Hitmaker Vaundy Proves His True Worth Live as Fervor Spreads Beyond Japan

On Sept. 5, Vaundy kicked off his first Asian arena tour entitled Vaundy ASIA ARENA TOUR 2026 “HORO.”

Opening with a two-night run at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan, this large-scale tour spans East Asia, making stops in Seoul, Hong Kong, Fukuoka, and Taipei. Every date on this tour — whose title “HORO” means “wandering” in Japanese — sold out the day tickets went on sale. Over the past year, the 26-year-old star became the youngest male solo artist ever to tour Japan’s four major domes with Vaundy DOME TOUR 2026 “SILENCE” — seven shows across four cities (Fukuoka, Tokyo, Osaka, and Sapporo) that drew more than 350,000 fans in total. Having cemented his status as a top artist on Japan’s music scene, Vaundy is now stepping onto the world stage, and anticipation is building for what kind of performance he’ll deliver.

Local fans seem to feel the same excitement — tickets for the two-night run at Seoul’s INSPIRE ARENA (with a capacity of roughly 15,000) on Sept. 19 and 20 sold out immediately upon release. As an aside, on a previous visit to Seoul I ran into a fan sporting a hairstyle and outfit almost identical to Vaundy’s. I couldn’t help but strike up a conversation, and sure enough, he turned out to be a huge fan and had even traveled to Japan to see him live. At the previous domestic dome tour, the crowd was full of fans who appeared to have come from all over Asia, and for them, the international trek is truly the event they’ve been waiting for. With this landmark tour underway, let’s take stock of where Vaundy stands today.

Since arriving on the scene in 2019 at age 19 with “Tokyo Flash,” Vaundy has been a defining presence with a steady run of hits, and 19 of his songs have surpassed 100 million streams. They range from “Tokyo Flash” itself to “Time Paradox,” the theme song for Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Earth Symphony; “Hadaka no Yusha,” the opening theme for the anime Ranking of Kings; and “CHAINSAW BLOOD,” the ending theme for the first episode of the anime Chainsaw Man.

Through these anime tie-ins, his music has reached listeners outside Japan as well. The comment sections under his music videos on YouTube and the replies on social media are filled with comments in a range of languages, suggesting that Vaundy’s global presence has been growing on the strength of the songs alone.

Standing above them all is one of his signature hits, “Kaiju no Hanauta.” Released in May 2020, the track has now topped 1.1 billion cumulative streams, and that number keeps climbing. Written with call-and-response and singalongs in mind from the start, “Kaiju no Hanauta” has become the kind of anthem that whips his live crowds into a frenzy and continues to captivate listeners six years after its release.

Vaundy has no shortage of songs like this — another example is “odoriko” — that boast similarly high streaming numbers and have become long-term hits rather than fading after a momentary buzz. That’s a clear sign of just how timeless and sturdy his music is in a scene defined by constant turnover. And while I noted earlier that many of Vaundy’s biggest songs are anime tie-ins, “odoriko” is actually the most listened-to track across Asia. The fact that this song has connected with fans on its own merits, apart from any boost from an anime work, is notably different from the way other artists are usually received abroad.

These various numbers tell the story of where Vaundy stands today, but underlying it all is his wealth of talent as an artist and the variety of his creations, which never stop surprising fans and listeners. His discography holds more than a few tracks that could be called signature songs. Yet it’s hard to sum up his musicality in simple terms because a completely different set of elements comes to the fore from song to song, each showing a wholly different side of him. Every artist builds their music out of their own roots and Vaundy is no exception. But what sets him apart is the sheer breadth of those roots and his gift for distilling them into his own expression.

Running through the genres his songs bring to mind, the range spans Japanese kayokyoku (vintage pop) and J-pop to British rock, club music, and hip-hop. Vaundy’s style takes shape by drawing inspiration from all kinds of music born across the past fifty years, from the 1970s to today, and redesigning it through a thoroughly contemporary sensibility. And it isn’t limited to pop music, either. On “Kiseki,” released November 2025, he tried his hand at a full orchestral arrangement for the first time. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, the track signified that Vaundy’s songwriting is still very much evolving.

Just as important as the songwriting is his appeal as a singer. He brings that same variety to how he sings his creations, drawing on everything from rapping to rock-style shouting to a beautiful falsetto. Having once been active online as a so-called “utaite” (cover singer), he knows exactly what kind of vocal expression a given song calls for.

What’s more, his creativity doesn’t stop at the music. As the designer working on merchandise and artwork, and as director of his own music videos, Vaundy applies his creative talents to every aspect of his output. Visual expression in particular seems to be important to him — the string of videos running from “How do I know” to “The SILENCE” builds large-scale imagery with science-fiction elements. He has called himself a “multi-creator” since his debut and brings his talents to bear on nearly every facet of the music-making process.

But music remains at the center of his creative output, and beyond his work in the studio, it’s on the live stage where his power as an artist really comes through. Since playing his first-ever headlining show in 2020, Vaundy has been actively performing live ever since. His two-night run at Nippon Budokan in 2022 made headlines when more than 150,000 people applied for a combined capacity of 26,000, and his 2024–2025 arena tour entitled Vaundy one man live ARENA tour “FUSION” drew a combined 76,000 fans over two nights at Saitama Super Arena in stadium mode — the largest attendance ever recorded at that venue. He has also headlined music festivals across Japan, and demand for his live shows keeps growing.

Given their scale, Vaundy’s concerts are surprisingly simple in approach. His stance is almost stoic in that he draws in the audience through nothing but the raw power of vocals and playing on stage. The songs Vaundy delivers with his sharp, skilled band hit the audience with overwhelming force. His live vocals are often described as sounding “just like the record” — but that comparison sells him short. When heard live, Vaundy’s voice carries even more power and emotion than it does on record, and the crowd’s voices give it a further boost. Songs like “Kaiju no Hanauta” and “CHAINSAW BLOOD” regularly spark full-audience sing-alongs during a show, engulfing the venue in euphoria.

That same excitement should come through on the live album being released ahead of the Asia tour, which documents the Tokyo Dome show of Vaundy DOME TOUR 2026 “SILENCE.” The tour’s setlist opens with “Tokyo Flash” and runs through Vaundy’s signature hits, making it perfect not only for anyone wanting to relive or simulate the live experience, but also as an ideal entry point into his music.

Vaundy ASIA ARENA TOUR 2026 “HORO” that kicked off this month marks an important foothold for the singer-songwriter as he moves toward a full-fledged expansion abroad. Judging by the reaction to his songs and the excitement he’s generated at overseas festivals he’s played in the past, his presence has already spread well beyond Japan’s borders — but once international fans see him live, their appreciation of his music is sure to deepen even further. Following the Asia tour, 2027 is set to bring his largest-ever domestic arena tour spanning 30 dates across Japan. Whether at home or abroad, it will be well worth watching how Vaundy scales up from here.

—This article by Tomohiro Ogawa first appeared on Billboard Japan