A mixture of new and seasoned artists are among the 42 acts set to perform at the 71st “Kohaku Uta Gassen” (red and white song battle) on New Year’s Eve, public broadcaster NHK announced on Nov. 16.

In all 10 new entrants have been announced for the annual song contest, in which the female artists of the red team and male performers of the white team compete to be named the better side. Six are on the red team, including groups NiziU and Sakurazaka46, and singer JUJU. The white team’s three new acts are “Kosui” singer Eito, and Johnny & Associates groups Snow Man and SixTONES.

Arashi, who announced their intention to go on hiatus at the end of the year, will appear for the 12th time. Singer LiSA, who sings the theme song for the hit anime series “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba,” will make her second appearance, her first being last year.

Hip-hop group GReeeeN, who perform masked and have been behind the theme song to this year’s NHK morning drama “Yell,” will sing for the first time at the contest as a special, separate act.

This year’s event will be held without an audience as part of attempts to avoid infections from the coronavirus. It will be the first time for the show’s history to go out without live spectators since the very first Kohaku Uta Gassen was broadcast on radio in 1951.

Former idol and talent Moga Megami has announced that she is currently pregnant with her first child! Mogami confirmed the news on her official LINE blog.

In the entry Mogami shared that as she thinks about the future, her desire to have children grows more and more so this pregnancy as made her “very happy”. The father of the child is unknown, Mogami also stated that currently there are no plans to marry. While the announcement was sudden, Mogami stated that she will continue activities as normal while closely monitoring her physical condition.

Mogami further went on to candidly talk about morning sickness, saying that it’s a bit worse than she expected. She’s also a little anxious about the potential of “maternity blues”, but is very excited for the future and hopes her fans watch over her.

Tower Records, the beloved music chain that shuttered all of its U.S. physical locations 14 years ago, has been revived as an online store.

After nearly a year of teasing its return via a social media presence, the new Tower Records officially relaunched this week, complete with the return of its Tower Pulse magazine as well as online performances, Deadline reports.

The Tower Records relaunch — which includes the online store and planned pop-up shops — was originally scheduled to occur at this year’s SXSW, but that was postponed due to the coronavirus. With many consumers – now primarily vinyl buyers – forced to shop online due to the pandemic, Tower Records has reemerged as a familiar name to music fans.

Tower Records’ founder Russ Solomon died in 2018 at the age of 92. As CEO of the chain, Solomon expanded his business from the back of a Sacramento drugstore to, at its peak, a billion-dollar CD giant with over 200 brick-and-mortar stores spanning North America to Japan. However, following the decline of the compact disc at the turn of the millennium, Tower ultimately filed for bankruptcy and closed all of their U.S. locations by 2006; only one Tower Records remains standing, in Tokyo, Japan.