Hideki Fujisawa Explained

(born October 12, 1963) is a Japanese musician, better known by the stage name . Dance☆Man calls himself an alien from "Mirror Ball Planet". He is always seen wearing a huge afro wig and sideburns, matched with sunglasses. He is very secretive about his identity to the public, and does not release any personal information in his CDs or his official website.

Fujisawa is currently signed to independent record label In Da Groove, distributed by Nippon Columbia.[1]

Career

Fujisawa went to Dokkyou University, a private college in Saitama prefecture, majoring in economics but eventually dropped out before he could graduate. During his stay in the university, he joined a band called JADOES. The band became official in 1986, when Kadomatsu Toshiki became their record producer. The band's drummer, Yukio Shimamura, did some roadshows with band Casiopea, inspiring Fujisawa to do some roadshows himself.

He started his own career in 1998, calling himself as a space alien from "Planet Mirrorball". He re-arranged famous American/British dance songs from the 70's and 80's, often replacing the lyrics with humorous lines. One of them was Carl Carlton's song "She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)" He made his own cover version of the song, renamed it to "Se no Takai Yatsu wa Jama", and released it on March 18 under Avex Trax.

In 1999, he began a career in arranging and re-arranging songs written by Japanese composers. He started his career as an arranger to Morning Musume's 7th single, "Love Machine." The single was a success and his name became known in the music industry.

When the millennium came, Fujisawa again arranged another song for the group Morning Musume. "Koi no Dance Site" was the group's 8th single and won an award from 42nd Japanese Japan Record Grand Prix, along with Hiromi Gō's "Nakatta Koto ni Shite." On the same year, Hiromi Gō invited Fujisawa as a guest in his performance at Kōhaku Uta Gassen.

He continued performing and recording songs with a band he called The Bandman, consisted of 8 musicians and back-up vocalists. He is currently working with Konami, writing and arranging songs for the popular video game Beatmania.

His single "Afro Gunsō" became the first ending theme of the anime series Sgt. Frog. He also appeared on the show as a fictional version of himself.

Artists Dance Man worked with

Discography

Albums

TitleRelease date
1Mirrorballism ~New Generation Dance Classics~June 24, 1998
2Mirrorballism 2 ~New Generation Dance Classics~July 14, 1999
3Mirrorballism 3 ~New Generation Dance Classics~November 15, 2000
4Mirrorballism 4 ~New Generation Dance Classics~February 27, 2002
5Greatest HitsJune 19, 2002
6FuncoverlicApril 14, 2004
7Funk LoveMarch 19, 2008
8Dance☆Man Returns (ダンス☆マン リターンズ)July 11, 2007
9Dance☆Man respects Keroro Gunso (ダンス☆マン respects ケロロ軍曹)February 25, 2009
10ディスコ戦隊 アフレンジャー"'July 21, 2010

Singles

TitleRelease date
1March 18, 1998
2November 18, 1998
3May 26, 1999
4April 26, 2000
5July 5, 2000
6October 18, 2000
7December 20, 2000
8"Jazz Soul Funk"June 6, 2001
9"La★Booo"October 3, 2001
10January 30, 2002
11May 8, 2004
12"Giftful Christmas"December 8, 2010

DVD

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://indagroove.com/index.html In Da Groove website