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American singer Chris Hart, 29, who has become popular in Japan since he won the “Nodo Jiman Za! World” contest for foreign singers on NTV in 2012, has announced the release of his first-ever original Japanese single. Titled "I Love You," it will go on sale Feb 24, Sankei Shimbun reported Wednesday.
Last year, Hart's singing career got a boost when he appeared alongside Seiko Matsuda and performed her hit song, "Yume ga Samete," or "Awakening My Dreams." He told listeners of the Tokyo-based "Billboard Live" radio show that he could never have imagined performing with the likes of Seiko Matsuda on such a grand stage.
Hart, who is from San Francisco, said he hopes his first original single will gain him many new fans in Japan. Last year, his album of cover versions of Japanese pop tunes was a big hit.
Hart told AP that he doesn't mind a bit that his fame has come so far from home. "I am a part of the J-pop world now," he said.
Hart has won over Japan by focusing on adaptations of local hits such as "Home," a 2008 ballad popularized by singer Yusaku Kiyama about the joys of becoming a father.
Hart's rendition, released as a single last May, surged to No. 13 on the Oricon music charts, Japan's equivalent of Billboard. A month later, Hart released his first album, "Heart Song," which reached third on Oricon.
Hart started learning Japanese when he was 12. He wanted to study Korean because his aunt was of Korean descent, but his school offered only Japanese. He was quickly drawn to Japanese culture. A year later, he went on a home-stay program in Japan, where he fell even deeper in love with Japan.
Hart started a rock band performing Japanese songs in San Francisco, while working over the years as a police officer and a clerk at a cosmetics company. In 2009, Hart stumbled on an opportunity to go back to Japan with a job at a vending machine company.
He uploaded videos of himself singing in Japanese on YouTube. To his surprise, he got invited to be on “Nodo Jiman Za! World” in March 2012.
© Japan Today/AP
17 Comments
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ambrosia
Why not just a singing contest? Why's it got to be a singing contest for "foreign singers"? I remember a Japanese guy doing very well on the American dance show So You Think You Can Dance and an American woman just came in third place in Arabs Got Talent, a singing contest program in Morocco. Mix it up Japan. It's a brave new world out there!
smithinjapan
ambrosia: Totally agree with you, but then if it were to come to be, you might have a foreigner showing up Japanese contestants. We can't have that!
In any case, best of luck to this young guy. I won't be listening, but I hope for your success.
rickyvee
if you have ever watched this show, you would know that they find people from all over the world who like to sing japanese songs. Although Hart speaks Japanese fluently, most contestants don't know a lick of Japanese. So please understand the show before you think Japanese people are just being racist (again).
ambrosia
rickyvee: Sorry, but I've no idea how your comment is meant to dispel the notion that this contest is racist, a word you brought up, by the way. I'd be happy to just go with stupid and backward. And what's not being fluent in Japanese got to do with it? It's a singing contest, not a speech contest. Plenty of people sing in languages that they don't speak fluently or have you never heard a Japanese pop song, or a Wagner opera, or La Boheme or Ave Maria? Do you think that everyone who's ever sung those songs is fluent in German, Italian and Latin? Like I said, brave new world.
virtuoso5
there was already a show last year from the same producers aimed at japanese and foreign contestants alike. a Filipino who lives in like...fukuoka or something won.
Vernie Jefferies
It's a great show to watch, in fact I am a big fan. The quality of the singers are very impressive, and they pick very complicated Japanese songs to perform. Some of the contestants are professional singers back in their home countries, so it's not a random karaoke contest. There are other singing battle shows to watch, but this one is very unique. I am proud of Chris Hart. Gambatte.
rickyvee
@ambrosia
i don't recall mentioning your name in my post. i was actually responding to smithinjapan who believes that japanese people wouldn't want to be "shown up" in a singing contest.
and what makes the show "stupid or backward?" because they don't correspond to your way of thinking? it's entertainment for f-sakes.
smithinjapan
rickyvee: "i don't recall mentioning your name in my post. i was actually responding to smithinjapan who believes that japanese people wouldn't want to be "shown up" in a singing contest."
Still got 'shown up' by ambrosia, no? And my comment stands; they have umpteen variety shows in Japan in which all of the people are Japanese. If they're 'ha-fu', the fact that they are 'ha-fu' is constantly up-played. Then they have shows which feature a bunch of foreigners talking about issues and led by Kitano Takeshi, who insults them in many cases. In short, they are separated and set up, not included, which leads back to ambrosia's original point.
"So please understand the show before you think Japanese people are just being racist (again)."
So if they don't speak 'a lick' of Japanese but express a desire to sing in Japanese, and have the opportunity only to do so in a program which features ONLY foreign singers, it's being 'racist' (your word) to bring up that point?
ambrosia
Gee, sorry. I didn't realize that one had to be addressed directly before responding to a comment. You do understand how these boards work, right? As for who you were addressing, I tend to agree with smith on this one.
Stupid and backwards because they're singling out foreigners rather than just having a singing contest. It's the 21st century "for f-sakes". I think it's time the mentality that begets the need to separate everything into foreigners and Japanese gives it a rest. So, yeah, stupid and backward because it doesn't correspond to my way of thinking.
Do you seriously care if the person singing a song, be it in Japanese or English, is from Japan or an English-speaking country or just that they're singing it well? If the answer is just singing it well, then why in the world would you support something like this? If the answer is where they're from, then you know where I stand on that one. It's a language, not a secret code. Why should it matter where the person is from? My neighbor has Down's Syndrome and she still manages to speak Japanese. I bet she can sing in it too!
rickyvee
@ambrosia
okay, so let's look at your original post.
i really can't understand this since the contestants are from all over the world. the only group excluded are japanese people, so i don't see how much more "mxing" can be done.
and then your next post.
first off, Ave Maria is not sung in Latin, which is how your sentence frames it. secondly, opera singers go through a lot of studying and training to be just average. the best ones spend their entire lives at it. you just can't practice a few months and sing a great Ave Maria. on the other hand, these contestants are just average people trying to sing in japanese. so there is interest in how well they can pull it off.
and finally from your last one; Do you seriously care if the person singing a song, be it in Japanese or English, is from Japan or an English-speaking country or just that they're singing it well?
isn't the whole point of a singing contest is how well people can sing a particular song?
really, your "exclusionary" mentality needs to give it a rest.
Michael Reed
:)
TedJohnson
I remember seeing this guys YouTube videos way back. His singing actually made some of the judges tear up. Looks like he is doing well. Good for him.
genjuro
Good for him and wish him longevity as a foreign artist in the music business in Japan. Another American, Jero, made a splash in the Enka scene a few years ago but I rarely hear about the guy these days. I hope Chris fares better.
ambrosia
Exactly! It's all foreigners, emphasizing the supposed differences and reinforcing the whole "ware ware nihonjin" mentality. Thank you for proving my point.
It most certainly is. It was based on an English poem by Scott, which inspired the German song by Schubert. The adapted Latin words of the Ave Maria prayer is now the version most commonly performed with the music of Schubert. I don't speak Latin but still managed to sing the song as a child along with our school choir.
.
Really? How sad for you then that you've never been to a wonderful concert by non-professionals who sing in German, Latin and Italian and so on - having practiced for a few weeks or months, if they were lucky. I've been to a few here in Japan and know for a fact that many of the people in the chorus didn't speak any of the languages they were singing in.
Yes, if your interest lies solely in pretending that Japanese is that much more difficult to sing than most any other language that one may or may not speak fluently. Every time some Japanese pop singer throws some English into a song do you clap in wonderment as to how they were able to manage such a feat?
Did you really miss the point that badly? I want everyone included, Japanese and non-Japanese and no one excluded. I find this whole notion that it must be so very different if non-Japanese are doing it to be tiresome and silly. I figured you'd have been able to sort that out from my post. My apologies for not being obvious enough for you.
You can feel however you like and watch as much of this drivel as you choose. It's your time to waste as you see fit.
Wakarimasen
The lyrics to this song are just heartbreaking. and the Japanese syntax is just too clever.
oldman_13
Best of wishes to Chris.
He's making the most of his opportunities, doing good things in a foreign country.
He's got more drive and ambition than all the haters in the world combined.