The 13th CD Shop Awards 2021 has released its nominee list for 2020! Twenty albums were picked for this year’s awards. The albums were chosen by 395 CD shop staff from across Japan to highlight releases that caught their discerning ears.
In March, the awards will be given out. There will be two main awards. The first will be the “red” award, which goes a to “god-level” album that can be listened to again and again. The second will be the “blue” award, which goes to an album by a new artist that is highly recommended to customers.
The highly anticipated release of SixTONE‘s debut album “1ST” is finally here! Physical versions of “1ST” will be available for fans in three different versions, two limited edition CD+DVDs and a standard CD only. “1ST” contains 13 tracks in total, with the CD+DVD A containing 15.
The limited edition B contains special duet tracks between the members, while the CD only and limited edition A have their own set of exclusive tracks.
This week, NEWS topped the Combined Single chart with their new single “Beautiful / Chincha Umakka / Canaria”, with 184,634 points in its first week.
KinKi Kids topped the Combined Album chart with their new album “O album”, with 135,984 points in its first week.
NEWS also topped the Single chart with “Beautiful / Chincha Umakka / Canaria”, selling 184,180 copies in its first week.
KinKi Kids also topped the Album chart with “O album”, selling 135,984 copies in its first week.
LiSA topped the Digital Single chart for the 11th consecutive week with her single “Homura”, selling 31,363 copies its 11th week.
Yonezu Kenshi retook the top spot on the Digital Album chart with his album “STRAY SHEEP”, selling 2,005 copies in its 21st week, topping the chart for the sixth non-consecutive week.
BTS retook the top spot on the Streaming chart with their digital single “Dynamite”, with 10,833,439 streams in its 19th week, topping the chart for the eighth non-consecutive week.
It has been announced that THE RAMPAGE member Makoto Hasegawa will be appearing in the highly anticipated tv film “App de Koi Suru 20 no Joken”. Hasegawa got his start acting in 2018 with the LDH drama and film series “PRINCE OF LEGEND”, along with the YouTube drama “Shunjinkou”.
Hasegawa has showed a continued interest in acting, as seen with this brand new role playing top actress Tsubasa Honda’s boyfriend. “App de Koi Suru 20 no Joken” follows Taeko Kase (Honda), a 28-year-old who works for an event company. One day she makes a big mistake at work resulting in being reprimanded by her boss, and later she gets dumped by Hasegawa’s character.
YOASOBI is gearing up for the release of their debut EP and very first physical release titled “THE BOOK“. The duo has uploaded a teaser video on YouTube featuring previews of every track on the album. Tracks on the album include “Encore”, “Haruka”, and their breakout debut single “Yoru ni Kakeru”.
Beginning on January 5th a large 2 meter stature that imitates the cover jacket of “THE BOOK” will be displayed in the Shibuya Tsutaya located in Tokyo.
Since making their debut in 2019, YOASOBI is garnered a very large fanbase online. The audio for their digital single “Gunjo” has received over 21 million streams on YouTube alone. Check out the teaser video for “THE BOOK” below!
Ever since her graduation from Nogizaka46 last year, Mai Shiraishi has had a very healthy amount of solo activities. As a member of Nogizaka46 she was the star of many CM campaigns, and that trend has continued. Shiraishi will be starring in a brand new nationwide campaign for “HENNGE One”.
“HENNGE One” is a service that provides a single sign-on feature mainly used for business purposes. With this users are able to sign into multiple services (email, Ring Central, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.) by just using one password and sign in. In the CM Shiraishi perfectly illustrates how coinvent this is as she franticly looks through sticky notes to try and find a specific password.
Former AKB48 member Tomomi Itano is a married woman! The 29 year old has announced her marriage to professional baseball player Keiji Takahashi, who is 23. The couple were introduced to each other by a mutual friend in the spring of 2019. After dating for roughly a year and a half the two decided to make it official.
The couple visited both of their families at the end of December to share the exciting news, it’s also been said that Takahashi also told Yasushi Akimoto of the news as well. They reportedly signed the witness line of the marriage certificate.
“The VOICE of Asia” currently isn’t pregnant and plans to continue her entertainment activities while supporting her husband. The two have already moved in together. A wedding reception is still pending due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.
Takahashi is currently playing for the team Tokyo Yakult Swallows as a pitcher. Congratulations to Tomochin and Keiji!
