Oricon Reveals Their 2018 Rankings!

Oricon released their official 2018 ranking with Namie Amuro taking Top Artist Sales, thus winning this ranking two years consecutively—a feat that hasn’t been accomplished by a female solo artist since Koda Kumi in 2007. Amuro totaled the year out with close to 19 billion yen in sales, making 2018 the second consecutive year Amuro has sold past 10 billion yen.

As the Hesei Era ends in Japan, so too will Hesei Pop Queen Namie Amuro. Following Amuro is Nogizaka46 with 1.3 billion yen in sales—making them one of the only groups with shorter careers to make the Top 3 in two consecutive years—and AKB48 taking third.

Speaking of AKB48, they also broke an amazing record by “Teacher Teacher” and “Sentimental Train” taking both #1 and #2 for Top Selling Singles. This marks the ninth consecutive year they have achieved this. Following AKB48 is Nogizaka46’s “Synchronicity” tailing in at third, with additional artists such as Keyakizaka46’s “Glass wo Ware” taking eighth and King & Prince’s “Cinderella Girl” rounding out at tenth.

On the album side of accomplishments, Namie’s Finally took number one, albeit selling only 630,000 copies. AKB48’s 僕たちは、あの日の夜明けを知っている (Bokutachi wa, Ano Hi Yoake) trailed close behind with a 20,000 copy differential. With Southern All-Star’s 海のOh,Yeah!! (Umi No Oh, Yeah!!) taking third. Not to be ignored, Korea’s BTS’s FACE YOURSELF and Twice’s BDZ taking seventh and eighth respectively .

We at Ongaku To You would like to thank and congratulate all of the artists for their hard work throughout this year and we are excited for what they have in store for 2019!

Keyakizaka46 Drops The Music Video For Their Latest Single!

Super idol group Keyakizaka46 released the music video on their official YouTube channel for their upcoming single, “Ambivalent”, being released on August 15. “Ambivalent” is the group’s seventh single overall and will have Yurina Hirate once again taking the coveted center role for the single.

Preorder your copy of “Ambivalent” here, and check out the music video below!

Keyakizaka46 First Album Reaches A Historic Record!

Idol group Keyakizaka46 achieved a major feat for their first album 走り出す瞬間(Hashiri Dasu Shunkan), released on June 20th. It ranked first on both the digital and physical charts for the week of June 18-24. With this, Keyakizaka46 became the second female group to achieve such a feat, the first being their elder sister group Nogizaka46, who achieved this in July of last year.

Keyakizaka46’s captain, Kumi Sasaki, stated, “We had a lot of concerns about the album but in light of it taking first place we are extremely happy with this news.”

We at Ongaku To You congratulate Keyakizaka46 on the success of their first album and can’t wait for future releases!

You can order the album here and check out their latest single, “Glass wo Ware” below! 

Japan Votes For Most Beautiful Idol Face!

With Senbatsu almost ending, Japanese radio program  Recomen decided to hold their own Senbatsu, calling it the “2018 Female Idol Face-Only Election”. They asked fans for their favorite 48 and 46 family idol, strictly based only on their facial features. The poll ranked up to 20, but what is very interesting is that in the top ten alone, only four members are from the 48 family while the rest are all part of the 46 family. With Mai Shiraishi taking first! 

You can watch Ken react to the Senbatsu tonight! 

Billboard Japan Releases Mid-year Rankings!

Billboard Japan announced today their mid-year ranking. Kenshi Yonezu took the first spot for TOP ARTIST  with both TWICE and BTS taking second and third respectively.

For HOT 100, “Lemon” took first which is understandable with its amount of digital sales. “Glass wo Ware” from Keyakizaka 46 took second and Gen Hoshino’s song “Doraemon” took third.

For HOT ALBUMS Namie Amuro’s Finally took first --once again, very understandable with close to two million copies sold as of this post. AKB48’s Bokutachi wa, ano Hi no Yuake wo Shitteiru took second and Kenshi Yonezui‘s BOOTLEG took third.

We congratulate everyone for all their hard work to secure their place on the list and we can’t wait to hear what is next for these artist!