Thursday, November 24, 2016

Lineup for 2016 NHK Kouhaku Utagassen announced

Main host: Takeda Shinichi (NHK announcer)

Akagumi host: Arimura Kasumi

Shirogumi host: Aiba Masaki (Arashi)

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of times to date (including this year) which the artist/group has appeared on Kouhaku:

Akagumi
AI (2)
Ayaka (8)
E-girls (4)
Ikimonogakari (9)
Ishikawa Sayuri (39)
Ichikawa Yukino (1)
Utada Hikaru (1)
AKB48 (9)
Ootake Shinobu (1)
Keyakizaka46 (1)
Kouzai Kaori (19)
Sakamoto Fuyumi (28)
Shiina Ringo (4)
Shimazu Aya (3)
Takanashi Mariko (4)
Tendou Yoshimi (21)
Nishino Kana (7)
Nogizaka46 (2)
PUFFY (1)
Perfume (9)
Matsuda Seiko (20)
Mizumori Kaori (14)
miwa (4)

Shirogumi
Arashi (8)
Itsuki Hiroshi (46)
X JAPAN (7)
Kanjani 8 (5)
Kiritani Kenta (1)
KinKi Kids (1)
Go Hiromi (29)
Sandaime J Soul Brothers (5)
THE YELLOW MONKEY (1)
SEKAI NO OWARI (3)
Sexy Zone (4)
TOKIO (23)
AAA (7)
Hikawa Kiyoshi (17)
V6 (3)
Fukuda Kouhei (3)
Fukuyama Masaharu (9)
Hoshino Gen (2)
Miyama Hiroshi (2)
Yamauchi Keisuke (2)
Yuzu (7)
RADWIMPS (1)
RADIO FISH (1)

Source: Oricon

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, all the performers list have been announced? I really think no need of SEKAI NO OWARI, Miwa, and AAA. Puffy also don't have a great sales and not a good singer too. But I appreciated there is only one 48 group eventhough there are two of 46, it's obvious that NHK made several elimination of past performers to change the image for this year Kouhaku, I hope. I'm surprised the absence of the likes of Mr.Children and Kuwata Keisuke or Matsutoya Yumi. So, Utada will perform from different location? I never understand why Fukuyama Masaharu got the privilege to keep participating by remote broadcast.

Chiaki said...

Yes, this is the full list of performers.

According to NHK, the three criteria they applied to decide who comes in and who gets out are:

- how active the artist was in the past year
- public support
- whether the artist matches the programme's segment lineup and if they are keen to perform

However, there are bound to be some "dubious" entries which leave people wondering why. Not to say that those artists are bad but it just doesn't seem to match the criteria they set. As such, it is not as prestigious as before to be invited to perform at Kouhaku nowadays because there's always rumours of barter trade for less-popular or well-known acts to get in on the tailcoats of the big shots.

I am guessing that the big names traditionally do not want to take part for some reason (work or vacation) e.g. Mr.Children and Amuro Namie so that's why they aren't in the list. For people who NHK really wants to invite, they are prepared to go to the extent of doing a live broadcast from another location even overseas. One of the most memorable ones I recall was Nakajima Miyuki singing at the Kurobe Dam's tunnel. That's also why Utada Hikaru is doing it overseas this time since she's outside of Japan most of the year. I vaguely remember that Fukuyama Masaharu has a countdown concert in Yokohama every year so that's why they allowed him to perform from there instead of going to the NHK Hall in Tokyo.

Puffy and KinKi Kids are celebrating their 20th anniversary so I guess their entry is sort of a congratulatory move to gain more attention from their fans since this is their debut appearance. I don't recall Puffy releasing any big hits in recent years though but KinKi Kids still has the Guinness record for the No.1 singles so I guess they are qualified to be invited. Just wondering why they chose not to continue with their countdown concert at Tokyo Dome this year and do a broadcast from there...but I guess with the slot vacated by SMAP, that's probably why they have to be there physically at NHK Hall.