Keyakizaka46 is joinning to Tokyo Idol Festival 2017 as well as Hiragana Keyaki. Both of the groups are scheduled to appear on August 5 (Sat), the second day of the 3-day event. Tokyo Idol Festival 2017, one of the the biggest idol festival in the world, will be held August 4 (Fri)-6 (Sun) in Odaiba, Tokyo.
Keyakizaka46 is a Japanese Idol Group produced by Akimoto Yasushi and the 1st sister group of Nogizaka46. The 1st Generation members were announced on August 21, 2015. The debut single, Silent Majority, was released on April 6, 2016. They are currently signed under Sony Music Entertainment Japan. They have a main group of promoted members and a group of unders, Hiragana Keyaki46. The full group was known as Toriizaka46 until their debut, when the name was changed.
History of Keyakizaka46
2015
On February 22, 2015, during the Nogizaka46 3rd Year Birthday Live at Seibu Dome, Nogizaka46 announced plans to recruit the first generation members for their new project. It was revealed that the new group’s name was Toriizaka46 and the recruitment was started on July 28. The final examination of the audition took place on August 21, the same day as Nogizaka46 was created, and 22 passed out of 22,509 candidates. At the same time, it was announced that the group’s name was suddenly changed to Keyakizaka46; however, its reason is unclear.
Since October 4, the group has its own Sunday television show titled Keyakitte, Kakenai? on TV Tokyo. In this show, Keyakizaka46 announced a new member Neru Nagahama on November 29. She debuted as a member of their under group Hiragana Keyaki and it’s audition was started.
On December 16, the group gave its first performance. It took place at the Fuji TV music show FNS Music Festival. The center position in the choreography was held by youngest member Yurina Hirate, 14 at the time.
2016
In February 2016 it was revealed that Keyakizaka46 would release their first single on April 6, 2016. Its title was later revealed to be “Silent Majority”. It was also revealed that the title song would be used in a TV commercial for a mobile application named Mechakari. Unlike Nogizaka46, all members except Neru Nagahama were selected to sing the title song. It sold 261,580 copies in the first week and ranked first on the Oricon weekly chart. They also achieved a female artist’s number one sales record in the first week updating the Suki! Suki! Skip!’s record held by HKT48 for the first time in 3 years.
On April 9, Keyakizaka46 appeared in GirlsAward 2016 Spring/Summer, one of the biggest fashion and music event in Japan. In this show, Mizuho Habu made her runway debut at dazzlin stage. From April 29 to May 5, 18 candidates of Hiragana Keyaki live streamed on Showroom as a part of the audition process. On May 11, it was announced that 11 girls won the final round of the audition. They participated in the 2nd single that was released on August 10 and sang Hiragana Keyaki.
Keyakizaka46’s first featured drama Tokuyama Daigorō o Dare ga Koroshitaka? was premiered on the TX network on July 16. Each episode streamed for Amazon Prime members before airing on terrestrial television. Their 2nd single Sekai ni wa Ai Shika Nai was used as the theme song. From July 5 to September 27, KeyaBingo!, a variety show that is the Keyakizaka46 version of the Bingo series like AKBingo! and NogiBingo!, aired on NTV. It is also streaming on Hulu Japan with the unaired part.
On October 8, Keyakizaka46 participated in GirlsAward 2016 Autumn/Winter. At this event, Yurina Hirate, Yui Kobayashi and Risa Watanabe made their runway debut. On December 24 and 25, Keyakizaka46 performed their first solo live at Ariake Coliseum for an audience of 27,000 people. On December 31, 21 members including Nagahama appeared the 67th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen for the first time and performed their debut single “Silent Majority”.
