The Gospellers

In 1991, five singers formed a Japanese a cappella ensemble while enrolled at Waseda University and participating in its Street Corner Symphony club. Their first single, “Promise,” arrived in 1994, with the album The Gospellers reaching stores the next year. The lineup of Youichi Kitayama, Kaoru Kurosawa, Tetsuya Murakami, Yuji Sakai, and Yutaka Yasuoka continued releasing material, ultimately issuing thirteen albums and more than thirty singles. They became the first a cappella group to enter the top three of the Japanese Oricon chart, and the 2007 album Works nearly reached the top five.