Welcome to The Avocado’s weekly discussion of Japanese pop culture! The first ever Music Awards Japan will be live streaming on YouTube May 21 and May 22. If I wasn’t traveling right now I’d be watching these live1Yes, in the middle of the night….I really love music. but I’ll settle for checking them out later. Although, as I wake up today I see the Premiere Ceremony that aired while I was asleep isn’t on YouTube at the moment…hopefully I can find it later! 😢 I found come clips, so I at least got to see Mrs. GREEN APPLE accept their award, but I’m weird and want to watch the whole thing.
The big event I’m really, really looking forward to (and now desperately hoping I can somehow watch) is the Grand Ceremony tonight/tomorrow, which will include the major awards AND performances by some of the nominees!2Including three favorites of mine, Mrs. GREEN APPLE, Hikaru Utada (宇多田ヒカル), and Fujii Kaze (藤井風)! I’m surprised by some of the winners already, so the major award winners should be interesting To see the full list of categories and nominees, you can visit the official website. It’s a very strange feeling to want every nominee to win, but for the Album of the Year3And by “year” I’ve learned they mean “gained significant attention and recognition between Jan. 29, 2024, to Jan. 26, 2025” according to Billboard. Which yeah, okay, now I get it. Also, now that I’ve seen the other winners so far…my current prediction for this category is Hikaru Utada or Fujii Kaze. category that’s exactly how I feel! I can’t choose between those five perfect albums. More than just giving out awards, I’m just really excited to see such a big celebration of the music I love! I hope that this can become a new tradition.
And, as always…
What have you been watching/reading/playing/eating/listening to lately?
Happy Wednesday! 🌸