Meet Toki Toyokazu: Japan’s Top Elvis Tribute Artist

“I’m a Japanese Elvis tribute artist. My English isn’t very good, but I can sing Elvis songs” said Toki Toyokazu. Toki was born and raised in Tohoku Town, Aomori Prefec­ture, at the northernmost tip of mainland Japan and currently lives in Aomori City.

Toki’s musical roots lie in singing and dancing, hoping to see the joy on his grand­father’s face. “When I was little, there was a special event twice a year, during Obon and New Year’s, where my relatives’ chil­dren would perform special performances to entertain my sick, bedridden grandfa­ther,” Toki said.

Toki’s love of Elvis developed when he was 16, saying “There was something of an oldies boom in Japan, and my earliest memory of hearing Elvis music is a friend with a ducktail and a boombox doing the twist to Blue Suede Shoes. “At the time, Elvis was considered delinquent music and I felt like I shouldn’t listen to it, so I wasn’t interested.

“But when I was 21, I saw a video called Elvis 56 at Tower Records. A bolt of light­ning ran through my body, and from that moment on, I said I wanted to be Elvis and started performing.”

“There is a US military base close to where I live, and since there are a lot of Americans there, I thought I might be able to sing Elvis songs. So I sang Baby Let’s Play House over and over again in front of the base gate, accompanied by guitar.

“At first, the gate attendants were happy, but as I kept singing it over and over, they started to get suspicious, so they called the military police and almost arrested me. Af­ter that, I got to perform at an oldies living house, and I’ve been singing Elvis songs ever since.”

See Toki perform at a number of Elvis Festival events including on Wednesday, 7 January 10am – 11.30am at the Wall of Fame to unveil his UETA Star. Wednesday, 7 January 1.30pm – 3pm at Parkes Ser­vices Club in a show with Josuel Grech.

Friday, 9 January 3.25pm – 3.55pm on the Memphis Stage. The Ultimate Elvis Cham­pion, Thursday 9 January 7:30pm – 11pm at the The Little Theater. Sunday, 10 Janu­ary at 3pm – 4pm at the past UETA winners’ performance to close the Cooke Park Main Stage.