On December 29th, the band ORANGE RANGE appeared at the rehearsal for the 76th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, which was held at the NHK Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo. They spoke about their feelings about appearing on Kouhaku for the first time in 19 years.
RYO said, "It's been a long time since we've last performed, so we want to do our best to show our strengths," and added, "We've only ever participated in Kohaku via live broadcast, so seeing the scale of the event for ourselves again makes me very nervous, as if it were my first time performing."
The song they will be performing this time, "Ikenai Taiyo," is a revival hit from a song released in 2007. "I was worried about what kind of reaction there would be to performing an old song again," they said, revealing their feelings, "but in this day and age, maybe we don't need to think about that sort of thing too much. I'm grateful to the staff for making me think that way."
When asked how he felt about performing a midsummer song in the middle of winter, he replied, "I'm good at it, so I'll do my best to raise the energy in the venue," making the audience laugh.
The theme of the 76th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen is "Connecting, Connecting, New Year's Eve," and it will be hosted by Hiroiki Ariyoshi, Haruka Ayase, Mio Imada, and announcer Nahoko Suzuki. Guest judges will include wheelchair tennis player Kaito Oda, actors Akari Takaishi, Taiga Nakano, Nanako Matsushima, voice actress Masako Nozawa, soccer player Kazuyoshi Miura, and literary critic Kaho Miyake. The show will air from 7:20 PM to 11:45 PM on December 31st (with some news interruptions).
