gaijinmark wrote:

Looks like KARA didn't make it after all. Here's the official list: NHK announces official Kohaku performer lineup Wed, November 24, 2010 NHK has just announced the performer lineup for this year's Kohaku Uta Gassen. A total of 44 artists have been invited, with an even split of 22 on the Red Team and 22 on the White Team. 5 of them will be making their first appearance on the show, including Kana Nishino and AAA. Some early news reports proved to be wrong: artists such as BIG BANG, KARA, and Masahiko Kondo did not make the final list. Artists are listed in Japanese alphabetical order.

Thank you for your posting, I'll be watching this , looks like the usual suspects mostly. My only real problem with Kouhaku is you know White Team are going to win before the show starts. It's a pity KARA and SNSD aren't performing if they did at least the Red Team would stand a chance of winning.

Keisuke Kuwata to make special appearance at Kohaku?
Mon, November 29, 2010
Sports Hochi claims that singer Keisuke Kuwata, of the popular group Southern All Stars, will be performing as a special guest at this year's Kohaku Uta Gassen. Kuwata was forced to take a break earlier this year due to treatment for esophageal cancer, but he resumed work in October. The Kohaku performance will be his first public appearance since July.

During the Kohaku lineup announcement on November 24, the show's chief producer denied that Kuwata was invited. However, sources at NHK say that he wanted to make Kuwata's appearance an absolute secret. If the sources are correct, Kuwata will be taking the stage as a special performer, similar to Eikichi Yazawa's appearance last year.

Masaharu Fukuyama to appear in Kohaku with 12,000 fans
Mon, December 6, 2010
Singer Masaharu Fukuyama has confirmed that, like last year, he will be participating in the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen by remote broadcast. He and 12,000 of his fans will appear on screen, broadcasting live from the Pacifico Yokohama.

Before Fukuyama was announced as part of the lineup, he had already scheduled four concerts at Pacifico Yokohama for December 27, 28, 30, and 31. The show on the 31st is a New Year's Eve countdown concert, with the venue opening at 9:30pm and Fukuyama scheduled to begin performing at 11:00pm. Instead of performing in the studio for Kohaku earlier in the evening and then rushing to Yokohama, it was decided that he would participate remotely due to logistical problems.

At some point after 10:00pm and before his concert begins, Fukuyama and his already-seated audience will make their Kohaku appearance.

In 2009, Fukuyama participated in Kohaku via a live broadcast from his hometown in Nagasaki. However, this time promises to be different with the addition of thousands of cheering fans.

Kouhaku Uta Gassen song list announced
Tue, December 21, 2010
NHK has announced the song list for this year's Kouhaku Uta Gassen. Some notable facts are that eight of the groups will be performing medleys, and Mitsuko Nakamura will be singing "Kawachi Otoko Bushi" for the 8th time, which is a record for the show.

The performance order has not yet been announced. Artists are listed in Japanese alphabetical order.

Red Team:
•aiko - Mukai Awase
•Angela Aki - Kagayaku Hito
•Ikimono Gakari - Arigatou
•Sayuri Ishikawa - Amagi Goe
•Kana Uemura - Toilet no Kamisama
•AKB48 - Kouhaku 2010 AKB48 Kamikyoku SP
•Miyuki Kawanaka - Nirinkusa
•Kumiko - INORI
•Kumi Koda - KODA KUMI 2010 Special Medley
•Natsuko Godai - Hitori Zake
•Sachiko Kobayashi - Kaachan no Hitorigoto
•Fuyumi Sakamoto - Mata Kimi ni Koishiteru
•Yoshimi Tendo - Jinsei Michizure
•DREAMS COME TRUE - Ikite Yuku no Desu feat. The Kouhaku Special Brass Band
•Mitsuko Nakamura - Kawachi Otoko Bushi
•Kana Nishino - Best Friend
•Ayumi Hamasaki - Virgin Road
•Perfume - Nee
•Ayaka Hirahara - Voyagers
•Nana Mizuki - PHANTOM MINDS
•Kaori Mizumori - Matsushima Kikou
•Akiko Wada - AKKOii! Kouhaku 2010 Special

White Team:
•Arashi - 2010 Kouhaku Original Medley
•Hiroshi Itsuki - Oshiroi Hana
•HY - Toki wo Koe
•EXILE - I Wish For You
•NYC - Yoku Asobi Yoku Manabe 100% NYC
•Yuzo Kayama - Wakadaisho 50 Nen Special Medley
•Saburo Kitajima - Fusetsu Nagare Tabi
•Hiromi Go - GO!GO!Year Kouhaku Special Medley
•Kobukuro - Ryusei
•SMAP - This is love '10 SP Medley
•TOKIO - advance
•Hideaki Tokunaga - Toki no Nagare ni Mi wo Makase
•AAA - Aitai Riyuu
•Kiyoshi Hikawa - Nijiiro no Bayon
•FUNKY MONKEY BABYS - Ato Hitotsu
•Masaharu Fukuyama - Michishirube
•flumpool - Kimi ni Todoke
•Takashi Hosokawa - Naniwabushi da yo Jinsei wa
•Porno Graffitti - Kimi wa 100%
•Shinichi Mori - Erimo Misaki
•Yusuke - Hito
•L'Arc~en~Ciel - BLESS

gaijinmark wrote:

Kana Uemura - Toilet no Kamisama

This song has a very poetic flair....
_________________

10 judges for 61st Kouhaku (2011) announced!!
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/topics/101222.html

1. Iseya Yusuke
2. Iwasaki Natsumi
3. Ueno Juri
4. Kitaoji Kinya
5. Takahashi Daisuke
6. Terajima Shinobu
7. Nakama Yukie
8. Nobuchi Soichi
9. Minato Kanae
10. Mura Nunoe
_________________

NHK announces Kouhaku special projects
Wed, December 22, 2010
On Wednesday, NHK announced several special segments and projects planned for the upcoming Kouhaku Uta Gassen.

One of the special projects is a "Character Kouhaku Uta Gassen," featuring popular characters from the past year. The White Team will be represented by "Yukai Tsukai Kaibutsu-kun" by Kaibutsu-kun (Satoshi Ohno) and "Gegege no Kitaro" by voice actor Kazuo Kumakura and others. The Red Team will be represented by "Dokonoko no Kinoko" from the children's show "Okaasan to Issho," plus a version of the anime song "Alright! HeartCatch PreCure!" sung by Nana Mizuki and AKB48.

Another project will be a gathering of the "Gegege no Nyoubou" family, uniting the drama cast of Nao Matsushita (one of the Kouhaku hosts), Osamu Mukai, Ren Osugi, and Yuko Kotegawa.

Another segment will introduce the cast of the current NHK morning drama series "Teppan," led by Miori Takimoto. Sumiko Fuji and Hidekazu Akai will also appear, as well as singer Miyuki Kawanaka, who is one of the performing artists this year for Kouhaku's Red Team.

Several other minor projects were revealed, involving celebrities such as comedian Nezucchi (W Colon), Rakuten Eagles pitcher Masahiro Tanaka (appearing with FUNKY MONKEY BABYS), TV personality Kimimaro Ayanokoji, and talento Ai Haruna.

One big highlight is that all of the artists this year are planned to sing together the song "Uta no Chikara," which Joe Hisaishi composed as the "theme song" of last year's Kouhaku Uta Gassen. Last year, the song was also sung by all of the appearing artists.

Arashi, Nao Matsushita to do special performances at Kouhaku Uta Gassen
Thu, December 23, 2010
Yesterday, NHK announced the guest judges and some of the special segments for this year's Kouhaku Uta Gassen. Today, they announced two more segments, involving the hosts Arashi and Nao Matsushita.

Arashi will be in charge of a segment showcasing the "goodness of Japan" through various messages and a new song. The segment will feature pictures of smiling faces in various parts of the country, taken by the five members during special trips to those places. The locations featured include Kanagawa (Sho Sakurai), Tokyo (Masaki Aiba), Hokkaido (Kazunari Ninomiya), Okinawa (Jun Matsumoto), and one secret location (Satoshi Ohno).

Arashi's thoughts and feelings during those trips will be incorporated into a new song, which they will unveil at Kouhaku. Television writer Kundo Koyama wrote the song's lyrics and is in charge of producing the segment.

Matsushita's segment will be a piano performance of Ikimono Gakari's song "Arigatou," which was used as the theme song for her drama series "Gegege no Nyoubou." The segment will also make use of famous scenes from the drama.

Kouhaku Uta Gassen performance order: SMAP chosen as Ootori
Sun, December 26, 2010
On Sunday, NHK announced the planned performance order for the upcoming Kouhaku Uta Gassen. It is now confirmed that SMAP and DREAMS COME TRUE will be the "tori" (final performance) for the White Team and Red Team, respectively, with SMAP serving as the "ootori" (the last performance of the whole contest).

SMAP previously had the "ootori" role in 2003 and 2005. For DREAMS COME TRUE, this will be their second year in a row as the "tori" for the Red Team, which has not happened since Akiko Wada in 1998-1999. This is also the first time since 1978 that two pop artists have been "tori"; usually at least one of the artists is an enka singer.

The first performance of Kouhaku (the "top batter") will be done by Ayumi Hamasaki, for the third year in a row.

The performance order, as announced:
1.Ayumi Hamasaki - Virgin Road
2.EXILE - I Wish For You
3.AKB48 - Kouhaku 2010 AKB48 Kamikyoku SP
4.NYC - Yoku Asobi Yoku Manabe 100% NYC
5.Angela Aki - Kagayaku Hito
6.AAA - Aitai Riyuu
7.Mitsuko Nakamura - Kawachi Otoko Bushi
8.flumpool - Kimi ni Todoke
9.Ayaka Hirahara - Voyagers
10.Yusuke - Hito
11.Natsuko Godai - Hitori Zake
12.Takashi Hosokawa - Naniwabushi da yo Jinsei wa
13.Porno Graffitti - Kimi wa 100%
14.Kana Nishino - Best Friend
15.FUNKY MONKEY BABYS - Ato Hitotsu
16.Miyuki Kawanaka - Nirinkusa
17.HY - Toki wo Koe
18.Kumiko - INORI
19.Kaori Mizumori - Matsushima Kikou
20.Hideaki Tokunaga - Toki no Nagare ni Mi wo Makase
21.Nana Mizuki - PHANTOM MINDS
22.L'Arc~en~Ciel - BLESS
23.Yoshimi Tendo - Jinsei Michizure
24.Shinichi Mori - Erimo Misaki
25.Hiromi Go - GO!GO!Year Kouhaku Special Medley
26.aiko - Mukai Awase
27.Perfume - Nee
28.TOKIO - advance
29.Kumi Koda - KODA KUMI 2010 Special Medley
30.Hiroshi Itsuki - Oshiroi Hana
31.Akiko Wada - AKKOii! Kouhaku 2010 Special
32.Yuzo Kayama - Wakadaisho 50 Nen Special Medley
33.Masaharu Fukuyama - Michishirube
34.Sachiko Kobayashi - Kaachan no Hitorigoto
35.Kobukuro - Ryusei
36.Kana Uemura - Toilet no Kamisama
37.Arashi - 2010 Kouhaku Original Medley
38.Ikimono Gakari - Arigatou
39.Sayuri Ishikawa - Amagi Goe
40.Saburo Kitajima - Fusetsu Nagare Tabi
41.Fuyumi Sakamoto - Mata Kimi ni Koishiteru
42.Kiyoshi Hikawa - Nijiiro no Bayon
43.DREAMS COME TRUE - Ikite Yuku no Desu feat. The Kouhaku Special Brass Band
44.SMAP - This is love '10 SP Medley
The order of the special segments have not yet been announced.

Ueno Juri and Fukuyama Masaharu

Fukuyama Masaharu's hair cut by Kagawa Teruyuki

White Team won!! their sixth in a row!!

ARASHI RLS!!

This is the major problem with Kohaku, you know Shiro Gumi are going to win it even before it starts so there's no suspense when the votes are counted. Too bad Kara and SNSD weren't performing.

Saw this yesterday, still I'm sure AKB48 fans will be pleased, they seem to have got alot of air time on the show. Is it my imagination but Nana Mizuki reminds me of Yuko Oshima for some reason.

Watched a good part of the Kohaku... And I still can't get into the whole J-Pop thing.

Just a couple general impressions: I don't know what "it" is that makes somebody a star, but it looks like Nao Matsushita has "it". Maybe her singlehandedly saving the asadora genre in Gegege no Nyobo wasn't a fluke.

And any woman that ever has to appear with Yukie Nakama, find out first if she's wearing a kimono. If she is, don't even bother to show up, because whatever you're wearing, your going to look like your in a gunny sack.

Sun_Shang_Xiang wrote:

This is the major problem with Kohaku, you know Shiro Gumi are going to win it even before it starts so there's no suspense when the votes are counted. Too bad Kara and SNSD weren't performing. Saw this yesterday, still I'm sure AKB48 fans will be pleased, they seem to have got alot of air time on the show. Is it my imagination but Nana Mizuki reminds me of Yuko Oshima for some reason.

Now that you mention that, Nana Mizuki did look a little like Yuko Oshima.

AKB got lots of airtime, but somehow I think they should mix the groups, and not guys versus girls.

It would be something if SNSD performed on that show though, despite not being Japanese, because I think BOA did a few years back on that show.

Some people seriously think that Shoujo Jidai should've been invited?
Don't know whether to laugh or cry. Jesus.


Neither has KARA done much yet, one pretty popular song and (if I'm being kind) a low-mediocre album.
They have some potential though, if they keep practising their Japanese and going the way they are, they do indeed have a chance to get to Kouhaku next year.

Speaking of South Korean artists, BoA has indeed performed earlier when she was at her peak in Japan, and for the last two years (2008 and 2009) Tohoshinki was there.


Arashi is still cheap as hell with their playback, but they did manage to avoid big mistakes overall when hosting. Matsushita Nao I like very much.

SMAP being Ootori was great, and when I switched to TBS after Kouhaku, my night/morning got even better

Perhaps their sales don't justify it at present but it was actually Oricon who predicted the presence of Kara and SNSD at Kohaku.

The last time there was no South Korean artist was the 52nd Kohaku and to me at any rate, Korean Music seems be getting more popular. Too bad TVXQ fell into legal problems.

gaijinmark wrote:

And any woman that ever has to appear with Yukie Nakama, find out first if she's wearing a kimono. If she is, don't even bother to show up, because whatever you're wearing, your going to look like your in a gunny sack.

That's
Maybe she wore that hair and kimono last summer to watch the fireworks?

Was Ayumi Hamasaki rehearsing for her wedding ?

Nao's recital of 'Arigato' was soothing.

I usually never watch this but since I fell super sick (a new variation of stomach flu, but thanks god only when I came back from Barcelona) I thought this was perfect. An easy watch and it would be ok to nod off once in a while.

Here are my impressions - highly superficial since I find the music mostly cringeworthy (but what I learned today is that extremely cute people can't often not sing so well):

- I laughed so much at Koda Kumi's pink roses monster of a dress I had to get up and throw up. Well, to be honest it was not the dress but my stomach can't take any sudden movements right now. I am almost sure she wanted to be Peaches'n Cream Barbie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73jbrA2uzyo

Oh and while I am at it: Ayumi looked like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYsIO7ds4tU

- I could have killed Ueno Juri's stylist. She was wearing the cutest minidress and ponytail but they made her wear black sporty 3/4 trousers underneath - terrible. And then she was seated close to Nakama Yukie, who was stunning, as pointed out by Gaijinmark!

EstherM wrote:

- I could have killed Ueno Juri's stylist. She was wearing the cutest minidress and ponytail but they made her wear black sporty 3/4 trousers underneath - terrible. And then she was seated close to Nakama Yukie, who was stunning, as pointed out by Gaijinmark!

Was Nakama Yukie seated near her?

I didn't notice....