Kohaku Uta Gassen 2010 Line-Up Revealed

NHK announced today the artists lined up for the 61st Kohaku Uta Gassen extravaganza. Earlier news reports saying that Korean groups BIG BANG and KARA would be involved were completely incorrect. 44 artists have been invited with 22 on the Reds (Female) and 22 on the White (Male) teams. 5 of the artists will be making their 1st appearance on the show. The hosts will be Nao Matsushita and Arashi. The show begins at 7.30pm on New Year’s Eve and run for 4 hours and 15 mins until 11.45pm.

The artists are as follows:

Red Team

aiko
Angela Aki
Ikimonogakari
Ishikawa Sayuri
Uemura Kana
AKB48
Kawanaka Miyuki
Kumiko
Koda Kumi
Godai Natsuko
Kobayashi Sachiko
Sakamoto Fuyumi
Tendo Yoshimi
DREAMS COME TRUE
Nakamura Mitsuko
Nishino Kana
Hamasaki Ayumi
Perfume
Hirahara Ayaka
Mizuki Nana
Mizumori Kaori
Wada Akiko

White Team

Arashi
Itsuki Hiroshi
HY
EXILE
NYC
Kayama Yuzo
Kitajima Saburo
Go Hiromi
Kobukuro
SMAP
TOKIO
Tokunaga Hideaki
AAA
Hikawa Kiyoshi
FUNKY MONKEY BABYS
Fukuyama Masaharu
flumpool
Hosokawa Takashi
Porno Graffitti
Mori Shinichi
Yusuke
L’Arc~en~Ciel

I’ll try and catch AKB48 and Perfume’s performance but I don’t think I’ll watch the rest. I’ll check out Downtown’s annual batsu game instead.