NHK Announces Singers for the 76th Kohaku Uta Gassen
NHK announced the singers for “NHK’s 76th Kohaku Uta Gassen” (7:20 p.m.) to be broadcast on New Year’s Eve. Among the girl groups, HANA, FRUITS ZIPPER, CANDY TUNE, and aespa will be making their first appearances, while Perfume, who did not appear last year and will be on hiatus at the end of this year, will return. ME:I, which made its first appearance last year, and Sakurazaka 46, which made its first appearance four times in the past, were not selected. The hopes for first-time entrants =LOVE, CUTIE STREET, and Chotoki-meki ▲Promotion Club (▲ is a heart mark, a.k.a. Chotoki-sen) failed to fulfill their long-cherished hopes, leaving a clear division between the bright and dark sides of the competition. The 76th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen” singers: Recently, the girl groups have been in a battle of rivalries. The focus of attention has been on “which group will make their first appearance,” but FRUITS ZIPPER and CANDY TUNE achieved their long-cherished wish. Both groups are part of the “KAWAII LAB.” idol project by the entertainment agency Asobi System. On the other hand, CUTIE STUNE, another KAWAII LAB. group, had a hit this year with “Can’t I just be cute? which became a hit this year, did not make it to the competition for the first time. HANA, a seven-member group formed through an open audition, had a string of No. 1s on the Oricon and Billboard JAPAN charts, and was a first-time entrant as expected. Cho-Toki-meki ▲Publicity Club, which began its activities in 2015, and =LOVE, which has been climbing the stairs since 2005, had hit songs from last year to this year, quickly gaining general recognition. However, neither of them reached Kohaku. With these results, people on the Internet are saying, “NiziU and XG were also eliminated…,” “I thought Equal Love would make it,” and “I was prepared for one pair of Sakamichi, but…” etc.
ENCOUNT Editorial Department