Shazna

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Shazna is a visual kei band with strong pop influences, that formed in 1992 and became popular in the late 1990s. The band started on the relatively harder side of rock, but ended up switching to a softer more pop sound as they became widely popular in the 1990s.

Perhaps the band's most notable feature is its lead singer, Izam, who is a crossdresser, being male but dressing as a woman. An androgynous look and cross-dressing are rather common amongst visual kei musicians, but few have managed to do it as convincingly as he has. In 1999, Izam married the famous idol and cover girl Hinano Yoshikawa, only to file for separation two months later, and divorced two months after that. Both the marriage and divorce caused quite a scandal which seriously harmed the popularity of both Izam and Hinano. Fans speculate that this scandal was one of the reasons that led to the band's disappearance soon thereafter.

Their last single (and their second Christmas single) "Winter's Review" was released at the end of 1999. In 2000, a singles collection was issued, although Shazna was no more. The band's other well-known songs include "Piece of Love", which was also the first opening theme for the anime Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne and "Melty Love", which was the band's first big hit.

After Shazna stopped working together, Izam turned to acting, appearing in several films including Chinese Dinner, G@me and a special episode of Bishôjo Senshi Sailor Moon, the live-action series based on the popular manga and anime. Back in the days when Shazna was a band, Izam also had a cameo appearance in the Crayon Shin-chan movie, called "Mission:1000bolts!! Pig's Hoof's Secret Misson!!" (1998) which also used the band's tune "Pureness" as its theme song.

After Shazna's break-up, the members all went in musically different directions -- Izam (going for a much less feminine look) became a soloist, guitarist A・O・I went acoustic, and bassist NIY joined the band FANBLE.

However in 2006, after 6 years of silence, Shazna announced that they will work together again. They held their first concert in September, 2006 and are set to release their comeback single, "kokoro" on the 25th of April.