• Home
• Musical artists
• Kenji Sawada

Kenji Sawada Musical artist

Kenji Sawada (沢田 研二, Sawada Kenji, born June 25, 1948; real surname written as 澤田) is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and actor, best known for being the vocalist for the Japanese rock band The Tigers. Nicknamed "Julie" (ジュリー, Jurī) because of his self professed adoration of Julie Andrews, he was born in Tsunoi, Iwami (now part of Tottori), Tottori Prefecture, Japan, and raised in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto at age 3. He is married to Oshin star Yūko Tanaka, whom he met on the set of Tora-san, the Expert. As a singer (often he also worked as a songwriter) and actor, Sawada prospered greatly on Japanese popular culture in the last three decades of the Showa era. At the end of the 1960s, he had great success as the lead singer of the band The Tigers. After the breakup of The Tigers and another project PYG, he began his own solo career.