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Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” returns to No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated May 8, extending its record to 14 weeks atop the tally.
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The hip-hop hit dominated the chart for most of this year after it first hit No. 1 on the chart released Jan. 31 and stayed there for 13 straight weeks. The MASHLE Season 2 opener slipped to No. 2 last week (May 1) but returned to score its 14th week atop the list. The track has increased in all metrics of the chart’s methodology except streaming compared to the previous week. Downloads for the long-running hit are up by 117%, radio airplay and video views by 105%, and karaoke by 120%. And it’s far from doing poorly in streaming as well; weekly streams remain almost the same as the week before and the total has surpassed 300 million at the second fastest pace in Japan chart history.
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Moving 4-2 this week is Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac.” The song gained 130% in downloads, 127% in karaoke, and notably, 425% in radio from the week before, hitting its highest position yet.
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Debuting at No. 3 is SixTONES’ 12th single “Neiro.” The theme song for the drama series Omukae Shibuya-kun starring member Taiga Kyomoto launched with 540,564 CDs sold, outselling the group’s previous single “CREAK” (471,285 first-week sales). The track tops sales and comes in at No. 9 for radio and No. 18 for video.
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In other chart moves, the theme song of a project by TOBE’s artists, called “Be on Your side,” re-enters the chart at No. 12 after selling 75,157 copies in its first week, and the first single “MORNING SUN” by EXILE B HAPPY — the new EXILE TRIBE music group led by EXILE TETSUYA — bows at No. 15.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Apr. 29 to May 5, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
The first of three live broadcasts of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest yielded the initial results of the competition, with 10 countries out of 15 moving forward into the grand final on Saturday (May 11) and five countries going home.
Most notable among the 10 winning countries are Luxembourg, which returned to the pan-European competition this year after a 31-year absence, and Ireland, which holds the record for the most wins with Sweden at seven each.
However, Ireland has failed to qualify for the grand final 11 times since the semifinals were introduced in 2005. Bambie Thug breaks that spell with “Doomsday Blue,” a self-described “electro-metal breakdown.” Thug (real name: Bambie Ray Robinson) is the first nonbinary artist to represent Ireland in Eurovision and will be the first Irish contestant in the competition since Ryan O’Shaugnessy placed 16th with “Together” in 2018.
Thug’s entry is expected to place high in the grand final rankings. If they end up in the top five, it will be Ireland’s biggest Eurovision success since Marc Roberts’ “Mysterious Ways,” which finished second to Katrina & the Waves winning U.K. entry “Love Shine a Light” in 1997.
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Talia, an Israeli-born singer living in Luxembourg, will be the first person from that small European country — the only grand duchy (a country ruled by a monarch with the title of grand duke or duchess) remaining in the world — to sing in Eurovision since Modern Times placed 20th with “Donne-Moi Une Chance” in 1993.
The other eight countries that qualified for the grand final are Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Lithuania, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The five countries relegated out, by public vote during the live broadcast, are Australia, Azerbaijan, Iceland, Moldova and Poland.
The oddsmakers have Croatia heavily tipped to win; it would be that nation’s first victory in 30 attempts, although Riva, a band from Croatia, triumphed in 1990 when their country was still part of Yugoslavia.
A second semifinal will be broadcast live on Thursday (May 9). There will be 16 countries fighting for a spot in the grand final top 10 that night: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, San Marino and Switzerland.
Pre-qualified, and thus able to skip the semifinals, are the host country (Sweden) and the “Big Five” (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), so-named because they contribute the largest amounts to the production budget.
Semifinal No 2 of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest will be live on Peacock in the U.S. on Thursday starting at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT. The grand final will also be live, on Saturday at the same times.
BE:FIRST’s “Masterplan” blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated May 1, ending Creepy Nuts’ consecutive run atop the chart at 13 weeks.
The title track of the septet’s concept single released April 24 on CD, “Masterplan” debuts at No. 2 for CD sales with 115,963 copies sold in its first week, and comes in at No. 7 for streaming with 7,955,802 weekly streams. It also rules downloads (35,174 units), radio airplay and video views, dominating three metrics to take the top spot on the Japan Hot 100 like the group’s previous release, “Mainstream.” This is BE:FIRST’s sixth No. 1 hit, having previously ruled the tally with “Gifted,” “Bye-Good-Bye,” “Scream,” “Boom Boom Back,” and “Mainstream.”
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Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” slips to No. 2 after 13 straight weeks atop the Japan Hot 100. While it yields the top spot this week, the number of downloads for the MASHLE Season 2 opener increased by 105% from the week before, and points for karaoke and radio also increased, resulting in only a slight decrease in overall points.
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Omoinotake’s “IKUOKU KONEN” rises 5-3 this week. The three-man band hit the stage for its first headlining show at the Osaka Jo Yaon outdoor concert hall on April 28, celebrating the day the band was formed, and downloads increased slightly probably due to this event. Omoinotake is set to digitally release a new single called “Tsubomi” (Bud) on May 5, to be featured as the ending theme of the anime series My Hero Academia Season 7.
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WEST.’s “Heart” bows at No. 6. “Heart” is the anniversary single commemorating the tenth anniversary of the seven-member boy band’s CD debut on April 23. The track ruled sales with 263,585 CDs sold in the first week, while also coming in at No. 19 for radio.
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The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from April 22 to 28, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
There are times when a performance gains power not only from who’s playing what music and how, but also from when and where it’s played. So it was with the Berlin Philharmonic’s 2024 Europakonzert, which took place on May 1 at the historic Tsinandali Estate in Georgia.
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As Georgians protested in the streets of the capital city of Tbilisi against a law that would regulate NGOs and foreign media companies in a way that many people there believe would benefit Russia – or at least follow its illiberal path — one of the most accomplished orchestras in Europe delivered a majestic performance of pieces by Schubert, Brahms and Beethoven, as if to culturally anchor the country in the heart of Europe.
The concert at the Tsinandali Estate was gorgeous – an afternoon show, performed outdoors on a sunny day, with birds chirping in the background. (Conductor Daniel Harding stepped in for Daniel Barenboim.) The prominent violinist Lisa Batiashvili, who comes from Georgia and is now an artist in residence at the Berlin Philharmonic, performed the solos in Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major with power and exquisite sensitivity.
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The next night, the orchestra performed the same show at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theater – not far from where some of the protests took place – followed by considerable applause and the unfurling of a couple of European Union flags. It was hard to miss the symbolism – not nationalism but something more open-hearted. The politics never overshadowed the music, which was powerful in its own right, but it was clear how much the music, and the idea of Europe, meant to the Georgian audience. Sometimes concerts are the continuation of policy by other means.
Georgia sits a crossroads between Europe and Asia – always geographically and now politically as well. Culturally, the country has always faced West – it’s mostly Eastern Orthodox, and it was part of the Soviet Union before it gained independence. In December, under the current government, Georgia officially received candidate status to join the European Union, which the majority of people there seem to favor and would place the country firmly in the West. And although the overlap of the Europakonzert and the debate about the proposed law is just coincidental, it seemed to hint at two possible paths forward for the country: A kind of international optimism or a narrower nationalism.
The Tsinandali Estate, which was leased from the government and renovated by the Silk Road Group, a Georgian company, has its own particularly European cultural history. The estate, which fell into disrepair during the Soviet era, is identified with Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, a Georgian aristocrat, who used it in the 1800s to bring to Georgia European-style wine, formal gardens and classical music. Silk Road, which has restored the estate to its former glory with an eye toward historic preservation, now operates two hotels there, as well as nearby vineyard and a fall classical music festival that features young performers from across the Caucasus region. This, too, is profoundly optimistic.
“We thought, ‘How can we bring life to’” the estate, says George Ramishvili, the Silk Road Group’s founder and chairman. “And we chose classical music because it’s related to history.”
Europakonzert
Stephan Rabold
Years ago, Ramishvili connected with the Berlin Philharmonic through Batiashvili, and they started discussing brining the annual Europakonzert to Georgia. “It’s the perfect music but also the message for peace – we’re both about a united Europe,” Ramishvili says. “Europe is Georgia and Georgia is Europe.”
Everything about the concerts brought that idea home. At both shows, the audience seemed to be mostly middle-class Georgians, probably a few years older and a bit more fortunate than most of the protesters, who skewed younger. But they both want more engagement with a Europe that has put aside its conflicts. The European Union has its share of problems, but it represents a more compelling vision of the future than anything coming out of Russia.
None of this hung over the concerts, though. The annual Europakonzert, which is usually but not always performed in an EU member state, is symbolic, for a variety of reasons, including where it happens and the role of Berlin, which has become the cultural capital of Europe. But anyone who didn’t understand the politics, or simply wanted to forget them, would have found the shows just as compelling without that context. At Tsinandali, the stone walls of the amphitheater seemed to magnify the sound, as birdsong broke through the quiet parts of Schubert’s The Magic Harp. Batiashvili brought a richness of tonal color to Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major, especially in the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theater, where Harding brought out the orchestra’s power.
Music diplomacy has been a tradition since at least the 1950s, when the U.S. State Department arranged for “Jazz Ambassadors,” most famously Louis Armstrong, to tour the world. Musicians seldom solve international disagreements, and it’s not their job to do so, but shows like this bring countries closer together in a way that shows what they have to offer one another. These two shows made a powerful case for both the value of the European idea and its potential for expansion.
Europakonzert
Stephan Rabold
Nutsa Buzaladze received raves from the American Idol judges when she competed last year on season 21 of the long-running television talent series. Eliminated from the top 12 on April 30, 2023, the singer from the nation of Georgia didn’t sit still. This week she will perform on another televised song contest when she represents her country in the Eurovision Song Contest, which normally reaches a worldwide audience in the hundreds of millions.
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One year after interviewing Nutsa in Hollywood during her time on Idol, Billboard sat down with her again, this time in Malmö, Sweden, to talk about her life since then and what will be the biggest moment of her career so far.
When we talked last year in California, I suggested you sing for Georgia in Eurovision, and here you are. What have the last 12 months been like for you?
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First of all, American Idol was the biggest thing I’ve done in my life. They gave me an open door to new opportunities. Like Lionel [Richie] said to me, “It doesn’t matter what number, you’re a star.” American Idol was a starter for my international career. Being on Idol makes your life much easier because people look at you and say you’re the real deal. I have an agent in America and he had me perform the National Anthem at a Lakers game and a Dodgers game. I had an amazing summer living in Miami and was in the Hamptons for a weekend when a producer [with Georgia’s national broadcaster] called and said, “Nutsa, we are thinking of having you represent your country at Eurovision. When are you coming to Georgia?”
So you said yes to Eurovision?
I told them I only had one condition: I’m going to be involved with every little detail. And they said, “Yes, for sure. We want you to be at your best. We want you to sing the song that you love to sing.” So I had the freedom to be myself and not someone that they want me to be and that is the greatest thing they’ve done for me. And it’s coming from the director of the broadcast.
You’re singing “Firefighter” as the Georgian entry. Who found the song?
We had an open call. We received amazing songs, and we listened to all 300 of them. We had three favorites, and we chose one that I feel very confident in. “Firefighter” was from Darko Dimitrov, a Macedonian producer who has a lot of experience in Eurovision. The writer of the lyrics was Ada Skitka from Estonia. I really loved the song, but only the chorus. I flew from Miami to Macedonia, and we spent three days in the studio finishing the song. It was a very creative process.
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What does representing Georgia in Eurovision mean to you?
I have loved my country ever since I was a very little girl. Because of my country’s history and our people, I want to make them proud. I want to show the world how great Georgia is and how many talented people we have. We are a very small nation and that makes me more motivated to put Georgia on the map everywhere I can. Because especially in America, they think that Georgia is a state.
You competed on Idol and now you’re competing again in Eurovision. What are your thoughts about the competition?
I don’t really think of it as a competition, to be honest. I do it for my career and I do it to become better and to have more experience, because all my life I wanted to have a career where you can go everywhere and sing everywhere. Not only in my country, but everywhere. I think big competitions give you the possibilities to be heard by millions and millions of people and that’s the main reason I’m doing it. I don’t like to compete with anybody. The only person I’m competing with always is myself, because I always want to do something bigger and better.
What was the main lesson you learned during your run on American Idol?
On American Idol, I realized that I had done hard work before, but Idol is the hardest work. I pushed myself to the limits. When I was in my hotel room, I cried because I was so exhausted from the emotions. By the time we were doing the live shows, it was better. I became friends with the contestants and then I became friends with the crew.
What are your plans for your career after Eurovision?
My new single is coming out on May 12. I shot a music video before flying to Malmö. The song is called “Mother’s Day” and I’m releasing it on Mother’s Day. It’s about my mom and she is in the music video with me. I’m sure a lot of people are going to cry because I love my mother very much and I wanted to have a song about her.
What else lies ahead?
There is other news I haven’t told anybody, so I’ve saved it for Billboard. I’ve been invited to audition for Broadway on May 11 [the same day as Eurovision]. So I need to go to New York as soon as possible for that.
Can you tell me for what show?
I don’t think they want me to. It’s a modern musical. The character that they want me to play is very near to who I am in real life and the voice of that character in the songs is my style.
Nutsa Buzaladze will sing “Firefighter” in the first semi-final of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday (May 7) in Malmö, Sweden. The live broadcast can be seen in the U.S. on Peacock at 3 p.m. ET. If “Firefighter” is one of 10 songs from the 15 semi-final entries that qualifies for the grand final, she will perform the song again on Saturday (May 11). That four-hour show will be seen on Peacock, also at 3 p.m. ET.
Chinese star power took the stage by storm at Coachella.
During the 88rising Futures segment of this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 14, Chinese artists Jackson Wang and Liu Yuxin captivated the audience with their unique music and style.
Jackson Wang, dressed in black, surprised everyone by joining South Korean singer and rapper BIBI to debut an unreleased track titled “Feeling Lucky.” He also performed with the Japanese hip-hop trio Number_i, consisting of Yuta Jinguji, Yuta Kishi and Sho Hirano, showcasing their hit single “Goat.”
Bibi and Jackson Wang perform during the 88rising Futures showcase at the Mojave Tent during the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at Empire Polo Club on April 14, 2024 in Indio, Calif.
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Adding to the lineup of 88rising Futures, Chinese singer Liu Yuxin, also known as Xin Liu, made her debut at this year’s Coachella festival. She delivered a 12-minute performance, including the live debut of her first all-English single “Reality.” Adorned in a glistening gold ensemble, Liu illuminated the Mojave stage with her dynamic vocals and passionate choreography. Her performance featured the enchanting Miao ethnic group style in “Hurricane,” combining Miao folk music with Chinese street dance, establishing her as the first Mandarin-speaking female singer to captivate the Coachella audience.
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Liu Yuxin
Courtesy of 88rising/Coachella
Jackson Wang’s performance at the 2024 Coachella festival solidified him as the first Chinese singer to perform three times at the prestigious event. In 2022, Wang made his debut at Coachella, as the first Chinese solo artist to take the stage at the festival. He also took a moment to remind the audience why it mattered that he was there: “This is the moment of history, this is Magic Man, this is Jackson Wang from China,” he said. During his set, the Chinese rapper sang “100 Ways” and “Blow” from his album Magic Man, as well as “Cruel.”
In 2023, Jackson Wang delivered an iconic 50-minute solo set at Coachella for the second consecutive year, showcasing songs from his album Magic Man. He awed music fans when he brought out Grammy-winning artist Ciara to perform their new single “Slow,” which was co-written by Wang himself. They also collaborated on a remix of XG’s “Left Right.”
Wang’s success extends to social media, with over 1 billion views on TikTok and 30 million Instagram followers. His album Magic Man in 2022 achieved significant success on the Billboard 200 chart, reaching an impressive No. 15. The same year, he embarked on his first world tour, performing in 24 cities across 12 countries, attracting fans and audiences worldwide and setting numerous records for Chinese singers performing internationally.
The Coachella festival is a prominent music event that takes place in the Coachella Valley of California. This festival annually features renowned singers and bands, setting trends in the global pop music scene. Being selected to perform at Coachella has emerged as a pivotal factor in assessing the power and impact of music idols. The growing presence of Chinese musicians on the Coachella stage offers music enthusiasts a taste of the rich and varied musical landscape from the Eastern part of the world.
Hip-hop has always been one of the biggest and most vibrant genres in the Philippines. For decades, the Filipino hip-hop scene has been home to some of the country’s most riveting and innovative acts, unafraid to challenge norms and determined to tell their stories their own way.
These days, hip-hop continues to evolve and expand faster than any other genre in Filipino music history. From rising to the top of music charts and gaining instant virality to molding youth culture, it’s time to bring Filipino hip-hop from the streets to the rest of the world.
This April, Billboard Philippines unveiled their first-ever Hip-Hop issue, featuring eight cover stars that have been changing and reinventing local hip-hop in their own distinct ways. Made up of O Side Mafia, Hev Abi, Tus Brothers, Zae, Felip, Illest Morena, Playertwo and Hellmerry, this is Billboard Philippines’ Hip-Hop Class of 2024.
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Zae performing “Edi Wag” in February 2024 at the Billboard Philippines studio in Pasig City, Philippines.
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Throughout this month, the Hip-Hop Class of 2024 recently took center stage as they delve deep into the struggles and successes of Filipino hip-hop.
In Billboard Philippines Volumes, the eight artists walk audiences through their start in the hip-hop scene and look ahead with their aspirations for the genre and themselves, as they look to take over the global stage.
As Al Tus puts it: “Hindi mo mapipigilan. Maririnig talaga tayo ng buong mundo.” [You can’t stop it. Everyone in the world is going to hear us.]
Zae performing “Edi Wag” in February 2024 at the Billboard Philippines studio in Pasig City, Philippines.
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As a culmination of Billboard Philippines’ Hip-Hop issue, O Side Mafia, Hev Abi, Tus Brothers, Zae, Felip, Illest Morena, Playertwo and Hellmerry star in a special episode of Billboard Philippines Studios, during which they showcase the true power of Filipino hip-hop.
O Side Mafia — which includes Costa Cashman, Gee Exclsv and Madman Stan — opened the episode with their chart-topping single “GET LOW.” Following them are Al Tus and RudyRude, who make up the hard-core trap duo Tus Brothers, performing “RUN,” and then, Felip — also known as Ken of SB19 — with his commanding voice shined with his performance of “ROCKSTA.” Nearing the first half of the episode, the fierce Zae takes to the stage with “Edi Wag.”
RudyRude and Al Tus of Tus Brothers performing “RUN” in February 2024 at the Billboard Philippines studio in Pasig City, Philippines.
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Hellmerry then takes the floor with his booming performance of “Thai Freestyle,” followed by Ivo Impresso, Luke April and Wave P of Playertwo turning up the party with “Shower Music.” Closing out the show is versatile Illest Morena with “Faded (Raw)” and viral hip-hop star Hev Abi with “Alam Mo Ba Girl.”
Hev Abi performing “Alam Mo Ba Girl” in February 2024 at the Billboard Philippines studio in Pasig City, Philippines.
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Watch the Billboard Philippines Studios performances below:
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Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, now at 13 consecutive weeks on the chart dated April 24.
The MASHLE Season 2 opener continues to rule streaming for the 13th straight week, video views and karaoke for the 6th straight week. Downloads also climbed 5-3 and continues to coast along at over 10,000 total points (13,626).
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Jumping 26-2 this week is “Click” by ME:I, the debut single by the 11-member girl group born from the audition program PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS. After being released on April 17, the single launched with 263,399 copies to rule sales, while also coming in at No. 2 for radio airplay, No. 10 for downloads, No. 17 for streaming, and No. 28 for video, collecting points in a balanced way. The track is off to a great start, debuting with a total 12,366 points, only 1,260 points behind “BBBB.”
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Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac” rises 11-3 after bowing on the Japan Hot 100 last week. The opener for Oblivion Battery went on sale on April 12 after the anime series premiered on April 9. The track rises overall metric-wise, jumping from outside the top 100 to No. 8 for radio, while climbing 15-4 for streaming (11,059,001 streams) and 8-3 for video (2,157,523 views) this week.
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ILLIT’s “Magnetic,” which topped the TikTok chart this week, holds at No. 6 on the Japan Hot 100. The new HYBE group’s first single reportedly surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify recently (April 22), and overall streams increased by about 16.4% to 12,305,862 streams (3-2). Downloads also rose by about 48% to 2,936 units (25-13), and video by about 24% to 942,054 views (20-15). ILLIT is set to travel to Japan in May to perform at Rakuten Girls Award 2024 SPRING/SUMMER and KCON JAPAN 2024, likely fueling the group’s popularity in the country where two of its five members hail from.
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aiko’s new single “mutual love” breaks into the top 10 this week at No. 9, soaring from No. 46. The theme song for the latest Case Closed movie (Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram) dropped digitally on April 12 — the same day the anime movie hit domestic theaters — prior to the CD version’s release set for May 8. The track comes in at No. 5 for downloads with 5,736 units, while rising significantly from No. 95 to No. 12 for streaming and from No. 21 to No. 3 for radio, probably due to the movie’s release.
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The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from April 15 to 21, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English X account.
The four finalists of PRODUCE 101 JAPAN THE GIRLS, one of the largest audition programs ever held in Japan, are set to make their Japan debut from Universal Music on June 19 as the brand-new group IS:SUE. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The members are RIN […]
YOASOBI hit the Mojave Stage on Day 1 (April 12) of opening weekend of the 2024 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, taking part in the annual desert music festival featuring headliners Lana Del Rey, Tyler, the Creator and Doja Cat. A correspondent for Billboard Japan was on site at the Indio, Calif., stage to witness the J-pop duo’s first-ever Coachella set.
Ayase and ikura have been expanding their reach outside Japan, performing in the U.S. for the first time last August at 88rising’s Head in the Clouds Los Angeles event. At the Mojave Stage on Friday, some fans eagerly waited at the very front from the preceding act’s set to see YOASOBI up close, suggesting that the J-pop stars have been gaining recognition Stateside as well. The front row was packed with fans of various ethnic backgrounds — from local fans, to Asian fans, including those who traveled from Japan and Japanese residents in the U.S., and Latino fans, with conversations in languages other than English being heard all around during the change-over between acts. The common denominator was that they were all young and excited about the upcoming performance.
The “Idol” duo’s set was downsized and simplified compared to their usual concert production, due to the nature of music festivals and the limited space onstage. But it also proved to be a fan-friendly environment where the distance between the audience and artists was close.
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The lights went dark at 8:20 p.m., the scheduled time of YOASOBI’s set, and the bandmembers got into their respective positions as lasers flashed from the stage and visuals shot across the screens. Ayase and ikura then appeared together on the approximately 6-foot-high platform with a screen in the center of the stage, and after the vocalist introduced themselves by simply saying, “We are YOASOBI,” the band kicked off the set with the duo’s breakout hit “Yoru ni Kakeru” (“Into the Night”). The voltage of the audience was high from the beginning, and Ayase couldn’t seem to hold back his joy as he smiled and waved to the crowd through dark shades.
For the next song, “The Blessing,” ikura got off the platform and stood in the center of the stage, which underscored the closeness between the audience and the stage. Shouts of “I love you!” and “YOASOBI!” flew from the crowd, as well as heartfelt calls of “Aishiteru!” (“I love you” in Japanese) from fans who probably memorized the phrase for the occasion.
The vocalist used English to address fans throughout the show, starting off by saying, “Good evening everyone, we are YOASOBI from Japan” and introducing herself and music producer Ayase. “Honestly, we’ve been waiting to meet you all. Being here at Coachella is so unreal. Oh my gosh,” she continued. “It’s honestly a big dream come true for us, wow! Thank you for being here as part of a magical moment. What an honor.”
“We came ready to rock the stage. Coachella! Get ready to groove!” she then hyped up the audience. “Are you ready to dance? Are you ready to sing with us? OK, come on Coachella, make some noise!” The band launched into “Seventeen” and the audience shouted “Oi! Oi!” along to the hard-hitting rock track. The keyboardist Misohagi Zakuro danced to the song, highlighting her versatility as well as the band’s ability to deliver.
Midway through the set, ikura said, “For the next song, I want to feel a sense of unity” and requested fans to turn on the light on their phones. The crowd was quick to react as the slow-tempo intro to “Probably” began, indicating their dedication to the hitmakers. During the next number, “The Brave,” some fans were jumping and headbanging along to the beat, each enjoying themselves to their heart’s content.
“So, Coachella, we’re getting close to the end. Let me see your energy! More!” ikura said before performing their hit “Monster,” then on to “Gunjo,” where she switched the lyrics that mean “I’m irreplaceable” to “you’re all irreplaceable.” The band closed its hit-filled set with “Idol,” Billboard Japan’s song of the year for 2023 that topped the Japan Hot 100 for a record 22 weeks.
While ikura used English to speak to the crowd during the 9-song, 45-minute performance, the set list featured songs performed in their original Japanese. As the singer explained during the set that the duo is “trying to bring our music from Japan to the world,” this was a memorable live performance that effectively delivered “our music” with Japanese lyrics to the audience gathered at the world-famous Coachella music festival and to listeners all over the world through livestream.
YOASOBI also took the stage at the 88RISING FUTURES showcase on day three. The duo appeared after Tiger JK and Yoonmirae opened the set, and ikura again addressed the crowd in English before the duo first performed “Probably” for the Mojave Stage crowd. “I love you all so much. Thank you. Let’s sing together,” she said, and the intro to “Idol” followed. After ikura sang, “What type of guy do you like? / Who’s your partner? / Come on, answer me,” she called out, “Welcome, ATARASHII GAKKO!” and invited the four members of the group onstage. The alternative J-pop girl group joined in to add some flair to the show, performing what’s known in Japan as “otagei” (geek dance moves) during the chorus. The audience enthusiastically responded, “Hey! Hey!” in time to the music, bringing the euphoric moment to a climax.