American finds his voice in the world of 'enka'

The world of "enka" ballads has been set on its ear with the historic debut of Jero, a 26-year-old black American from Pittsburgh whose sole passion since he was a child was to make the big time in the traditional crooning genre.

Raised by his Japanese grandmother and half-Japanese mother, Jero said he grew up exposed to the Japanese language, food, culture and enka.

"(Enka) means a lot to me. It is a big part of who I am," Jero, short for Jerome White Jr., said in an interview with The Japan Times. "I listened to it in my free time. I listened to it in my car, going to school, in between classes. I listened to it every day, and it's something I want to do for a long time."