Susan Boyle to appear on 'Kohaku'
Entertainment ( 66 )
Susan Boyle
TOKYO —
Scottish singer Susan Boyle, the breakout star of “Britain’s Got Talent,” will sing a song on ‘‘Kohaku Uta Gassen,’’ Japan’s annual TV music show on New Year’s Eve. Boyle, 48, shot to international fame in April after stunning judges and the audience on the British show, where her powerful singing voice contrasted sharply with her dowdy appearance.
She will sing as a guest on the music show, which was first aired in 1951, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said. The song she will perform has yet to be decided.
According to NHK sources, it is currently being negotiated whether the singer will come to Japan and perform or do so live from England. If Boyle comes to Japan, it will be the first time audiences here will be able to hear her sing live, and will be one of the biggest stars to appear on “Kohaku” in the program’s history.
The show divides popular artists of the year into competing teams of red and white, with female artists forming the red team and male artists the white team.
Order by Time Order by Popularity
66 Comments
Login to comment
0
J1pureJPOP
Hopefully you can vote for her. Akagumi needs all the help they can get!
0
ca1ic0cat
Let's just hope Ms. Boyle is familiar enough with Japanese game shows that she won't be convinced to appear on one of those...
0
yabits
How often has a non-Japanese artist performed on Kohaku?
0
Livvie
Yabits, I'm not sure but I believe Enya performed via satellite last year.
0
spudman
unless she does another stones cover I'll be yawning my way to 2010.
0
888naff
ruins the honour or pride of doing the show for the other serious artists.
0
888naff
"will be one of the biggest stars to appear on Kohaku"
"biggest stars"... really!?
..part timer more like. "star" thats really lowering the bar
0
Bungalow
If Enya has performed, how is Susan 'bigger' than Enya unless they mean it literally?
0
888naff
I suppose she will (unknowingly-i'm sure) be performing then in or for the country that pioneered that type of tv singing/talent program decades prior to the current boom in the last decade that has made simon and the programs franchise et al a load of cash.
0
Altria
DO NOT WANT
0
LoveUSA
I prefer her to Enya. Enya's songs sound always the same, Susan is still a newcomer and interesting to watch. I am happy for her because she comes from a poor background but was able to succeed and has an amazing voice. I am glad that this year NHK did not invite Enya.
0
RogueFive
Bah. The Japanese have gone insane. Little Nozomi Ohashi beats this one hit wonder with her Konsome Punch.
0
fleetwood77
She comes from Blackburn in Scotland - a town so backward that her cover of the old Stones hit is re titled " Hey McCleod ,Get Off My Ewe"
0
Foxie
The ratings are doomed to go up this year then.
0
roughneck
Susan has a wonderful voice, the oldest of all musical instruments. She has become a symbol of regular people being able to live up to their dream. And I believe seeing her in NHK, Japanese people will realize that musicians don't need to wear skimpy dress and shake butt in the music videos to become a true singer.
Hats off to Susan. I hope she will be able to come to Japan, I'll be sitting in front of TV to watch.
0
thepro
hehe
0
seesaw
Fantastic! I hope she gets to come to Japan and perform on Kohaku! It would be a nice change...:)
0
syrup16g
Oh you mean like NYC BOYZ and Arashi? Yeah, these guys are real virtuosos huh.
0
cadmium
If they get Susan this year, they need to get Paul Potts for next year.
0
NeoJamal
This year's white team has got the greatest number of amateurs and nobodies listed along with Sabu-chan and Mikawa.
0
Altria
They should have got a real entertainer, like Rolf Harris.
0
JustAGoodOlBoy
Thankfully we have plans this year and I won't have to watch this. Have suffered through this enough in the past with my inlaws.
0
bicultural
I'll take an enka singer over her any day. That or AKB 48.
0
Proffesor
"will be one of the **biggest stars **to appear on Kohaku"
Is She?
0
bokudayo
I'd take an AKB48 singer any day. Yuh-UUUM-eeeee!!!
0
presto345
I just got a copy of her CD. It's not on the Celine Dion level, but in a way that makes it more interesting. I like the idea of her singing on the Kohaku. And I don't think she will look like in the picture shown here.
0
WMD
gosh,I'm underwhelmed with excitement. Who watches this "show" anyway?? I thought it was just for the old farts??
0
presto345
It's for all farts, to speak your language, including yourself.
0
WMD
presto345 I may be a fart mate, but I think I'd rather watch the "fighting" on the other channels. How about yourself??
0
Leemo
Could we have her duet with NYC Boys? I'd like to see her do the Volley Ball Support dance routine with Yamada and Chinen.
0
NeoJamal
Quite the opposite actually, your typical old fart cannot relate to even half of the 'competitors' on the show since the early 90s. Unfortunately there's very little other substitutes for them. Many of the familiar enka stars have met their early ends from drugs, suicide and so on.
0
bushlover
I hope that she teaches the Japanese music industry that voice rules over looks. You think they'll get the lesson? Somehow I doubt it. As much as T & A are nice to look at. Voice is a big thing too. I love to Look at Amuro-san but really don't care much for her singing. On the other hand I give it to Susan Boyle for slapping those shallow 'talent' judges in the face with reality when they looked at her as if what the hell could she do faces. Now she is being invited to a foreign country to appear on TV singing shows says far too much for them snobs to comprehend. Let's hope that the Japanese audience and industry people get the lesson as well.
0
goddog
One of the most famous? Does that imply all the rest from the past are not famous? I thought so all along. That show lways is so boring.
0
LoveUSA
As with the espresso coffee machine, I doubt anybody in Japan would appreciate Susan Boyle. She can sing but this is the country of manga, anime, Kumi Koda and Morning Musume, of looks over essence, so i wonder how she got selected to appear on Japanese TV. I am glad that she will be on tv though because she desrves her fame so much more than any Japanese "talento" of the sory of Ayumi or Kumi.
0
NeoJamal
If you knew Wada Akiko, this should not be a surprise.
0
TheRat
I am a big fan of Susan Boyle and she really is the symbol of hope and honesty for so many people around the world. Yesterday, I have a visitor, a 75 year-old man, and he said that everytime he hears her sing, his stress just goes away. That's how magical Susan's Boyle voice is, it is healing.
0
Goya-Champuru
only marketing
0
zhazam05
I watch Kohaku every year and have also sadly watched less and less enka and more and more J-PoP Shite as the years roll bye,i doubt that even the presense of such a talent as Ms. Boyle could inspire the idea of MUSICALITY in the younger set.I ask you programmers-Where would Kohaku be without ENKA Music???The short answer is LONG GONE!!!!
0
BadLoveUSA
I wonder if Susan Boyle is the only foreigner on Kohaku.
0
Seiharinokaze
Jero is another foreign singer on Kohaku but he is an enka singer. It seems Kohaku cannot do without enka. Enka may be this nation's undercurrent heritage of Tuguns tribes. Outcast vagabondism and unrequited love are its all-time favorite themes. For that matter I DREAMED A DREAM conveys a similar thing. But I think Nakamura Mitsuko sings a bit more miserably and self-deprecatingly than Susan Boyle in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctN-AfqYIdQ&feature=related
0
Spider
Susan Boyle has learning difficulties. This fact went unspoken for ages in the UK until she cracked-up after losing in the final of 'X Factor', when suddenly the debate was "Is it right to allow people with learning difficulties endure this level of pressure".
Personally I'm sick of hearing about her and I'm glad she's been discovered in Japan - the Japanese can keep her. Were it not for her learning difficulties she'd be just another average singer. not even average. There's really nothing special about her at all, same as with every other X Factor contestant.
0
goddog
This country likes cute. I think she would be a bigger hit is they had her wear a hello kitty outfit.
0
Spider
I'll correct myself. It was Briatin's Got Talent that she appeared on, not X-Factor.
0
Sammi33
How can you all be so mean. Kohaku is a nice tradition, and Susan Boyle is a lovely lady with a golden voice. That's it.
0
LostinNagoya
I never watched Kohaku (aaarrghh!), but I will this year or will rec it. Love her voice and her grandma looks!
0
DenDon
good luck to him
0
SumoBob
Hopefully they'll let her sing a whole song. Last year the Blue Men were on and got a mere 30 sec of time to do something. The "so desu ne's" got more TV time.
0
takeyourhands
she's not the only one, Tohoshinki's Korean and they're also performing. although they're practically Japanese already.
0
POTUS
She's supposed to arrive here Tuesday morning around 9 am so it will be an in-person appearance rather than a satellite appearance which was the other option.
0
flatearther
Squee! Susan Boyle? OMG! She is fantastic, sings like an angel! I adore her music!
Can't wait to see her on Kohaku! :)
0
griff
i suppose in japan she'll be known as SuBo.
oh, hang on, that's what she gets called in the uk :/
0
POTUS
The Mirror called her "SushiBo" for now.
0
IvanCoughalot
One of the biggest stars to appear since 1951? Good God, thattells you something about the subterranean level of what passes for star quality in this burg.
I can think of a thousand ways in which I'd rather spend New Years Eve than watching this. Sitting alone in the dark, crying, for example.
0
presto345
Do you even know what you are talking about? Correct yourself and your spelling then, mate.
0
presto345
Please tell us about the other 999 ways :-)
0
presto345
Inspiring. Original. Funny. But that's why you are here.
0
Makkun70
No, please, no, this is the beginning of the end, please don't bring her to Japan, please, please, please...
0
TheRat
She looks so lovely in that video taken on rehearsal day. Those who don't appreciate her and her music should just go and live under a rock...hehehe I love her and I love what is happening to her. Way to go, Susan! I just loooooooovvvvvvveeee your way!
0
alphawolf
I heard she has a temper... if she isn't acustom to Japanese humor, she may walk off the show angry and fed up... aw
0
alphawolf
I listened to her latest CD... very nice but all songs were sang with the same "tone" or "pitch" to her voice.. almost all sounded like the same song..kind of like "Stings" latest CD... aw
0
Makkun70
She was dreadful and the public just lapped it up..
Back to top