the top 10 in Japan and attained a double platinum. His tenth single "Hatsukoi Ressha" (初恋列車) was released in 2005 and earned him his first number one hit, later certificated Gold by Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). With the huge commercial and critical success as an enka singer, Hikawa is often referred as the "Prince of Enka".
The 60th Japan Record Awards was held on 30 December 2018. The Tokyo Broadcasting System Television network televised the show live from the New National Theatre Tokyo in Tokyo. This is the last Heisei-era Japan Record Awards.
"Coffee Rumba" is a song by Japanese singer Sachiko Nishida, released as the double A-side of her second single "Yokubō no Blues" by Polydor Records in August 1961. It is a Japanese-language cover of the Venezuelan song "Moliendo Café".
