Years active 2006–present Website Official website | Name Scandal Role Rock band | |
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Associated acts Keiko Terada, Shoko Nakagawa Members Mami Sasazaki, Haruna Ono, Rina Suzuki Profiles | ||
Scandal (スキャンダル, Sukyandaru, stylized as SCANDAL) is an all-female Japanese rock band from Osaka. Formed in August 2006 by four high school girls, they played live street performances until they were noticed and signed to the indie label Kitty Records. In 2008, they released three singles and a mini-album while performing shows in the United States, France, and Hong Kong. That October, Scandal released their major debut single, "Doll", under Epic Records Japan.
Contents
- Band members
- Indie career
- Major debut
- Setlist tracks
- Tie ins and promotions
- Mobile
- Traditional
- One man live performances
- International
- Documentaries
- Films
- Television
- Radio
- Internet
- Books
- References
The band has performed the theme songs for some anime, including "Shōjo S" and "Harukaze" for Bleach and "Shunkan Sentimental" for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. With numerous overseas performances and anime theme songs, Scandal has built a considerable international fanbase.
Band members
Haruna Ono (小野春菜, Ono Haruna) — lead vocals, rhythm guitarist
Mami Sasazaki (笹崎まみ, Sasazaki Mami) — lead guitarist, secondary vocals
Tomomi Ogawa (小川ともみ, Ogawa Tomomi) — bassist, lead vocals
Rina Suzuki (鈴木理菜, Suzuki Rina) — drummer, keyboardist, guitarist, secondary vocals
Indie career
Scandal was formed in August 2006 by four high school girls. The girls, Haruna, Mami, Tomomi, and Rina, met in an Osaka vocal and dance school called Caless. Shortly thereafter, they started performing live performances every weekend at Shiroten in Osaka Castle Park. Soon, they started getting offers from clubs in Osaka and Kyoto. The band's name originates from a sign near Studio Brotherz, a studio where they practiced in their early days. The studio is on the sixth floor of a building shared with other businesses, namely adult shops. The girls decided to choose the biggest sign among the shops, "Scandal" (スキャンダル, Sukyandaru), as the name for their band.
Scandal signed with indie label Kitty Records and released three singles exclusive to Tower Records in 2008. The first, "Space Ranger", ranked #2 on the Tower indie charts and the other two, "Koi Moyō" and "Kagerō", ranked #1. In March, they embarked on the Japan Nite US tour 2008, touring six major cities in the United States. They also performed at Sakura-Con, one of the largest anime conventions in the United States. In July, they performed in front of 10,000 people at France's Japan Expo and also at Hong Kong's Animation-Comic-Game Hong Kong in August. Scandal concluded their indie career with the release of their first mini-album, Yah! Yah! Yah! Hello Scandal: Maido! Scandal Desu! Yah Yah Yah!.
Major debut
2008 continued to be an eventful year for Scandal. In October, they made their major debut on Epic Records Japan with the single "Doll". It gave them more exposure, including appearances on mainstream music television shows like Music Station. The band released their second major single "Sakura Goodbye" in March 2009 to commemorate Mami and Tomomi's high school graduation. The song is a new version of their indie song, "Sakura", only heard live. The following month, their then upcoming third major single "Shōjo S" was used as the tenth opening theme for the anime Bleach. This brought their popularity up even higher as the single ranked #6 on the Oricon charts when it was released two months later in June.
On October 14, Scandal released their fourth major single, "Yumemiru Tsubasa" which was followed with their major debut album, Best Scandal, the next week. The album ranked #5 on the Oricon weekly chart, making them the first girl band since Zone to have a debut album chart in the top five. In December, Scandal embarked on their Scandal First Live: Best Scandal tour in 2009. Concluding the year, the band won a New Artist Award at the 51st Japan Record Award, but lost the Best New Artist Award to Korean boy band Big Bang.
2010 began with Scandal's fifth major single in February, "Shunkan Sentimental". It was used as the fourth ending theme for the anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The following month, they embarked on a spring tour, Scandal: Shunkan Sakura Zensen Tour 2010 Spring. Prior to its start, the band conducted a Twitter poll to choose a song to cover for the tour. The winner was "Secret Base (Kimi ga Kureta Mono)", which was chosen out of over 600 candidates. In June, Scandal released a pop tune for summer, "Taiyō to Kimi ga Egaku Story", followed by their first original ballad, "Namida no Regret", in July.
Between the end of July and the beginning of August, Scandal traveled to Hong Kong. The band performed for the third consecutive year at the Animation-Comic-Game Hong Kong convention and held their first one-man live concert in Hong Kong, which sold out. SCANDAL was also featured on the cover of the Hong Kong magazine re:spect music magazine, and their previously released single "Taiyō to Kimi ga Egaku Story" reached #1 on the Radio Television Hong Kong J-pop chart. Earlier in the year, they were awarded a bronze newcomer award by RTHK, similar to the Hong Kong Grammys.
After returning to Japan, Scandal released their second album, Temptation Box, on August 11. The album debuted at #3 on the Oricon weekly chart, making them the first girl band to have an album chart in the top three in over a year since Chatmonchy's Kokuhaku. The album was also released in 42 other countries worldwide.
Later in August, Scandal provided the theme, insert, and ending songs for the animated film Loups=Garous, which premiered on the 28th in most of Japan. The songs were "Midnight Television", "Koshi-Tantan", and "Sayonara My Friend", respectively. The band also appeared as themselves, marking their big-screen debut as a band. They were shown in a musical performance scene that was created with the help of motion capture, providing a realistic representation of the band's movements. Each member also had a role voicing a minor character.
Two months following Temptation Box, Scandal released their eighth major single, "Scandal Nanka Buttobase", on October 6, 2010. The title track was written and composed by the husband-and-wife duo Yoko Aki and Ryudo Uzaki, who are known for creating many songs for Momoe Yamaguchi. The limited edition DVDs contains performances from the band's first television show, Shiteki Ongaku Jijō, which ran for 13 episodes from July to September 2010. In November, Scandal released a cover mini-album called R-Girl's Rock!. It features songs by female artists that they respect from the last three decades, including their cover of "Secret Base (Kimi ga Kureta Mono)" from May. Rina undertook her first lead vocal on the song Sunny Day Sunday.
Scandal continued into 2011 with their ninth major single on February 9. Titled "Pride", the song was used as the second ending theme for the anime Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto. The single also includes the tracks "Cute!", a collaboration with Sanrio's Cinnamoroll, and "Emotion", their first song that was written solely by a band member. Their tenth major single, "Haruka", was released on April 20. The title track was used as the theme song for the animated film Tofu Kozou, while the song "Satisfaction" was later used as the promotional song for the release of Windows 8. This was followed by their eleventh major single, "Love Survive", as well as their third studio album Baby Action. They also embarked on their first Asian Tour, performing to sell out crowds in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.
2012 proved to be a year of firsts for Scandal. The title track of their twelfth single, "Harukaze", was used as the opening theme for the anime Bleach. The following month, they released their first compilation album, Scandal Show, as well as holding their first concert at the Nippon Budokan, thus becoming the fastest girl band to perform there since their debut. In July, they released their thirteenth major single, "Taiyō Scandalous". This single marked the first official release of their subunits, Dobondobondo (Mami x Tomomi) and Almond Crush (Haruna x Rina). This was followed by their fourteenth major single, "Pin Heel Surfer", and their fourth major album, Queens Are Trumps: Kirifuda wa Queen. With this release, they became the first girl band to achieve four consecutive top 5 positions in the Oricon Weekly charts. They also held a concert in Malaysia in December, becoming the first Japanese band to hold a solo concert there.
Scandal started 2013 by fulfilling one of their biggest dreams they had since their formation by performing in their hometown at the Osaka-jō Hall in March. Later that month they also performed to sellout crowds on their 2nd Asian Tour in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. During this period they also announced their fourteenth major single "Awanai Tsumori no, Genki de ne" released in May, with the title track being used as the theme song for the movie "Ore wa Mada Honki Dashitenai Dake". At April, They also took part in some music festivals like KAWAii!! MATSURi 2013 at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, and Rock in Japan Festival 2013 at Hitachi Seaside Park. Then they performed their summer live tour "SCA wa Mada Houki Dashitenai Dake". In August, they released their 16th single "Kagen no Tsuki", with the song "Kimi to Mirai to Kanzen Douki" being used as part of a collaboration with a robot project called "ROBOT SCANDAL".
Setlist tracks
Scandal has performed songs that have not appeared on any of their releases. These tracks are:
Tie-ins and promotions
Being fans of Japanese animation and manga themselves they wanted to be represented in animated form, turning each member into an animated character. The animated Scandal is featured on a series of promotional videos on the band's website.
Scandal's music has been featured in a range of popular media. Besides their aforementioned "Shōjo S" and "Shunkan Sentimental" singles, which were featured in the anime series "Bleach" and "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood" respectively, their first single, "Space Ranger", was the opening to Kyoto Sports Weekly, and their second single, "Koi Moyō" was the main theme of the movie Corazon de Melon. Their song, "Start", is the theme of Star Ocean: Second Evolution and is available on the game's soundtrack. More recently, "Daydream" was featured on a tribute album to the classic multi-genre Japanese band, Judy and Mary. Their new single "Harukaze" will be the 15th opening theme of Bleach. Scandal would be the second artist to be in charge of more than one opening theme in Bleach (after Aqua Timez).
Scandal also provided the theme music to the animated movie, Loups=Garous. The movie's insert song "Koshi-Tantan" was on their single "Taiyō to Kimi ga Egaku Story". Scandal also provided both the opening and ending themes for the movie, appearing in their animated form during a special musical performance scene.
They have also been featured in commercials, promoting a line of Cecil McBee cosmetics, for Nike, featuring four different colors of their footwear, and were chosen to represent Pocari Sweat in posters and in the promotional video for their song "Beauteen" as part of their summer 2009 campaign. In 2012, their song "Satisfaction" was used as the promotional song for the release of Windows 8, becoming the first Japanese artist to be chosen for the Windows commercial series. In 2016, their song "LOVE ME DO" was used as the CM song for the Fettuccine Gummi candy line manufactured by Bourbon. Later that year, they released a pair of shoes in collaboration with Vans as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations
Mobile
In October 2009, pamphlets were enclosed in the band's first album, Best Scandal, announcing the formation of "Club Scandal". Club Scandal is a cellphone-based fanclub with exclusive videos and interviews, behind the scenes bonus material, pictures, and up-to-the minute news on the band.
Traditional
On August 21, 2010 (the 4-year anniversary of the band being founded), Scandal launched a separate, traditional mail-based fanclub alongside "Club Scandal", called "Scandal Mania".
When joining, one would receive an official membership card, a full color newsletter mailed to the member tri-annually, a special birthday message written by their favorite member (chosen at sign-up) and signed by the whole band, as well as perks such as getting advance notice on tickets to live events, and special live events only for members.