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U.S. Rock Band Kiss joins YOSHIKI in Kōhaku Music Program

X Japan member YOSHIKI will perform alongside the U.S. rock band KISS during the broadcast of the NHK's 70th Kōhaku Uta Gassen ("Red and White Song Contest") contest on New Year's Eve. They will perform as YOSHIKI Feat. KISS. YOSHIKI commented on the collaboration: "Kōhaku is watched around the world, so having everyone in Kiss participate makes the program even more global."

YOSHIKI previously appeared as a surprise guest on December 11 during Kiss's “End of the Road World Tour" performance in Tokyo Dome. YOSHIKI also performed with Kiss at their Osaka performance at the Kyocera Dome on December 17. Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley said, "We don't normally perform alongside other musicians, but we made an exception for YOSHIKI." Bass guitarist Gene Simmons described YOSHIKI as "a man who is modest despite being a legend in Japan." YOSHIKI cites Kiss as the reason he came to be introduced to rock music during a difficult time in his childhood.

YOSHIKI's professional connection to anime began 22 years ago. He has composed songs for anime such as X, Attack on Titan, Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary, and Buddha: The Great Departure.

X Japan's most notable anime contributions were the songs in the X² music video collection and later X movie. The animation Studio Madhouse adapted both productions from CLAMP's X manga. The surviving band members — Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama, Yoshiki Hayashi, Tomoaki "Pata" Ishizuka, and Hiroshi "Heath" Morie — reunited in 2007, 10 years after they first disbanded and nine years after the death of guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto.

Kiss was formed in 1973. Their ongoing End of the Road World Tour began on January 31 in Vancouver, Canada and is set to end on July 17 next year in New York City. The Japan leg of the tour took place from December 8 to 19.

The Kōhaku Uta Gassen is Japan's most-watched music television program. The yearly New Year's Eve contest pits two teams of female singers (the red team) and male singers (the white team) against each other. Like the your name. theme song performers RADWIMPS, YOSHIKI Feat. KISS won't compete but will have a special performance as part of the program. This year's competition will be broadcast on NHK General from 7:15pm to 11:45pm.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan-Web