Jero & Kirin Fire
May 9th, 2008 by James
African American Enka singer Jero has got a CM:
Enka newcomer Jero has been given his first TV commercial appearance. He is now the face of Kirin Beverage’s canned coffee product Kirin Fire Cafe Zero. The ad will begin rotation on May 21.
The official site of his Kirin Fire campaign is scheduled to open on May 20th.
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While we’re on the topic of commercials, it has also been reported that the newest chapter of the highly successful Softbank “White Family” CM series will introduce a cat character to the cast.
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First of all, congrats to JERO.
My questions are:
1) Any chance he is able to introduce Enka to the U.S somehow?
2) When will he tweak Enka somehow and make it cooler and be more attractive to younger generations? (Enka is currently only popular among people over 60)
I’m really expecting a lot from this man (kurofune).
1) Those who know and like Enka love it already. But, I don’t think it’ll show up on the hit chart.
2) I think his is already cool to me. I also think anything is to come around and go around. That’s the fashion. He’s got good vocal strength.
He is definitely cool no question about it.
However, sadly Enka in general reminds many of Japanese of old people singing in Karaoke.
I understand he wanted and needed to be a good ‘ol traditional Enka singer to start his career as an Enka singer. It’s great. However, I think he can take advantage of his talent and create new type of Karaoke for younger generations in the future.
Well, I’m a Japanese but I like Blues. I just wanted to listen to some kind of Enka-Blues fusion.
Opps “new type of Enka” not “new type of Karaoke” sorry about that.
Who is this guy?
He’s got a good voice, but it’s not Enka. His voice is too clear or as you’d say in Japan, he’s got no “kobushi”. If he was singing J-Pop it would be more fitting.
Concerning the “kurofune” thing…Look at Leah Dizon, “Gravure’s black ship”. She had some good time over here, but is kind of disappearing right now.
his voice sounded fine to me, but I guess that’s because I don’t listen to enka that often, just those from TV..
Just what do you define as Enka anyway? The genre has existed for ages and has evolved over the years. It encompasses many styles and branches out musically in many directions. Just because he doesn’t sound like your typical Japanese Enka singer in kimono with frequent tremolos doesn’t mean his voice is not/not suited for Enka. He probably knows more about the form than most Enka singers now as he’s been singing it since he was 5 and has a repertoire of over 120 songs, mostly standards.
As for Leah Dizon, yeah, I guess a race car model doing soft porn in the US can be a flash in the pan in JPN. Anyone see her performance at the last Kouhaku Uta Gassen? Arghh. Totally cringe-worthy.
AMEN!!! I’m half black and half Japanese and I support him totally. Don’t judge Enka by its cover, because his voice is DEFINITELY enka. You definitely need to brush up on your Enka.