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Love Live! Idols, Nogizaka46 Confirmed to Perform at New Year's Kōhaku Battle

posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Full artist lineup includes BUMP OF CHICKEN, AKB48, NMB48, X Japan, Perfume, YUZU, more

NHK revealed the 51 participants that will perform at this year's Kōhaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Song Battle), the New Year's Eve singing contest that is Japan's most viewed music television program. The channel confirmed that AKB48's rival idol group Nogizaka46 and the Love Live! franchise's female idol group μ's will be first-time performers.

The lineup also includes first-time performances by rock band Bump of Chicken (Tales of the Abyss, Blood Blockade Battlefront) and Superfly (Ushijima the Loan Shark live-action film), as well as 34-year-old singer Gen Hoshino, 19-year-old Sakurako Ohara, Rebecca (the rock band who are reuniting after two decades), and the four-person band Gesu no Kiwami Otome.

NHK has invited BUMP OF CHICKEN to the program multiple times in past years, including in 2014, but the group has refused all previous invitations. The band has been reluctant to perform on live television since their major debut in 2000, but had begun to relax this in 2014. Bump of Chicken performed live on TV Asahi's Music Station 3-Jikan SP program in July, as well as on TBS' Ō-sama no Brunch variety show in November.

Returning performers include the four-man band SEKAI NO OWARI, Johnny & Associates band V6, AKB48, NMB48, Ringo Sheena, AAA, EXILE, X Japan, Sandaime J Soul Brothers, YUZU, and more. V6's Yoshihiko Inohara is the host for the White Team, and Haruka Ayase is the host for the Red Team. Tetsuko Kuroyanagi and NHK announcer Yumiko Udō are hosting the program.

The NHK-General channel will run the program from 7:15 to 11:45 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

The full lineup is as follows (the number in parenthesis next to the names represents the number of times they've performed on the program):

Red Team:

  • E-girls (3)
  • Ikimono-gakari (8)
  • Sayuri Ishikawa (38)
  • Miki Imai (2)
  • AKB48 (8)
  • NMB48 (3)
  • Sakurako Ohara (1)
  • Natsuko Godai (22)
  • Fuyumi Sakamoto (27)
  • Ringo Sheena (3)
  • Aya Shimazu (2)
  • Superfly (1)
  • Mariko Takahashi (3)
  • Yoshimi Tendō (20)
  • AAA (6)
  • Kana Nishino (6)
  • Nogizaka46 (1)
  • Perfume (8)
  • Ayako Fuji (21)
  • Seiko Matsuda (19)
  • Kaori Mizumori (13)
  • μ's (1)
  • miwa (3)
  • Rebecca (1)
  • Akiko Wada (39)

White Team:

  • Arashi (7)
  • Hiroshi Itsuki (45)
  • EXILE (11)
  • X Japan (6)
  • Kanjani∞(4)
  • Gesu no Kiwami Otome (1)
  • Hiromi Go (28)
  • Golden Bomber (4)
  • Masahiko Kondō(10)
  • Sandaime J Soul Brothers (4)
  • SMAP (23)
  • Sekai no Owari (2)
  • Sexy Zone (3)
  • TOKIO (22)
  • Hideaki Tokunaga (10)
  • Bump of Chicken (1)
  • Kiyoshi Hikawa (16)
  • V6 (2)
  • Masaharu Fukuyama (8)
  • Gen Hoshino (1)
  • Takashi Hosokawa (39)
  • Hiroshi Miyama (1)
  • Akihiro Miwa (4)
  • Shinichi Mori (48)
  • Keisuke Yamauchi (1)
  • Yuzu (6)

Update: Nogizaka46 is a rival group to AKB48, not a sister group. Thanks, Pado.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web


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