Charts: black enka singer makes big debut

[Tokyograph News]

Arashi may have had their 10th consecutive #1 single with "Step and Go" (324,000), but the big news this week was the debut of Jero, billed as Japan's first black enka singer.

Originally from Pittsburgh, the 26-year-old Jero (whose full name is Jerome White, Jr.) grew up listening to enka due to his Japanese grandmother. He moved to Japan in 2003 after graduating from college, and last week he released his first single, "Umiyuki." It took 4th on the charts with almost 35,000 in sales. Not counting artists that originally were part of a group, this is the highest ranking for a debut single by a solo enka singer.

Shota Shimizu also had his first major-label single, "HOME," appear in the Top 10, right behind Jero at #5. Other entries in the Top 10 were Hikaru Utada (#3), Ken Hirai (#6), and BENNIE K (#9). BoA fell short of the list at #13.

On the albums side, the brilliant green's singles collection held the #1 spot with nearly 92,000 copies sold. Acid Black Cherry came close at #2, while Yuna Ito trailed them both to rank 3rd.

TOKIO (#6), SID (#8), and Quruli (#9) made the Top 10 as well. Buono!'s first album debuted at #11, and SHAKALABBITS' best album managed to reach #16.

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