Interest
Yoko Kanno Composes This Year's Kohaku Opening Theme
posted on by Egan Loo
Yoko Kanno, the acclaimed musical composer of Cowboy Bebop, Macross Frontier, Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and other anime, penned the opening theme song for this year's Kōhaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Song Battle) event on New Year's Eve. The song "1231" expresses the figurative opening of curtains to a bright future.
Kanno was born in Miyagi, the prefecture hardest hit by the March 11 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster. Days after the earthquake and tsunami, she posted a song of support she sang herself.
Kōhaku Uta Gassen is the highest rated musical television program of the year in Japan. This year's event will include performances by Nana Mizuki, AKB48, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Porno Graffiti, Ayumi Hamasaki, Arashi, EXILE, and SMAP, as well as a video message from Lady Gaga.
Sources: Oricon, Tower Records
Update: Another composer with anime roots, Joe Hisaishi, wrote a song for Kohaku in 2009.
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