Be:First (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese dance and vocal boy band formed and managed by BMSG and signed to B-ME, a joint record label with Avex.[1] The group was formed on August 13, 2021 and debuted on November 3, 2021, through the reality competition show The First, which is hosted by Sky-Hi.[2][3] The group consists of seven members: Sota, Shunto, Manato, Ryuhei, Junon, Ryoki, and Leo.
The group are BMSG's first act, after Sky-Hi created the company feeling there were many problems in the Japanese music industry including talent having only a few places to show themselves in Japan, and instead would opt to go to Korean companies, hereby creating an outflow of Japanese talent to Korea.[4]
Name
The group's name, Be:First, was chosen with the intention of "always aiming for the top", and Sky-Hi hopes that the group will "continue to respect and love the fact that others are number one at the same time as they continue to be number one themselves".[5] Their official fandom name is Besty (stylized in all caps), which was coined by combining the first and last two letters of the group's name to mean bestie (best friend).[6]
History
2021: Formation and debut
On April 2, the audition of The First (stylized in all caps) started airing on Nippon Television Network's information program Sukkiri and online streaming service Hulu.[7] On August 13, the group name and members were announced on the last episode of the audition program.[8] On August 16, the group's digital pre-debut track, "Shining One", was released.[9]
On the Billboard Japan chart released on August 25, their digital pre-debut track, "Shining One", made its first appearance at number one on the Download Songs, number two on the Streaming Songs, and number two on the overall Japan Hot 100.[10] The song was also ranked number one on the Oricon Weekly Digital Single ranking on the same day, and ranked first on the Oricon Weekly Streaming ranking. Be:First became the second artists in history to achieve this double crown that the same work has reached number one in both the weekly digital single and streaming rankings simultaneously.[11]
Despite their pre-debut, Be:First performed on several TV programs, including NTV's Sukkiri (August 25) and Buzz Rhythm 02 (September 10), NHK's Shibuya no Oto (September 11), and TV Tokyo's Premiere Melodix! (September 11).[12][13][14][15] The group was also featured in the industry magazine Nikkei Entertainment.[16] Be:First appeared on September 18 as the opening act at SuperSonic 2021, a music festival held as an alternative event to Summer Sonic Festival, and gave their first performance in front of an audience.[17]
On 3rd November, they made their major debut with the release of their first single "Gifted", which topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100. Within a week of the release, it had more than 14 million streams, the third-highest number of weekly streams in Oricon history behind BTS and LiSA.[citation needed]
2022–present: Be:1
Be:First collaborated with Jonas Blue to release the Japanese version of "Don't Wake Me Up" on July 13, 2022.[18] The group released their debut studio album Be:1 (stylized in all caps) on August 31, preceded by their first two singles, "Gifted.", and "Bye-Good-Bye".[19] The album topped the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart.[20]Be:1 was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for having sold over 100,000 copies,[21] with them later embarking on their first national tour, Be:First 1st One Man Tour "Be:1" 2022–2023
They released a number of charting songs in 2022 and 2023, including the number-one songs "Bye-Good-Bye", "Scream", "Boom Boom Back"[22] and "Mainstream".[23] Following the digital release of "Bye-Good-Bye", Be:First became the first artist in Oricon history to achieve number one rankings in both downloads and streams in same week for a single work three times – the previous two being "Shining One" and "Gifted".[24] In another achievement, with the release of "Scream" Be:First became the first artist to have five songs win two number-one Oricon digital-ranking titles for a single work within the same week.[25] With "Boom Boom Back", Be:First achieved their seventh number one on Oricon's Weekly Digital Song chart. The song also was number one on the Streaming chart giving them a digital "double crown", thus breaking their own record and making them artist with the most digital double crowns for a single work in history.[26] They continued break records when Mainstream topped both the Oricon Digital Song Ranking and Streaming Ranking bringing their total number of digital "double crowns" to seven, the most for any artist in Oricon history.[27]
They embarked on their Be:First Arena Tour 2023–2024 "Mainstream", their first national arena tour. It was held from November 1, 2023, through February 24, 2024, in nine cities with a total of 22 shows.[28] They further added four more shows for March and April, Be:First Live in Dome 2024 "Mainstream" – Masterplan, with two shows each at the Tokyo Dome and Kyocera Dome.[29]
Members
Sota (島雄 壮大, Shimao Sōta)
Shunto (久保 舜斗, Kubo Shunto)
Manato (廣瀨 真人, Hirose Manato)
Ryuhei (黒田 竜平, Kuroda Ryūhei)
Junon (池亀 樹音, Ikegame Junon)
Ryoki (三山 凌輝, Miyama Ryōki)
Leo (上村 礼王, Kamimura Reo)
Discography
Studio albums
List of studio albums, with selected details, chart positions, sales and certifications
^"BE:FIRST 日本の音楽界に"革命"を巻き起こす7人". 日経エンタテインメント！2021年10月号 (in Japanese). Tokyo: Nikkei Business Publications. September 3, 2021. pp. 112–127. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
^週間 シングルランキング 2023年09月25日付 [Weekly Single Ranking for September 25, 2023] (in Japanese). Oricon. Archived from the original on September 20, 2023. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
