Jerome Charles White Jr.[1] (born September 4, 1981), better known by his stage name Jero (ジェロ), is an American enka singer[2] of African-American and Japanese descent who is the first black enka singer in Japanese music history. In 2018, Jero announced that he was taking an indefinite hiatus from his music career to focus on a career in computers.[3]
Biography
Jero began singing Enka at the age of six and continued to study the Japanese language all throughout high school and college.[4] He also studied Japanese for some time at the Kansai Gaidai University school of foreign languages.[5] Jero majored in information science at University of Pittsburgh and graduated in 2003 and moved to Japan in the same year. Two months after arriving in Japan, he entered the NHK Nodo Jiman competition broadcast on TV.
Jero first began pursuing his dream to become an Enka artist because of the influence of his Japanese grandmother Takiko, who had met his grandfather, an African-American serviceman, at a dance during World War II.[6] They married, had a daughter, Harumi - now a department store sales clerk - and eventually moved to his grandfather's hometown, Pittsburgh. His parents divorced when he was young and he was reared amid a strong sense of Japanese culture.[7]
His grandmother, originally from Yokohama, Japan, first introduced Jero to Enka and it was under her guidance that he grew to love the genre as a child.[8] Jero, who majored in information technology at the University of Pittsburgh, did not initially imagine himself in a career as an Enka singer.[9] Rather, after he permanently moved to Japan, his main forms of employment were as an English teacher at NOVA and as a computer engineer.[9] He only began to actively work towards becoming an Enka singer because he had promised his grandmother that one day he would someday perform at the annual Kohaku Uta Gassen song show.[5] As a result, he actively participated in numerous singing contests while he continued to work as a computer engineer and eventually achieved real success after only two months since he had arrived in Japan.[10] His grandmother never was able to see her grandson achieve Enka fame, she died in 2005, three years before he became famous.[11]
His first single, Umiyuki (海雪, literally, Ocean Snow), was released in Japan on February 20, 2008. It entered the Oricon charts at number 4.[12] Umi Yuki, references the Sea of Japan, but Jero has admitted that the only ocean he has ever really seen was in California.[13]
From May 21, 2008, Jero appeared in a Japanese TV commercial for Kirin "Fire" coffee, the first time he had appeared in a TV commercial.[14][15] In October 2008, he was interviewed on CNN International's TalkAsia.[16]
Jero was selected to appear on the 59th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, NHK New Year's Eve musical spectacular, on December 31, 2008.[18] In his participation, he fulfilled a pledge he made to his dying grandmother to appear on the yearly competition.[19] Jero appeared wearing a black and white shirt bearing the image of his grandmother.[20] He also appeared on the following year's show.
Jero completed his first official US concert tour by singing to a sold-out house at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on March 28, 2010[23] and at the Aratani Japan America Theatre in Los Angeles on March 31, 2010.[24] In addition, he also appeared in the 30th Anniversary Gala Celebration of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles on March 30, 2010.[25]
Appeal
African-American culture has been popular among a segment of young Japanese since the mid-1990s, so many are hoping that he will be able to spark interest in enka in the younger generation.[26] He held a concert on February 20, 2008 in Shibuya, a popular hangout for young people.[27]
Enka, a product of the late 1940s, is often viewed today by the music industry as commercially obsolete. However, there is hope for Enka yet as Jero's fanbase is not limited to older women who grew up with the genre but also a new and emerging younger fanbase who before would never have been thought of as potential fans for the genre.[28] Jero's devotion to the memory of his grandmother and his image as a well-educated individual have helped him to win over the hearts of older fans, while younger fans are drawn to him and his music because of the way he has revitalized the genre by blending it with a dash of hip hop.[4]
From the start, Jero always wanted to keep his hip hop attire, but his record company was a bit hesitant at first. Most Enka singers wear a kimono in their performances, which Jero felt was inappropriate for him.[28][29] After pleading with his management company, he was allowed to maintain the hip hop image and to great success as it is one of the many factors that contribute to his popularity.[30]
Discography
Jero at a concert by Japan Society in New York, on June 8, 2012
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