Berryz Kobo x °C-ute

All-girl super group Berryz Kobo is part of Hello! Project and consists of Saki SHIMIZU, Momoko TSUGUNAGA, Chinami TOKUNAGA, Maasa SUDO, Miyabi NATSUYAKI, Yurina KUMAI and Risako SUGAYA. They already have 9 original albums, 2 best-ofs and 34 singles to their credit.

Berryz Kobo released their debut single, Anata nashi dewa ikite ikenai on Girls Day (March 3 in Japan) in 2004 and have been consistently impressing fans ever since. There are many highlights to their 10 year history, including their 2005 Oricon top 10 hit Special Generation.

In 2007, Berryz Kobo gave sold out performances in the Saitama Super Arena (20,000 seats), becoming the youngest group to perform in this arena. One year later, they won the Best Newcomer Award at the Asia song Festival and then the Nihon Yuusen Taishou Award for their cover song of Dschinghis Khan.

In March 2010, Berryz Kobo was the first all-girl Japanese group to perform in Bangkok, Thailand. Their 24th single Shining Power, released the same year on November 10, is the ending song of the anime Inazuma Eleven.

They performed in Seattle for Sakura-Con on April in 2011 and in New Jersey for AnimeNEXT in June 2012. Their 29th single, cha cha SING, includes covers of two famous Thai songs Row Mah Sing and Too Much So Much Very Much and has been released in July 2012. In August 2012, 3 members of Berryz Kobo were in Bangkok for the second time to perform a mini live concert at Japan Festa in Bangkok 2012 and in March 2013, they came once again in Bangkok for a special live. Finally, in May 2013, they held a Berryz Kobo Festival in Taipei and met their fans during a handshake event. On November they performed on the famous Nippon Budokan at Tôkyô in front of 10,000 fans.

The name ?-ute comes from the mix of “cute”, for the cute girls, and “?”, which indicates their body temperature rising from their enthusiasm. °C-ute is composed of Maimi YAJIMA, Saki NAKAJIMA, Airi SUZUKI, Chisato OKAI and Mai HAGIWARA.

In June 2005, ?-ute has been created from members of Hello! Project Kids. In 2006 they took part in many Hello! Project’s lives and events, and released 4 CDs as an indies band. They also had mini-lives and handshake events nationwide.

On February 21 of 2007, they made their major debut with the single Sakura Chirari, which was immediately in the 5th place of the Weekly Japanese sales ranking, a new record for an all-girl idol band. Since then, all of their 24 singles have been placed in the top 10 of the Weekly Oricon charts. Until now, they have also released 8 original albums.

?-ute also won several awards like the Newcomer Artist Award at the Best Hit Kayosai 2007, the wired Music Award at the 40th Wired Japan Music Awards and the Best Work of the year Award 2008 at the 50th Japan Record Awards.

Their first performance overseas took place on July 5, 2013 in Paris and they were also the Music Guests of Honor of Japan Expo 14th Impact.

Then, on September 2013, they had two performances sold out at the famous Nippon Budokan (10,000 seats) in Tôkyô for the first time. Their latest single released has reached the 2nd place of the Weekly Japanese sales ranking. With their cute and powerful performances, ?-ute has continued to tour all over Japan and released many CDs until now.

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