Jero performs at DC Cherry Blossom Festival
Jero gave an enka performance at the Washington DC Cherry Blossom Festival last week, and the Washington Post has run an article about him:
Jero moved to Japan to teach English after graduating from college in 2003, sang enka on the side and eventually got noticed by a record label. He said his first release, “Umiyuki,” in 2008 rocketed to No. 4 on the pop chart in a week — the best performance ever for a debut enka song.
Enka singers, female and male, often perform wearing traditional kimonos. They don’t usually wear fur-trimmed North Face parkas, which is part of Jero’s allure.
But he said it is not a gimmick.
“I’ve lived in Pittsburgh till I was 21,” he said. “The kimono was not a part of who I was, and I never actually wanted to wear one. I didn’t want to be someone else when I went on stage. I wanted to be who I was. . . . I wanted to be me. I wanted to be true to myself.
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