Super Eight

Japanese pop group Kanjani8 was founded in 2002 by Johnny's Entertainment, a male idol talent agency, and began life as an eight-member unit comprising You Yokoyama, Subaru Shibutani, Shingo Murakami, Ryo Nishikido, Toru Maruyama, Tadayoshi Okura, Shibutani Subaru, and Shota Yasuda. In 2003, Kanjani8 members Ryo Nishikido and Hiroki Uchi left the group to become part of NEWS. Kanjani8, who hail from the Kansai region of Japan, mix traditional enka with an array of contemporary styles. They achieved national fame in 2004 with their debut single “Naniwa Iroha Bushi,” which cracked Japan's top ten chart and was followed later that year by the Kansha Ni Eight EP, which went to number five. They made waves with another two singles in 2005, "Osaka Rainy Blues" and "Sukiyanen, Osaka," reaching the top five on both occasions. Their first full-length, KJ1 F.T.O, arrived in 2006 and contained the singles "Osaka Obachan Rock/Osaka Romanesque," which went to number two on Japan's Oricon chart, and "Kanfuu Fighting," which became the group's first number one single. This marked the start of a long line of number-one singles over subsequent years, including 2010's "Wonderful World!!" and 2011's "T.W.L/Yellow Pansy Street," which was the theme song for the movie Crayon Shin-chan: Fierceness That Invites Storm! Operation Golden Spy. They kept the albums coming, soaring to the top of the Japanese chart with their fifth LP, Fight, in 2011. To celebrate their 10th anniversary in 2014, the group launched their own label, Infinity Records, and in 2015 they issued their guest-enhanced eighth album, Kanjani 8 no Genki Ga Deru, with Jam following in 2017. The group returned in 2021 with their first full-length in over four years, 8beat, which marked their ninth consecutive number-one album and for which they were presented a Japan Gold Disc Award for Album of the Year. July 2022 saw the release of the group's 47th single, “Kassai.” In January 2024, they released their last single as Kanjani8, "Anthropos." The next month they decided to rebrand from Kanjani8 to Super Eight, following the Johnny Kitagawa sexual abuse scandal that saw numerous allegations made against the talent agency founder. They marked the name change with a self-titled album later that year.

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