Just when you thought Yoasobi couldn’t get any cooler, the duo ended 2023 with a powerful performance on Japan’s well-known end of year singing show, NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen.
Yoasobi Goes All Out for New Year’s Eve
Kohaku Uta Gassen or “Kohaku” for short is an annual New Year’s Eve television special in Japan. The core segment of the show is a “red versus white” singing battle where red team contestants are majority female artists (or female vocals) while the white team are majority male artists (or male vocals). This year’s segment consisted of some stellar Japanese artists including Perfume, Man With A Mission and Nogizaka46, plus some overseas acts of K-pop fame such as Stray Kids and Le Sserafim. However, Yoasobi stole the show with a climatic performance of “Idol” with special appearance from idol groups also on this year’s Kohaku such as Seventeen, Sakurazaka46, NiziU, Be:first, NewJeans, and even host and former idol, Kanna Hashimoto.
Yoasobi’s “Idol” is the opening theme for the series Oshi no Ko, an anime about a doctor and his patient who were reborn as the twin children of a famous Japanese pop idol. The anime includes powerful commentary about teenage struggles while exploring the dark side of Japan’s entertainment industry. Some of the more poignant lyrics in “Idol” allude to this with “You are a perfect liar, oh, Ms. Genius Idol” and “A career built on fake love.”
In Japan, “Idol” became the fastest song to reach 100 million streams, achieving this within five weeks. Globally, “Idol” debuted at #14 on the Billboard Global 200 and peaked at #7, making it the highest position on the chart ever achieved by a Japanese act.
