Trot Girls Japan" is a Japan-Korea joint project audition program that started last year.
Trot" is a Korean word meaning "nostalgic melody," and is a genre that is currently attracting a lot of attention.
In Japan, Showa-era songs are attracting attention from the younger generation, and city pop is very popular overseas.
Trot Girls Japan" is an audition to find a new generation of divas who can sing such nostalgic but high-spec classic songs.
On February 23, the final competition was finally held, and the 9 finalists who won out of the 54 groups of 57 that passed the preliminary screening competed in the final (this event was already broadcast live on WOWOW and ABEMA).

The finalists were Aiko Sumida (16), Makoto.(age not disclosed), natsuco (33), Rie Utashin (50), Mirai Fukuda (29), Juri (17), Aki Azuma (16), Miyu Matsunaga (25), and Sohee Kim (29), all of whom are of varying ages and careers.
Judging will be conducted in a three-block system, with the first-place finishers in each of A (natsuco, Aki Azuma, and Mieyu Matsunaga), B (MAKOTO, Aiko Sumida, and Mirai Fukuda), and C (Sohee Kim, Juri, and Rie Utashin) advancing to the final round.
Judging will be done by guest judges & general judges and viewer votes to determine the winner.
The judging panel, headed by Shigeru Matsuzaki, the head of the judging committee, will judge these talented divas with a strict eye, and will also include music world leader and arranger Motoki Funayama, renowned producer Shun Kamata, Korean trot singer Shin Yu from Korea, and BIGBANG's main vocalist and Japan expert D -LITE, the main vocalist of BIGBANG and a great connoisseur of Japan.

At 6:00 p.m., the show finally started!
The judging was a one-shot competition in which finalists sang a song of their own choosing.
The host, EXIT (Hiroki Kanechika, Rintaro.) (Daiki Kanekika, Rintaro), the host of the event, lightened the atmosphere with light-hearted jokes, but there was already a tense atmosphere in the studio.
The finalists have put their lives on the line, and their passion is strong.
First in Block A was Azuma Aki, who sang Shinji Tanimura's signature song "Subaru" with the fresh cheer of a 16-year-old.
He sang straight through even the most difficult songs with clear vocals.
The next block, B, was a "block of death" where three of the nine most highly rated players were gathered.
Mirai Fukuda, who was the main vocalist for THE HOOPERS (a vocal unit of good-looking girls), jumped into first place here.
She sang "My Song," a song by Shigeru Matsuzaki, the president of the jury, in front of the president himself, moving and shaking the guest jury members.
Fukuda's emotions exploded the moment he won first place, as he had been on the verge of winning the Loser's Resurrection.
The audience was also very excited.
In the last block, C, Rie Utashin, the oldest singer, sang Machiko Watanabe's "Lips, hotly tell me about you" as spontaneously as if it were her own song. Her deep voice overwhelmed the audience.

With the three potential winners in place, the judging process entered its final stage.
The winner will be either Aki Azuma with her young sensibility, Mirai Fukuda, who is trying to break out of the idol world, or Rie Utashin with her impressive expressiveness and persuasive power. ...... The winner was decided by the votes of the judges and the general public.
As a result, the majority of judges voted for Fukuda".
The winner of the first "Trot Girls Japan" was decided here to be Mirai Fukuda.
She sobbed again and choked up, saying, "I'm glad I didn't give up on music (crying).
Her pursuit of her dream and belief in herself seemed to inspire many viewers, so much so that # Trot Girls Japan became a trending topic on social networking sites for a while.

Thus ended the four-month audition process, but this was not the end of the Trot Girls' activities.
In March, TROT GIRLS JAPAN 2024 will hold a special live concert in Tokyo (Sunday, March 17, at Tokyo's LINE CUBE SHIBUYA, The success of each of them is also expected.
We hope you will enjoy the songs of these divas, who have been trained through auditions and have grown up a lot, at the live performance.

TROT GIRLS JAPAN 2024 Concert
Date: March 17 (Sun.) Doors open 17:30 / Concert begins 18:00
Opening: LINE CUBE SHIBUYA
[Performer
Miyu Kanou, Rihoko Tara, Sohee Kim, Juri, Aiko Sumida, Aki Azuma, natsuco, Mirai Fukuda, Rie Utashin, Makoto., Minyu Matsunaga, Shigeru Matsuzaki
Ticket price: 5,500 yen (tax included, all seats reserved)
Application HP:https://ticket.tickebo.jp/show/event.html?info=11943