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Winning by singing - Masuda Takahisa

The nationwide tour starts today
This week we feature NEWS's Masuda Takahisa (23). Today 1 May, the nationwide tour "Spring Tour 2010 Tegomasu no Ai" of Tegomasu, the vocal unit formed by Masuda and fellow NEWS member Tegoshi Yuya (22), starts. Their first tour went to 6 cities and had 20 shows, but this tour will have 35 performances in 14 cities over 2 months.
NEWS is about all-round entertainment, but Tegomasu charms people with their singing. We can fully enjoy another aspect of Masuda.

Refrain from dancing
I felt some pressure during the first tour last year. I believed the fans coming to see us would have seen NEWS before. NEWS is entertainment. We use fireworks, the setup and production is grand, and the songs are mainly songs of encouragement and fun songs.

Tegomasu refrains from dancing, the songs are warm and fluffy, and I want to convey that feeling of Tegomasu. The lighting etc and the all-round atmosphere are different from NEWS. In a good way, I want to defy the audience's expectations, and present something different to them. This time too, we will not dance too much and we will try to win over the audience through our singing.

Tegoshi is like "Te Go Shi!" written in katakana (laugh). He expresses his views frankly, is competitive, and is easy to read. He's really straightforward.

(T/N: Japanese often use katakana if they need to emphasise something)

Two hearts
There are six hearts in NEWS, and two in Tegomasu. Of course being just two creates difficulties of its own, but perhaps it's easier to convey what we mean with there just being two of us. We want to do a concert where we are in the world of songs, and the concert inducts the audience into our world. And my physical condition is perfect.

Masuda's Private Photos
(left, top to bottom)

Work - Revving the crowd up with wooden horses
Wooden horses that were used at the first tour. I spoke passionately about wanting to go into the audience while singing Boku no Cinderella, like princes riding on a merry-go-round. Tegoshi resisted the idea, saying "I don't understand the meaning of this", but the horses made the crowd very happy, and so he came to me and apologised frankly saying, "I was wrong." (laugh)

Interest - Hooked on darts
I was once hooked on darts, and I still play it occasionally. For darts, sometimes beginners can do better than the experienced players, don't they? So the more I played, the less I hit the bullseye. The situation in this photo is fake. The last dart didn't hit a good spot, so I got irritated and stuck all the other darts into the bullseye. Of course, it's just for fun.

Food? - I couldn't help but take a photo
This is grilled corn that I ordered at a eatery that cooks delicious vegetables. I was so impressed that I couldn't help but take a photo. It's like there are "4 people" lined up on the platform, it looks cool. In addition, there're no containers or chopsticks there, and my imagination started to wander as I looked at the space. Like it would be interesting if the platform turned into corn, for example.

(right, top to bottom)

When I was young - Family trip to Malaysia
Photo of me when I went to Cherating with my family when I was 3, 4 years old. I don't remember much of the trip. There was probably a pool, and it felt like the tropics. I don't know what's in that bag I was holding either (laugh). I started work when I was in my sixth year of elementary school, so that was the only overseas trip for that period of my life. But my family has always supported my work, so I don't feel regret over being unable to travel with them.

When I was in elementary school - I was a shining star in my sixth year
A happy pair shot at the school sports day in my sixth year of elementary school. Then, I was the relay anchor, head of the cheerleading squad and a key player in the mock cavalry battle. Wasn't that amazing? I wasn't part of the school committee, but I was probably the loudest and liveliest student. I love sports days, and would be so excited that I would be unable to sleep the night before. That could have been the brightest point in my life up till now (laugh).

Profile
Born on 4 July 1986 (Showa 61) in Tokyo. Entered Johnny's Jimusho in 1998. 171 cm. Blood type O.

Tegomasu
Unit formed by Masuda and Tegoshi, whose singing abilities have been recognised by Johnny's Jimusho's Johnny Kitagawa. Released their first single Miso Soup (English version) in Sweden in November 2006. The single was released in Japan in December that same year. While still working as part of NEWS, they held their first tour Tegomasu no Uta in July 2009 in 6 cities with 20 performances, with 100,000 attendees. Their Tegomasu no Ai mini-album was released on 21 April this year.