It's official.  The White (male) Group wins!

 

If you have never lived in Japan during the New Year, you may not know what Kouhaku is.  As the name implies it is a kind of singing contest between the 'red group' and the 'white group.'  Women performers make up the 赤組 (red) and male performers make up the 白組 (white).  Performing on the Kouhaku is by invitation only so it is always interesting to find out who 'made the cut'.

It seems to have three groups of singers: 1) those who can REALLY sing well, 2) those who can't REALLY sing well, but have nice faces and 3) those who are willing to perform in the most outrageous getups.

If you like J-pop and/or Enka, watching Kouhaku can be fun and educational as every song has 字幕 (subtitles) in Japanese.

It started way back in 1951 on radio (hence the '57th') but today it can be watched on HDTV and voted for from your cell (if you live in Japan of course!).

NHK's Kouhaku page