is a Japanese weekly music show produced by
NHK, airing on Tuesday night from April 12, 2016. The show replaces ''NHK Kayou Concert'' and ''Music Japan''.
Description
''Utacon'' presents a range of music artists from
Enka and
J-Pop at
NHK Hall in
Tokyo every week, to continue in the spirit of ''NHK Kayou Concert'' (which ended on March 15, 2016) as well ''Music Japan'' (which ended on April 4, 2016, at 01:30
JST). It also airs worldwide, through
NHK World Premium at 10:57 UTC, broadcast at the same time as the show's appearance on
NHK-G).
To target all audiences, including traditional 60's-70's music (which was the viewing target of the now-defunct "Kayou Concert") NHK aims at the so-called "rejuvenation" of the performers, singers and music, together with the "
Enka popular song" and "
J-pop" styles. The program aims to become the "center of the Japanese music scene". Utacon also incorporates a relay from around Japan, making the music show a unique live experience. As was the case with "NHK Kayou Concert", the program is usually performed in front of a live audience at NHK Hall in
Tokyo, but on last week each month it is performed live from
NHK Osaka Hall.
The program is typically 45 minutes in length, but the premiere episode was 73 minutes long, and featured
Ikimonogakari,
Tatsuya Ishii,
Sayuri Ishikawa,
Yukino Ichikawa
Yukino (written: , , or in hiragana) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*, Japanese footballer
*, Japanese announcer
*, Japanese actress
*, Japanese idol and singer
*, Japanese table tennis player
*, Japane ...
,
Midori Oka,
AKB48,
Chris Hart,
Saburo Kitajima,
Ayaka Hirakawa
, known simply as Ayaka, is a female Japanese singer, songwriter and record producer formerly signed to Warner Music Japan. Born in Osaka, she moved to Tokyo to pursue a singing career. She married actor Hiro Mizushima on February 22, 2009.
...
,
Fuyumi Sakamoto,
Akira Fuse,
Keisuke Yamauchi
Keisuke (written: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*, Japanese footballer
*, Japanese general
*, Japanese mixed martial artist
*, Japanese footballer
* ...
,
Il Divo and
Sumire
is a feminine Japanese given name.
Possible writings
Sumire can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:
*菫, "Viola (plant), violet"
;as a name
*紫花, "purple, flower"
*純麗, "purity, lovely"
*澄玲, "lucidity, sound of j ...
.
From its premiere until March 2019, the show aired at 19:30 JST. Starting from April 2019, the show airs every tuesday at 19:57 JST, with variety show "Sarameshi" preceding ''Utacon''.
In March 2020, the show started to be produced without a public audience, in order to avoid the spread of
COVID-19, with artists performing in remote locations. On March 9, 2021, the program debuted its new graphics and visual identity, and also started to be broadcast directly from
Tokyo International Forum, as NHK Hall was temporarily closed for renovations. To mark the beginning of the new phase of the show, a special program was broadcast live from the new venue, with performances by Masashi Sada, Shizuka Kudo, Kiyoshi Hikawa, Miyuki Nakajima, Yuki Kashiwagi, Naotaro Moriyama and
Yuta Orisaka, in addition to a memorial commemorating 10 years since the
Great East Japan Earthquake.
On July 5, 2022, the show returned to NHK Hall.
Staff
;Presenters
*Shōsuke Tanihara
*Naoko Hashimoto
*Tomoko Kogō
*Chieko Katayama
*
Nonoka Akaki
;Production Company
*NHK Enterprises
;Live Orchestra
*music concerto {{small, (Conductor: Takahiro Kaneko)
NHK original programming
2016 Japanese television series debuts
Japanese music television series