On December 1, NHK announced the list of emcees, participating singers and special judges who participated in this year's Red and White Song Festival. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

This year, Yuki Nakama, who became popular with "Extreme Fresh Master 2", became the emcee of the red group, and the emcee of the white group was served by Koshi Yamamoto.

The special judging list includes 10 people who have performed well in all walks of life this year, including Sumo wrestler Jean Europe, popular actress Masami Nagasawa, famous director Yoji Yamada, and popular lawyer Zhu Zi.

Among the singers in the red group are Ayumi Hamasaki, Ai Otsuka, Miku Koda, Mika Nakajima and other singers.

In the white group, Saburo Kitajima and S.Map are in charge, and the final finale is S.map, which is also the second time in the history of the Red and White Song Club that a non-singer will finalize a Red and White Song Party. The Red and White Song Festival refers to the RB Broadcasting Association, a special music program that NHK broadcasts live from RB Tokyo Shibuya NHK Hall on the evening of December 31 every year. The program is conducted in the form of a singing competition between two groups of singers, red and white. Female singers are in the red group, and male singers are in the white group; In the case of a mixed gender mix, the gender of the main voice determines the attribution; For example, the lead vocals of Little Things Orchestra (ELT) and Dreams Come True (DCT) are female, so they are grouped in red.

Shows are generally more than four hours long and are divided into two parts. Currently, the first half (Part 1) is from 19:15 to 20:55 (RB standard time, the second half (Part 2) is from 21:00 to 23:45, and there is a five-minute break between the first and second halves.

Basically, singers who had big hits during the year were invited to appear. Since it is a high honor to be invited to appear in red and white, most of the invitees will agree to appear. However, there are also singers of considerable fame who have repeatedly refused to appear. For more than ten years, B'z, Chiharu Matsuyama, Kazumasa Oda, SPITZ, Hikaru Utada, etc., have been invited from time to time but all of them have refused and never appeared. Those who have appeared but have since begun to refuse, such as Southern Star, Namie Amuro, GLAY, Yuzu, etc. If a well-known singer refuses for many years but finally agrees to appear, it can often cause extremely high ratings, such as Takuro Yoshida in 1994 and Miyuki Nakajima in 2002.

I have to mention here Hikaru Utada, the queen of the RB music scene, a super diva who has created many sales miracles, and has been invited by NHK to participate in the Red and White Song Club many times, but she has declined. The reason is that she has to accompany her family in the United States, so she has not been seen until now.

Of course, a diva like Hikaru Utada is just a special case, and everyone else is staring at the Red and White Song Party.

…………

December 8, Akihabara. Don Quixote Theatre.

Today is the first official performance of AKB48 since its establishment. Originally, the performance was planned to be held on the 1st, but it was postponed for a week due to various reasons.

Zhu Zi walked into the theater wearing a thick trench coat, a mask and sunglasses.

There were not many people in the theater, Zhu Zi came to the front very easily, and many people were slightly relieved after seeing Zhu Zi walk in.

Zhu Zi knew that these people might be theater staff or relatives of the members, and there were few real fans, maybe only he was a fan.

"It looks like there are so few people here today, can we make a mistake?" The two people standing not far from Zhu Zi began to discuss.

"Let's see, if their performance is really average, then we'll withdraw." Another said.

"Well, I always felt like we were here for nothing this time."

At this moment, the lights of the stage suddenly dimmed.

Now some of the staff in front of them began to clap their hands and rhythm, the lights were shining again, and sixteen girls appeared on the stage.

White shirt, pink checkered skirt.

The crowd began to cheer.

The girls began to sing the first song of their idol path, "Party Begins!" 》

For the first time, Zhu Zi watched the performance of an idol group up close, which was the first song of a new group.

Atsuko Maeda, Minami Takahashi, Tomomi Itano, Yona Kojima, Minami Minegishi, Mai Oshima, Ayumi Orii, Mitsuru Hoshino, Hana Tojima, Asami Oe, Risa Narita, Nozomi Kawasaki, Shiho Watanabe, Yukari Sato, Hitomi Komagaya, Kamino Masuyama, Natsumi Hirashima, Rina Nakanishi, Kazumi Urano, Yuki Usami.

Nineteen girls, the first generation of AKB48, started an era of performances on this stage.

They are extremely ordinary, and they only trained for more than a month before stepping on the stage to start their performance.

Zhu Zi saw the nervousness on the faces of the girls, they were not big stars, so they looked unusually restrained when they first appeared on stage.

With the exception of a few people, the rest were theater staff and their loved ones.

The girls may or may not know this, but they are very serious.

The young Minami Takahashi, the baby-faced Tomomi Itano, the shy Atsuko Maeda, and the sunny Tomomi Itano......

These images became their fond memories a few years later.

After the first two songs, three people left the theater.

Perhaps they were a little disappointed with AKB's debut performance, and the expressions of the theater staff changed slightly.

Zhu Zi keenly noticed that the expressions of the girls also changed a little, especially Atsuko Maeda and Minami Takahashi at the front, Zhu Zi could clearly feel the disappointment of the girls.

After singing three more songs, two more people left the theater, and only two people remained at the front of the theater.

One of them is Zhu Zi, and the other is a skinny girl whose name is Tomomi Kawanishi, a member of the future AKB second year.

Tomomi Kawanishi looked at the girls in the ring with great interest.

AKB48.The early songs were a bit sexy, which caused some criticism later, but for AKB now, what they need is attention, and only with attention will fans enter the theater to watch the girls' performances, even if this attention will make AKB notorious.

"Sir, do you like them too?" At this time, Tomomi Kawanishi suddenly asked Zhu Zi.

"I'm just curious." Zhu Zi said lightly.

"I love them and it's great to be able to perform on stage." Tomomi Kawanishi's tone was slightly excited.

"Why do you like them?" Zhu Zi asked.

"There's no why, you don't need a reason to like it." Tomomi Kawanishi said firmly.

ps: Thank you for the tips from book friend Zheng Endi and the Red Praetorian Guard