| Berryz Koubou | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Japan |
| Genres | Pop |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Labels | Piccolo Town |
| Associated acts | Hello! Project Kids, Aa!, ZYX, C-ute, mobekimasu |
| Website | www.helloproject.com/berryzkobo/ |
| Members | |
| Saki Shimizu Momoko Tsugunaga Chinami Tokunaga Maasa Sudo Miyabi Natsuyaki Yurina Kumai Risako Sugaya |
|
| Past members | |
| Maiha Ishimura | |
Berryz Kobo (Berryz工房, literally "Berryz Workshop"; sometimes romanized as Berryz Koubou or Berryz Kōbō) is an all-girl Japanese idol group within Hello! Project. The original eight members began as Hello! Project Kids and often were back-up dancers for W's music videos.[1] Prior to the band's formation, some members worked with members of Morning Musume in such side projects as Aa! and ZYX, and in the Minimoni movie Okashi na Daibōken!.
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Berryz Kobo as a unit was announced at a Hello! Project Club Event on January 14, 2004. Hello! Project promoted the group by releasing three singles within a month of each other, starting in March 2004 with "Anata Nashi de wa Ikite Yukenai". Their first album, 1st Chō Berryz, followed the trilogy of debut singles in July 2004.
The new group made their debut at a concert on March 3, 2004, and they performed as backup dancers for W's promotional videos.
"Special Generation" was released on March 30, 2005 and ranked #7 on the weekly Oricon sales charts. It was the group's first single to rank in the top 10, and their first to sell more than 20,000 copies. At that time, the group's average age was below 12 years.
On September 11, 2005, it was announced that Maiha Ishimura would graduate from the group and Hello! Project to focus on her studies.[2] Her graduation took place on the last night of their fall tour on October 2, 2005, making her only the second non-Morning Musume member to be given her own graduation concert (the first being Michiyo Heike).
In February 2007, Berryz Kobo made news headlines after it was announced that the group would be holding a concert at Saitama Super Arena on April 1. Not only were the tickets for the two performances sold out (a total of 20,000 seats) almost two months before the premiere, the group also became the first to perform in the arena whose members' average age was below 14 years (the previous record of 16.3 had been set by Morning Musume four years earlier).[3]
On March 12, 2008 the group released "Dschinghis Khan", their first cover song, which is currently their highest-selling single. Berryz Kobo participated at the Asia Song Festival 2008 in South Korea representing Japan along with W-inds and Anna Tsuchiya. Berryz won the festival's Best New Asian Artist Award along with the SM Entertainment group Shinee.[4] They performed at Sharam Q’s 20th anniversary concert on December 12 at the Nippon Budokan. The group visited the 41st Nihon Request Award (日本有線大賞 Nihon Yūsen Taishō, "Japan Wired Grand Prize") show on December 17, 2008 at Nakano Sun Plaza, performing "Dschinghis Khan", for which they received a Yūsen Ongaku Shō (有線音楽賞, "Wired Music Award"), based on how often the song had been requested on Cansystem's cable radio network.[5]
The year ended with the group's debut at the 58th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, an annual music show broadcast on December 31. They performed a number together with Morning Musume and C-ute.[6][7]
In March 2009, "Berryz Kobo First Fan Club Tour in Hawaii '09" was held in Honolulu, Hawaii.
On April 25, 2009, in Utsunomiya, Tochigi as part of their spring concert tour, Sono Subete no Ai ni, the girls celebrated their 100th concert (excluding joint concerts).
On June 21, 2009, Berryz had a mini concert in Korea.
In spring, Berryz performed in Bangkok. On March 3, Berryz released their third double A-side single, "Otakebi Boy Wao!/Tomodachi wa Tomodachi Nanda!". This single reached a peak ranking of #3, making it their highest-ranking single to date, ranking at #9 in its second week. In July they released a new single, "Maji Bomber!!", which was used as the ending theme for both the anime and game of Inazuma Eleven. Their next single, their last Inazuma Eleven ending theme, "Shining Power", was released on November 10.
Their Seven years anniversary tour started 3 of March. 3rd of March is the anniversary day that they started the carrier of Berryz Kobo seven years ago.So they call this day BERRYZ KOBO NO HI(Day of Berryz Kobo).
Berryz Kobo's 25th single "Heroine ni Narou ka(Let us be Heroine)" reached number one on the Oricon Singles Daily Chart on March 6.
The concert was scheduled 12 of March at Sendai city of Miyagi prefecture,but was canceled hurriedly, because of the attack by the grand earthquake at 11 of March,the day before of the concert-day. All of members were safety, but the tour forced to stop, were canceled or postponed till the end of March. [8]
In April 2011, Berryz Kobo released their 7th album, 7 Berryz Times.
In April 2011, Berryz Kobo successfully performed to their American fans at Sakura-Con 2011, an anime convention in Seattle, Washington, USA. This was the first performance by Berryz Kobo in the United States of America. The group participated in events such as autograph sessions, a question and answer, and a concert. 3,500 people were reported to have attended the concert.
In May 2011, Berryz Kobo released their 26th single titled Ai No Dangan
In August 2011, Berryz Kobo released their 27th single titled, Aa, Yo ga Akeru
Berryz Kobo have had performances and appearances outside of Japan for oversea fans numerous times.
In 2009, M-net and Up-Front works arranged a Berryz Koubou mini-concert in South-Korea on June 21, 2009 at Yonsei University Auditorium, titled, "Berryz Koubou MINI LIVE in Korea". This was the group's 1st concert outside Japan.
In 2010, Berryz Kobo was chosen out of Morning Musume and C-ute to perform in Thailand. Their concert was on March 27, 2010 at the Indoor Stadium Hua Mak Sports Complex. This was the second performance by Berryz Kobo outside of Japan.
On the last date of Berryz Kobo's fall 2010 concert tour, Captain ( Shimizu Saki ) announced that Berryz Kobo would be at Sakura-Con, Seattle, USA on April 22-24 2011.
When Sakura-Con came around, it was a big success for Berryz Kobo. The seven-member Hello! Project idol group Berryz Kobo made their American performance debut at Sakura-Con 2011 for an audience of 3,500 fans. Fans traveled from all over the world including multiple parts of the USA, plus Canada, France, Mexico, and Japan to support the pop vocal group who is celebrating their 7th year together. The Berryz Kobo members kept busy during the April 22–24 weekend, appearing at the event's opening and closing ceremonies, participating in a live audience Q&A and two separate 60-minute sessions where they signed autographs for their fans, and a hour long concert which consisted of 13 songs. And not only was this Berryz Kobo's 3rd performance outside of Japan, but it was the first performance outside of Asia. And also they were the third Hello!Project major act to perform outside of Asia after Morning Musume who has performed in Los Angeles in 2009 and Paris in 2010 and Erina Mano who performed in Los Angeles in 2010.
Albums
MINI ALBUMS1.Special! Best Mini -2.5maime no Kare- 2.3 Natsu Natsu Mini Berryz |
EPs |
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