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Jero, Just Your Typical African-American Enka Singer

By Ernie | Thursday, February 28, 2008 | 16 Comments

Jerome White, Jr. – Jero for short – is a 26-year old African American originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Oh, and he’s also a popular enka singer in Japan. I’d write more, but TokyoMango puts it better:

…He’s a quarter Japanese, and he promised his now-deceased Japanese grandma that he would become a famous enka singer. In 2003, he moved to Tokyo and started entering singing contests. Soon enough, he got picked up by a record label and some really famous songwriters helped him kick off his career.

Here, he performs his debut single, Umiyuki, which broke the record for debut enka single on the famed Oricon charts this week with 3.5 million copies sold.

Viewing some other Jero videos, I love how he starts singing for this Japanese variety show and the hosts just go “WHAAAA?!” once they realize he’s singing enka, and then again once they realize he can speak fluent Japanese. (Also, what’s up with the dude in the speedo at the one-minute mark? Variety show, indeed.)

MOODTHINGY
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icecool

Jero's got alot of class. I think he will be huge in a few years. Lets see if his second album has got the right stuff
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/jero-japans-first-...

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icecool

Jero's got alot of class. I think he will be huge in a few years. Lets see if his second album has got the right stuff
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/jero-japans-first-...

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Jeanne

AWESOME;VERY IMPRESSIVE

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Jeanne

AWESOME;VERY IMPRESSIVE

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Goh

Mindblowing. I love it when stuff like this happens!

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Goh

Mindblowing. I love it when stuff like this happens!

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Xxxtine

*chant* JERO-SAN! JERO-SAN!

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Xxxtine

*chant* JERO-SAN! JERO-SAN!

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Rich

that was amazing. i loved the scene in the beginning with the walk, pop and lock a bit, and so on. talk about fusion.

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Rich

that was amazing. i loved the scene in the beginning with the walk, pop and lock a bit, and so on. talk about fusion.

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jun

THAT... IS... F*CKIN... CRAZY...

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jun

THAT... IS... F*CKIN... CRAZY...

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:: jozjozjoz ::

OMG!

My newest crush!

I love him!

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:: jozjozjoz ::

OMG!

My newest crush!

I love him!

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Trackbacks

  1. 8Asians.com » Jero on Kohaku 2008: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog says:
    December 31, 2008 at 10:12 pm

    [...] is Jero, our favorite African-American Enka singer performing, with a guest appearance of his Mommy sitting in the audience, saying [...]

  2. 8Asians.com » Asian-Americans Kids: Moving Back and Forth Between Asia: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog says:
    January 1, 2009 at 6:42 pm

    [...] Jun) of the Wonder Girls spent time in San Jose.  Sam Milby is successful in the Philippines.  Jero went to Japan to start a career doing Enka.   My nephew who does hip hop and electronic music and [...]

 
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