NHK has announced the artists who have been invited to this year’s 61st Kohaku Uta Gassen / Red and White Song Contest.
For those unfamiliar with the Kohaku. This is the show that airs on New Year’s Eve in Japan where two teams compete for votes from the audience and viewers across Japan.
Akagumi or the “red team” will consist of female artists:
- aiko
- Angela Aki
- Ikimonogakari
- Sayuri Ishikawa
- Kana Uemura (debut)
- AKB48
- Miyuki Kawanaka
- Kumiko (debut)
- Kumi Koda
- Godai Natsu
- Sachiko Kobayashi
- Fuyumi Sakamoto
- Yoshimi Tendo
- Dreams Come True
- Mitsuko Nakamura
- Kana Nishino (debut)
- Ayumi Hamasaki
- Perfume
- Ayaka Hirahara
- Nana Mizuki
- Kaori Mizumori
- Akiko Wada
Shirogumi or the “white team” consists of male artists:
- Arashi
- Hiroshi Itsuki
- HY (debut)
- Exile
- NYC
- Youzou Kayama
- Saburo Kitajima
- Hiromi Go
- Kobukuro
- SMAP
- Tokio
- Hideaki Tokunaga
- AAA (debut)
- Kiyoshi Hikawa
- Funky Monkey Babys
- Masuharu Fukuyama
- Flumpool
- Takashi Hosokawa
- Porno Grafitti
- Shinichi Mori
- Yusuke
- L’Arc en Ciel
The presentation of the Kohaku Uta Gassen will be presented live on NHK World Premium (available outside North America and Europe). For the USA and Canada, there will be two delayed presentations on TV Japan. In the past, there have also been pirate streams of the show set up on sites such as Justin.TV and UStream. NHK Radio Japan will also present the Kohaku live on shortwave.
If you can not make it to one of those sources and you want to enjoy the music of the evening, J1 Radio will present our second annual J1 NIGHT OF RED AND WHITE featuring the songs scheduled for this year’s contest.
You will have two opportunities to listen:
- Friday, December 31 2010 2:30A~7:00A PST / 5:30A~10:00A EST / 7:30P-Midnight JST / 6:30PM-11:00P ACT (concurrent with the live presentation of the Kohaku)
- Friday, December 31 2010 7:30P~Midnight PST / 10:30P~3:00A EST / Saturday, January 1 2011 12:30P~5:00P JST / 11:30A~4:00P ACT
Also during the New Year’s Weekend, listen for the J1 Top 100 Of The Year which will air immediately after both presentations of the J1 NIGHT OF RED AND WHITE.
For more information on our holiday programming, visit the J1 Program Schedule at
Enjoy your holidays, wherever you are.
J1 LOVES YOU!
