Gospellers
Japanese a cappella vocal group (1991-)
The Gospellers (ゴスペラーズ) are a Japanese a cappella vocal group made up of Tetsuya Murakami, Kaoru Kurosawa, Yuji Sakai, Yoichi Kitayama and Yutaka Yasuoka.
History
Originally formed by Murakami and Kurosawa (along with 4 other members) in 1991 as a group within a college chorus club "Street Corner Symphony" at the University of Waseda, they recruited 3 new members in order to fill the vacancy (4 members previously left the group due to their job placement activities) for the recording of The Gospellers, their first major label release in 1994. They spent the next 6 years working towards national recognition, releasing 13 singles and 5 albums, until they finally came up with a hit single "Towa ni", which stayed in the Oricon chart ranking for 44 consecutive weeks in 2000 and 2001. They became the first a cappella group to be in the top 3 of the chart in Japan with their 16th single, "Hitori".
In early 2006, the group made a side-project release, Gosperats, which featured the members in blackface and singing with more soul and jazz-like accompaniment, with Rats & Star members Masayuki Suzuki, Nobuyoshi Kuwano and Yoshio Sato, who originally, along with such a style, established the popularity of R&B and Doo-wop in the 1980s in Japan.
In the first edition of the Japanese ice show Fantasy on Ice in 2010, the Gospellers made an appearance as guest artists. They performed together with former figure skater and figure skating commentator, Junko Yaginuma, to the song "1, 2, 3 for 5" amongst others.
Their single "Sky High" was used as the opening theme for the anime Nodame Cantabile: Paris.
The image song for the Japanese version of The Wild is called "Prisoner of Love" by the band.
Discography
Singles
Promise (21 December 1994)
U'll be Mine (21 July 1995)
Winter Cheers!〜winter special/Higher (9 November 1995)
Two-Way Street (1 March 1996)
Calendar (1 July 1996)
Machikirenai (1 November 1996)
Wolf (21 June 1997)
Owaranai Sekai/Vol.
“Gospellers” enters the record as japanese a cappella vocal group (1991-). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gospellers, Japanese and cappella can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4389744. VIAF identifies the subject as 255550499. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991, 1994, 2000 and 2001.
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