JAM Project, just made history as they debuted in Saudi Arabia and became the first ever Japanese band to perform there. The concert was held at the Anime Village zone at City Walk in Jeddah on Friday, as the band is an “anime music genre” that is mostly known for singing the theme tunes of infamous anime series such as “Garbo,” “Cyborg009,” “Yu Gi Oh!” and “OnePynch Man,” among others.
For their first ever Jeddah performance, JAM Project performed a variety of much loved anime theme tunes including, Crush Gear’s “Crush Gear Fight!” One Piece’s “We Are,” and Dragon Ball z’s “Cha-la Head Cha-la.”
#WATCH: JAM Project has made history with its debut in Saudi Arabia, becoming the first Japanese band to hold a concert at the @AnimeVillageSA in Jeddah. @Jeddahseasonsa https://t.co/bX1NAM5Ptq pic.twitter.com/vCzeI0CB0Z
— Arab News (@arabnews) May 29, 2022
Saudi fans felt it was a “dream come true” for them to experience seeing their favorite genre of music being performed live in their home country. With hundreds flocking to the Anime Village, JAM stands for “Japanese Animation Maker,” and the band was established on July 19th 2000, by Ichirou Mizuki, a famous Japanese theme-song artist. The band is composed of solo singers who come together to perform the theme songs.
After the concert, band member, Mamasmi Okui took to Twitter to share a photo taken with the fans and captioned it as she thanked “everyone in Saudi Arabia, local staff & Japanese staff, and everyone who supported us from Japan.” The only female band member, she wore a navy blue abaya and covered her hair as she took off with the rest of the group to go sightseeing in the historical parts of Jeddah. She also shared on social media that her trip “was a nice cityscape.”
Just had the pleasure of watching JAM PROJECT live, the energy they brought to the stage was unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/hYd8FGszQB
— Zat (@RBN_Bido) May 27, 2022
Other members of the group, including sound director, Naoya Yamamoto shared a picture of themselves wearing a thawb and Yamamoto captioned his Twitter post, “Before returning from Saudi Arabia, we went sightseeing in the old town, wore a thawb, and had a photo session with everyone . . . lol.”
The JAM Project was originally a 9 member band, and was founded by Mizuki, but he, Eizo Sakamoto and Rica Matsumoto left the group in previous years. Ricardo Cruz is a semi-regular member, but Hironobu Kageyama, Masaaki Endoh, Hiroshi Kitadani, Masami Okui and Yoshiki Fukuyama are the remaining consistent members.
The concert was a special performance for Jeddah Season, and the annual festival highlights the coastal city’s heritage and culture through a variety of activities, locations, experiences and more.
