Nicholas Edwards / ãã³ã©ã¹ã»ã¨ãã¯ã¼ãº (Left), and Chris Hart / ã¯ãªã¹ã»ãã¼ã (Right)
Two past winners of popular television singing contest, NTV's 'NodoJiman Za! World,' which features non-Japanese vocalists singing songs in Japanese, have signed record deals and are trying their hands at the mainstream Japanese music market.
Nicholas Edwards (20) is American born, from the state of Oregon. He moved to Japan in 2010 after graduating high school to pursue his dream of becoming a singer in Japan. He is now signed to Warner Music Japan and set to release his original debut single titledãåãæè©ã«ãªãã/ 'Kimi ga Uta ni Naru' on his 21st birthday, July 31st, 2013.
Edwards is well known for his strong, unique voice, anime-style beauty, and astounding mastery of the Japanese language. He released an indie album titled 'n/f' in March of 2013, which featured 2 original songs and 5 covers. 'My First Love Song' can be heard below in his debut teaser from Warner Music Japan's official YouTube.
LINKS:
Twitter- @Nyk_Staff (Staff account. His previous twitter was closed with the announcement of his debut.)
Blog
Official Site
Chris Hart (28) is a California native who came to Japan in 2009. He released his debut single, a cover of Yuusaku Kiyama's 'Home' on May 5th, 2013 from Universal Sigma.
Hart is praised for his soulful voice, adding a new flavor to every song he sings. Thanks to his performance of Yuusaku Kiyama's 'Home' on the 5th NodoJiman Za! World in fall of 2012, the song reached number 1 on iTunes charts the following day despite having started out of the top 300.
Hart's debut cover album 'Heart Song' will be released on June 6th, 2013.
LINKS:
Twitter- @ChrisHart_JP
Blog
Official Site
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Sources
1, 2, 3, 4
I've loved this show since the first showing. Seriously the two best got record deals. Love Chris' voice so much. And Nicholas' blog is a really, really good read. He's going to write some crazy good songs. There's so much more to write about them but I saw that there was an article earlier so I figured I'd give a little update!