Kenji Sawada

Overview

Kenji Sawada (沢田 研二, born June 25, 1948) is a Japanese singer, songwriter and actor, nicknamed "Julie" after his admiration for Julie Andrews. He rose to fame in the late 1960s Group Sounds era as lead vocalist of The Tigers, then led the supergroup PYG before becoming one of Japan's biggest solo stars. His solo singles have sold 12.41 million copies, a record he held for nine years from 1982 to 1991, and combined singles sales including The Tigers and PYG reach 16.68 million. He is married to actress Yūko Tanaka.

Career

Early life

Born in Tsunoi, Iwami District, Tottori Prefecture (now part of Tottori), he was raised in Kyoto from age three. He enrolled at Kamo-ki High School but left during his second year. As a boy he dreamed of becoming a pro baseball player and captained his junior high team as first baseman.

The Tigers

While working as a doorman at a Kyoto dance hall, he was recruited at 17 as a roadie and vocalist, then joined Sally and the Playboys, which became The Funnies. After signing with Watanabe Productions, the band was renamed The Tigers by Kōichi Sugiyama. They debuted on February 5, 1967 with "Boku no Marie" and reached the top of the GS scene with "Seaside Bound," "Mona Lisa no Hohoemi" and "Kimi dake ni Ai o." In 1968 Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees composed two songs for the band, and "Smile for Me" became a hit in Japan. On August 12, 1968, the band held "Midsummer Night's Festival" at Korakuen Stadium, Japan's first stadium concert. In March 1969 he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone (No. 28). The Tigers disbanded at a concert at the Nippon Budokan on January 24, 1971.

PYG

In February 1971 he joined PYG, a supergroup with Takayuki Inoue, Katsuo Ohno, Kenichi Hagiwara, Hiroshi Oguchi and Shuzo Kishibe, featuring twin vocals by Sawada and Hagiwara and aiming at serious new rock. They released "Hana Taiyō Ame" in April and their biggest hit, "Jiyū ni Aruite Ai shite," in July, but audiences who saw rock as anti-establishment sometimes threw tomatoes and cans at them.

Solo career

He debuted solo on November 1, 1971 with "Kimi o Nosete," produced by Kunihiko Kase. "Yurusarenai Ai" (1972) reached No. 4, his first Oricon top ten, and the other PYG members became his backing band, the Takayuki Inoue Band. "Kiken na Futari" (1973) gave him his first No. 1 and the 4th Japan Music Awards grand prize, followed by "Tsuioku" (1974). In July 1974 he launched Japan's first nationwide tour, "Julie Rock'nTour" (34 shows in 16 cities), and held a national tour every year until 2019 (all 2020 dates were cancelled by the pandemic; touring resumed in 2021).

In 1975 he expanded into Europe; his French single "Mon Amour je viens du bout du monde" (Japanese version "Pari ni Hitori") sold 200,000 copies and made him the first Japanese artist to win a French gold disc. That June he married Emi Ito of The Peanuts (they divorced in 1987). "Toki no Sugiyuku Mama ni" (August 1975), a theme from the TBS drama Akuma no Yōna Aitsu, spent five weeks at No. 1 and sold over 900,000 copies, his biggest solo hit. In 1976 he was suspended from activity for a month after an incident and withdrew from the Kōhaku and award shows; in December he held his first solo Budokan concert. "Katte ni Shiyagare" (1977) topped Oricon for five weeks and won the 19th Japan Record Award grand prix (a record 50.8% TV rating), among most major awards that year.

Visual style and peak

From 1977 he pursued increasingly theatrical visuals. In 1978, "Samurai," "Love (Dakishimetai)" and "Darling" were major hits; "Darling" won the Japan Cable Awards grand prize and gave him his fifth No. 1, and "Love" won the best vocalist award at the 20th Japan Record Awards. At the 29th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen he became the first rock/pop singer to close the show. "Casablanca Dandy" (1979) became famous for his whiskey-spraying act, and "TOKIO" (1980) for illuminated suits and a giant parachute. The Takayuki Inoue Band disbanded on January 24, 1980, and he later formed new backing bands, Always and EXOTICS. "Stripper" sold 360,000 copies, his best for a self-composed single.

In January 1981 The Tigers reunited without Minoru Hitomi, releasing "Jūnen Romance" and "Irotsuki no Onna de Ite kure yo" (about 420,000 copies) and touring nationwide. At the 34th Kōhaku he won the gold cup for "Hare nochi Blue Boy."

Acting

In 1979 he played a science teacher building an atomic bomb in Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko, winning Hochi Film Awards for best film and best actor and a Japan Academy Prize nomination. In 1981 he starred as Amakusa Shirō in Samurai Reincarnation, which drew 2 million viewers. Other well-known roles include Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) and Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris (2002). He met Yūko Tanaka on the set of Tora-san, the Expert and married her in 1989. In 2023 he won Best Actor at the 77th Mainichi Film Awards for his work in recent films.

Musical style

Sawada sensationalized Japan with glam rock in the late 1970s and new wave-flavored pop in the early 1980s. His flamboyant costumes and makeup made him a fashion innovator. He also composes songs and plays the shamisen. His work spans kayōkyoku, enka and J-pop.