Marie has been getting a lot of coverage this year and Chris Betros of Metropolis Magazine/JapanToday.com recently interviewed the talent (in English) recently.  Here is an excerpt from Chris interview:

It’s the end of a busy day for Marie. The 21-year-old model and TV personality has just finished recording a two-hour entertainment program for cable TV. It’s 9 p.m., but Marie still looks fresh and cheerful as she sits down for an interview, a little surprised that an English publication is interested in doing a feature on her.

Born to a Japanese mother and French-Canadian father, Marie starts off in hesitant English, but picks up the pace as we proceed. “I hardly use English,” she says. “I was born in Tokyo and grew up only speaking Japanese. I went to Melbourne when I was 13 or 14 and spent a year there but couldn’t communicate much at all. It wasn’t until I went to high school in Milwaukee that I started to get better at English.”

more

JapanToday’s Chris Betros recently interviewed the enka singer who has captivated Japan with his songs and also has become the first Black man in Japan to do so.

In an excerpt from Betros interview:

There are some days that Jero could definitely use a few clones. Ever since the enka singer made his debut in February, his life has been a daily whirlwind of promotional appearances, media interviews, radio and TV events. “Actually, I’m having fun and starting to get used to it, but I hardly have any time to myself to chill out,” he says, sitting back in the office of his management agency, Victor Entertainment. Of course, the fact that Jero, 26, is the first African-American enka singer in Japanese music history and that he blends hip hop with enka has a lot to do with his skyrocketing fame since he released his debut single “Umiyuki” on Feb 20.

Not too long ago, Jero was just Jerome White, an English teacher in Wakayama. His road to enka began a long time ago when his Japanese grandmother married a U.S. navy man in Yokosuka. They went back to Pittsburgh and raised a family. Jero eventually came along in 1981, and credits his grandmother for the beginnings of his love of enka. In fact, throughout the interview, he refers to his grandmother many times, dedicating his career to her.

His grandmother would sing to him the songs of such great enka artists as the legendary Hibari Misora and Sayuri Ishikawa. “I was singing enka in Japanese to my grandmother before I was 10, even though I didn’t speak any Japanese and didn’t know the meaning of the lyrics. She was so pleased,” he recalls. “My friends didn’t have a Japanese grandmother like I did. I took great pride in that and it made me want to learn more about her country and culture. Of course, growing up in Pittsburgh, I also listened to a lot of R&B and hip hop. Yet, in the back of my mind, I thought if there was ever a chance, I would love to become an enka singer. I knew that would be a long shot living in the States, so I kept it on the backburner.”

More of this interview

In a recent interview on JapanToday, Chris Betros recently interviewed Hirayama Aya.

Here is a little excerpt from that article:

When she was a little girl growing up in Tochigi, actress Aya Hirayama dreamed of being in a Hollywood movie. “Of course, it was an impossible dream,” Hirayama, 24, muses. “But later, when I was 14, I saw an ad just by chance. It was for an audition by Hori Production.”

And so a star was born. Hirayama went through the usual routine of Hori proteges, learning to sing, dance and act. She started off doing photo shoots, TV commercials, TV variety show appearances and dramas, before making her movie debut in 2000. Hirayama can currently be seen on NTV’s “Hataraki Man” from 10 p.m. on Wednesday nights, as well as some NHK satellite TV programs. Her film appearances include “Waterboys” (2001), two films in the “Tsuribaka Nissho” series, and the 2006 South Korean film “Fighter in the Wind.” She also starred as the lead in the 2005 TV series “Haruka 17,” based on the popular manga of the same name.

More on this article