Biography of Babymetal
Babymetal (commonly written as BABYMETAL) is a Japanese exprimental metal vocal and dance group that was originally formed in 2010 as a sub-unit of the idol group Sakura Gakuin.
The band consists of 3 school girls: SU-METAL (vocals, dance), MOAMETAL (screaming, dance) and YUIMETAL (screaming, dancing).
Their album managed to rank 4 on the Oricon weekly album chart, with a total of 37,463 copies sold in Japan in the first week, 2nd on the Billboard Japan album chart, and 187 on the US Billboard 200 which is one of the top the highest position achieved by a Japanese album on the chart to date and the vocalist of “BRING ME THE HORIZON (Oliver sykes)” also brought fans to them.
Member
SU-METAL : Vokal, Dance
Suzuka Nakamoto (中元 すず香) 20 December 1997 (Old 22) Hiroshima
YUIMETAL : Dance
Yui Mizuno (水野 由結) 20 June 1999 (Old 21) Kanagawa
MOAMETAL : Dance
Moa Kikuchi (菊地 最愛) 4 July 1999 (Old 21) Aichi
History
Babymetal first performed live on November 28, 2010, at the first Sakura Gakuin solo concert. Their first song is “Doki Doki Morning”, which was actually published in April 2011 on the 2010 album Sakura Gakuin Sakura Gakuin Nendo: Message. The band produced a music video for the song and in October 2011 it started appearing as a DVD single intended for limited distribution [live performances only]. After being uploaded to Youtube in the same month, at the end of 2012 the video viewers reached 1 million views. In July 2011, Babymetal made their debut with the song, “Ijime, Dame, Zettai” (“no more harassment”), at the Sakura Gakuin concert, but the song was only sung during a live concert at that time. Their first music video was “Doki Doki Morning” which was published by the Toy`s Factory channel on Youtube on October 12, 2011.
Babymetal’s first CD single was a collaborative hit with a band called Akiba, entitled “Babymetal × Kiba of Akiba”. Published in a Toy`s Factory sublabel (Jūonbu Records, the same sublabel as “Doki Doki Morning” and later “Headbanger”). In March 2012, the song was ranked third on the Oricon weekly indie chart and number one on Tower Records Shibuya weekly indie ranking. In July 2012, Babymetal released a song called “Headbanger”. The music video for the title track was directed by Hidenobu tanabe. In August 2012, Babymetal made its debut at Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival. With an average age of 12, the band is the youngest appearance ever to appear there. 2012 also marked his first Asian tour outside Japan for the first time at AFA 2012 Singapore.
2013–2015: Main Label Debut
In January 2013, the band debuted on its major record label with “Ijime, Dame, Zettai”. The single sold 19,000 copies of the song in its first week and was ranked 6th on the Oricon weekly indie chart. In the spring of 2013, Nakamoto graduated from high school and then had to “graduate” from the Sakura Gakuin (an elementary and high school girl group). However, their management decided that babymetal would not disband and would continue their activities as a band. The group released their follow-up single, “Megitsune”, on June 19, followed by November with the release of a Live Live video: Legend I, D, Z Apocalyps, which took seventh place on the weekly Oricon Blu-ray Disc charts, and second place among other Blu-ray singles.
On 10 and 11 August 2013, babymetal took part again in the Summer Sonic Festival, which performed in two venues namely Tokyo and Osaka, then, in October 2013, Babymetal also became the youngest appearance ever to appear at the Loud Park heavy metal music festival. In November 2013, Babymetal released a promo video for Metallica’s Japanese film debut Through the Never. And towards the end of 2013 babymetal went on another Asian tour in Indonesia at AFAID 2013 and the second time in Singapore after their first Asian overseas tour in 2012.
On February 26, 2014, babymetal released its first self-titled album. The album contains 13 track tracks and is also available in a limited edition including a DVD with music videos and live performances. The album was very well received by music critics and the public, selling 37,000 copies in Japan in its first week, ranking 4th on the Oricon and Billboard Japan charts. The album also topped the iTunes Metal charts in Germany, UK, and America, and reached 187 on the US Billboard 200 chart on March 22; only a few Japanese artists have ever entered this chart. Their album also made it to the Heatseekers chart at number 4. On March 1 and 2, 2014, the band performed 2 concerts at Budokan. With an average age of 14 years. they became the youngest appearance ever to do a concert there. The two concerts were attended by 20,000 people. On April 3, 2014, a shocking Youtube reaction video was uploaded by the Fine Brothers channel on Youtube about the music videos for “Doki Doki Morning”, “line!”, And “Gimme Chocolate !!”. On April 30, 2016, Babymetal’s reaction video for their reactions was released on Youtube.
