On March 9th, the final round of the TV series ‘Nodo Jiman Za! World!’ was held on Japan’s NTV. In this program amateur singers from around the world sing their hearts out in Japanese before a nationwide audience. And the winner of this year’s final round was Chris Hart from the United States. Chris won the competition singing the SMAP hit, “Yozora no Muko.” After his award winning performance, he sang a duet with the SMAP singer Masahiro Nakai. After their duet, Nakai praised Chris saying, “Your performance was perfect, and I was a little embarrassed to be on stage with you.”

Chris started having an interest in Japanese culture and J-Pop when he was 12 years old. At 13 he did a homestay in Japan and became even more enchanted with the culture. When he turned 24, he decided to move to Japan. While working in Japan he uploaded his covers of Japanese pop songs and his original songs to YouTube. Gradually, his videos gained many followers. Now after his win he is in high demand. It will be interesting to see what will happen next for Chris.

Please enjoy the video below of Chris singing!