Jero is a 26-year old African-American enka singer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He's a quarter Japanese, and he promised his now-deceased Japanese grandma that he would become a famous enka singer. In 2003, he moved to Tokyo and started entering singing contests. Soon enough, he got picked up by a record label and some really famous songwriters helped him kick off his career.
Here, he performs his debut single, Umiyuki, which broke the record for debut enka single on the famed Oricon charts this week with 3.5 million copies sold.
heh, I figured you saw this.
I've enjoyed the Enka genre since the 70's, as I find it quite melodic, even though I can't understand a word. (well...)
I like this song as well, except for the guitar riffs. I could do without that. As for the video...is that how you bring the kids to Enka? I must be getting old. Where do I change my name to ojisan?
Posted by: vagrant | February 26, 2008 at 01:44 AM
So this is how they kick it old school in Japan! Pretty smooth.
Posted by: enrique | February 26, 2008 at 06:57 AM
This is the much needed boost that Enka has been waiting for. Totally cool.
Hope he will perform at KÅhaku Uta Gassen end of this year!
Posted by: kungfupiggy | February 26, 2008 at 07:27 AM
Awesome. I saw him on TV (I think it was Mezamashi TV) back earlier this month when I was there for business and was really really impressed at how well he sings. It's funny since he's dressed all urban and actually came out on stage hip hop style and then he started singing enka. All the Japanese kids at first were like "...what the hell?"
Glad to see he's getting the attention and the acceptance. Especially the acceptance!
Posted by: Nobita | February 26, 2008 at 12:03 PM
I'm glad he doesn't stick to the usual Enka dress code. :-)
Posted by: Ronnb | March 01, 2008 at 06:26 PM