''Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ'' was a Japanese music variety show on

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

hosted by the comedy duo

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

, which consists of

Hitoshi Matsumoto is a Japanese comedian and filmmaker. He was born in Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture. He is one half of the comedy duo Downtown (owarai), Downtown, alongside Masatoshi Hamada, and is one of the most popular comedians in Japan. Matsumoto has directe ...

and

Masatoshi Hamada , nicknamed , is a Japanese comedian best known as the ''tsukkomi'' half of the owarai duo Downtown alongside Hitoshi Matsumoto. Hamada is married to Natsumi Ogawa, with whom he has two children. Early life Hamada was born near Daikokucho S ...

. It is a very popular show with comical hosts who like to pick on their guests. An episode usually consists of live performances (of recently released songs) from popular artists, chat segments and other fun and games. Many famous singers such as

Ayumi Hamasaki is a Japanese singer-songwriter and producer. Nicknamed the "Empress of Pop" on account of her influence throughout Asia, she is widely recognized for her versatile music production, songwriting, and live performances. Hamasaki is the List of ...

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...

Hikaru Utada , also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese and American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. She is best known by international audiences for w ...

, and

Namie Amuro Namie Amuro ( ; ; born September 20, 1977) is a retired Japanese singer. She rose to prominence as a Japanese idol, teen idol, and transitioned into a leading Pop music, pop artist due to her versatility across music styles and visual presentatio ...

have performed almost all of their singles on this show. Japanese rock artists such as

Glay Glay (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese Rock music, rock band formed in Hakodate in 1988. The core four members, vocalist Teru (singer), Teru, guitarists Takuro (musician), Takuro and Hisashi (musician), Hisashi, and bassist Jiro (musician), ...

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, Alice Nine, The Gazette,

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DJ Ozma , known professionally as DJ Ozma (stylized DJ OZMA) and legally as , is a Japanese pop singer and musical artist. He is also known as Show Ayanocozey of the rock band Kishidan and Naomi Camelia Yazima of the drag queen pop group Yazima Beaut ...

, and

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have also been on the show performing their hit singles as well as playing games with the hosts. All bands signed under

Johnny & Associates was a Japanese talent agency formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962, which managed groups of male idols known as The company had a significant impact on pop culture with male idols and boy bands in Japan since the 1980s. Until 2019, the company w ...

have also appeared on the show as guests and have performed their latest hit songs. South Korean boybands

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and girl groups S.E.S.,

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, and

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have also appeared on the show. On September 18, 2012, Fuji TV announced that "Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ" would end its run after eighteen years. The series finale aired on December 17, 2012.

Segments

Music mixture

In this quiz game segment, four or five teams of one or more individuals try to guess songs as they are played four at a time. (As each song is correctly guessed, they are eliminated from the mixture.) Each song has a descending point value, from 40 for the first song guessed to 10 for the last. The game is played in four rounds, with the final round determining the winner in one of two ways through a random draw. The "NG" variation has one of the four songs in the final rounds taking away 100 points from the individual/team who guessed it. The "Lucky" variation is exactly the reverse: one of the final round songs ''gives'' 100 points to the individual/team who guessed it.

Telephone box

In this interview segment, guests are interviewed over a telephone in an English-style phone box.

Rainichi-In

This interview segment focuses on non-Japanese artists that have a loyal following in Japan, such as

Ne-Yo Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo ( ), is an American singer and songwriter. Regarded as a leading figure of Contemporary R&B#2000s, 2000s R&B music, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, includi ...

and

Hoshi no resutoran (The Star restaurant)

This segment is a combination interview/cooking show: a chef from a restaurant selected by the guest(s) as his/her/their favorite restaurant cooks for that guest and Downtown. One notable example of this is when

co-founder Yoshiki noted the

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-based restaurant ''La Rochelle'' as his favorite place. The restaurant's owner/head chef,

Hiroyuki Sakai is a Japanese chef who specializes in French cuisine. Sakai is best known as the second, final, and longest-serving Iron Chef French on the Japanese television show ''Iron Chef'', first appearing at the beginning of 1994 (after Yutaka Ishinabe r ...

, came on the show to cook a special dish for Yoshiki.

Other competitions

Miscellaneous competition segments have also occurred over the show's run, many of which started rivalries between Downtown and guests. One such example is a 1999

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

competition between entertainer

Masaharu Fukuyama is a Japanese singer-songwriter and actor from Nagasaki. He debuted in 1990 with the single "Tsuioku no Ame no Naka". Fukuyama is represented by the agency Amuse, Inc. Career While Fukuyama can also be seen in Japanese television drama ...

and

, which led to an ''

Iron Chef is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, is a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle buil ...

'' battle between the two.

References

External links

* {{in lang, ja Fuji Television original programming Japanese music television series 1990s Japanese television series 2000s Japanese television series 2010s Japanese television series 1994 Japanese television series debuts 2012 Japanese television series endings

Segments

Music mixture

Telephone box

Rainichi-In

Hoshi no resutoran (The Star restaurant)

Other competitions

See also

References

External links