Hikawa Kiyoshi was born on September 6, 1977 in Fukuoka as Yamada Kiyoshi. He's been interested in music since the early years - while still in high school, he won a radio contest for his performance of a toba Ichirou song, kita no kamono uta. He's also been a member of his school's arts club as a vocalist.
After graduating in 1996, he was spotted in a performance on NHK talent show by Hideo Mizumori, a composer and songwriter for many enka singers. He convinced Kiyoshi to move to Tokyo, where for the next three years the young vocalist studied under the renown master.
In 2000, Kiyoshi released his debut single hakone hachiri no hanjirou as Hikawa Kiyoshi - a stage name invented for him by the famous Japanese director and actor Takeshi Kitano. He was only 23 years old at the time, which is considered very young for an enka singer. Since then, he's been keeping busy almost non-stop for the past eight years. With countless concerts and several releases a year, Hikawa Kiyoshi has over 15 releases each of singles, albums and videos. Since the style of music he represents is generally associated with the older generation, his releases also come in "older" forms, and thus all of his albums and singles have been released on CD as well as tapes, and all of his concerts and PVs can still be bought on VHS as well as DVD.
His popularity is proven by the fact that his music has been used in various anime and TV shows (including foreign programs), and Kiyoshi himself has already appeared nine times in Kouhaku Uta Gassen - a concert organized each year on New Year's Eve by NHK, whose participants are only the most popular pop and traditional singers.
In his private time Kiyoshi is friends with Takanori Nishikawa (T.M.Revolution, abingdon boys school) and they often appear together on various shows.
Hikawa Kiyoshi is a singer in the enka genre, a traditional Japanese music style. Whereas enka is mostly a genre enjoyed by Japan's older generations, and is also performed by elder singers dressed in traditional garb, Hikawa Kiyoshi is contradicting this image.
In his early thirties, handsome and dressing quite fashionably, he is incredibly popular amongst enka lovers. He has also sparked the interest of the younger generations and is on his way to shake off the stereotype of enka being uncool.
