SMAP in Chinese newspaper - Shanghai concert, Kusanagi mocks himself

SMAP in 联合早报, 4 August 2010

I saw this article in the Chinese newspaper last week and wanted to translate it, but kept on procrastinating. :X Anyway, here goes.

The Japanese media has reported that during idol group SMAP's concert in Sapporo the previous day (this article was published on 4th August so do the maths yourself), the group announced that they will be holding concerts in Shanghai, China on the 9th and 10th of October. These concerts are to make up for the cancelled Shanghai Expo concert, which was to be held in June this year (contradicts with earlier report). This will be the first overseas performance for SMAP in its 23 years.

The concert at the Shanghai Expo had been cancelled due to worries from the organiser regarding crowd control. According to the report, the Chinese government had approved of SMAP's upcoming concert on the 29th of July.

Recently, SMAP has been busy with their "We are SMAP! 2010 SMAP CONCERT TOUR". During their performace in the Sapporo Dome the other day, SMAP member Kimura Takuya suddenly announced "We will be having a concert in Shanghai!", causing the 50 000 strong audience to burst out in cheers.

The upcoming concert is to be held at the Shanghai Staduim, where famous singer Celine Dion has performed before. SMAP will be the first Japanese artist to perform there. They are expecting 80 000 fans over the two days of the concert. The concert will be similar to those they perform in Japan. As for whether SMAP will be singing any Chinese songs, they are still thinking about it.

SMAP has expressed their views on the upcoming concert, "We are looking forward to it! If everyone works hard together, we are sure it can become the best live concert!" Ingaki Goro even said that they must first learn how to greet their fans in Chinese.

SMAP also said that if the Shanghai concert goes well, they are planning to hold more overseas concerts. Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, who is fluent in Korean, said that he wants to hold a SMAP concert in Korea.

In April this year, Kimura Takuya starred across Chinese actress Lin Chi-ling in Fuji TV drama "Moon Lovers". This has increased SMAP's popularity in China. (the article didn't mention that the drama was a flop). SMAP's most recent album, "We are SMAP!", is selling well in China.

Dueing the concert in Sapporo the previous day, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi sang the song 归来的醉汉, which means "The drunkard which returns late". I don't listen to SMAP songs, so I have no idea what the actual title of the song is. This song has been widely-known as Kusanagi's "real-life song" after he was caught running around naked in a park n Japan last year after dring heavily. When arrested by the police, he confronted them, saying "What's wrong with being naked?". Before singing the song, Kusanagi made fun of himself, "This is a song that really suirs me, it will probably raise an interesting reaction."

As the song began to play, Kusanagi kneeled on the floor, moving his body slowly in time to the music, as if he was very drunk. The other four members of SMAP, who were at one side, could not help but laugh at hm. Kimura Takuya, after watching Kusanagi's performance twice, not only almost had a complete change in expression, he also gave a "red card" to Kusangagi, causing the audience to burst out in laughter.