it's not life that matters but the journey...

I've just discovered a singer who has been famous in Japan for awhile, but who I didn't know about at all. He calls himself Jero (or ジェロ in Katakana). He's American-born, of African-American and Japanese descent - his maternal Grandmother was Japanese, and taught him to sing traditional Japanese Enka (a popular form of music). Though he grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he studied Japanese culture and language, and even attended university in Japan. He started singing Enka when he was 5 years old for his grandmother, and he promised her that he would someday become an Enka performer. And he has! And it's amazing to see this young, handsome African-American singer, wearing hip-hop style clothes singing traditional Japanese Enka better than even some older Japanese singers! And I heard him interviewed and he can speak Japanese perfectly too! I think it's neat that he's reviving interest in Enka for younger Japanese people, and maybe even for Americans. It's a beautiful form of music, and always makes me cry even though I don't know what they're singing about. ジェロ has all the emotion needed to make this music beautiful. He's amazing - check him out:



And here's the same song sung by Minako Honda, a famous japanese pop and enka singer who died a few years ago of Leukemia. She was so beautiful: