Kohaku Utagassen

The 2010 edition of Kohaku Utagassen, famous NHK competition in which team white (men) and team red (women) compete with each other singing, was pretty uneventful. The competition was handed to the white team from the beginning with a poor performance from Ayumi Hamasaki that was immeditately beaten by Exile. From then on, the women were beaten on every single count by their male counterparts who once again walked with another win. While team red started on a weak note that followed through the whole competition, there were a few moments of brilliancy delivered by Angela Aki, who I believed performed too early, Perfume and Ikimonogakari. Everyone else on the female team either was wrongly selected or strategically badly placed. The men won and this time they did so not because of better performances, but because of their better strategy.

Last year was a pretty boring year for Japanese music and the event clearly showed it.