JPLOP.COM

In light of all the other girls who have just graduated or about to graduate, I was just looking into Sekine. I'm kind of surprised she's still only 26, I thought she was around 30 to be honest. She joined H!P Eggs in 2004, so she was affiliated with Up Front for 18 years, over two thirds of her life! (As of 2023 YU-M seems to be no longer under Up Front).

Anyway, speaking of Up-Up Girls, former Upga(2) member Yoshikawa Mayu recently had a very understated release of the video for her 5th(!) solo song "Kiiro."

Up Up Girls (2) Nakagawa Chihiro and Morinaga Niina both graduated on April 30th.

tweet

tweet

tweet

Now there is just 5 of them

tweet

They look so smol now. They're like Kobushi Factory in the "after" photos.

Maachan has been putting up weekly karaoke sessions in anticipation of her upcoming 25th birthday concert:


Shinjidai by ADO
Subtitle by Official HIGE DANdism
Kawaikute Gomen by Honeyworks
Cinderella Boy by Saucy Dog
Marigold by Aimyon


Sakura ga furu yoru wa by Aimyon
Hakujitsu by King Gnu
Imitation Rain by SixTONES
Kaibutsu by YOASOBI
Kirakira by aiko


secret base ～Kimi ga kureta mono～ by ZONE
IDOL by YOASOBI
Utakata Hanabi by supercell
Homura by LiSA
Touch by Yoshimi Iwasaki

Honestly this was a mixed bag. Her Kawaikute gomen performance was excellent, since the song goes really well with her idoly singing voice. She did a good job with Kirakira by aiko as well. But YOASOBI's IDOL was almost unlistenable. Mayu has a super-cute voice within her limitations, she just needs to stick to them and not try to keep up with top tier vocalists, at least not without serious training.

The cute and lovely Maachan's at it again with another hopelessly pitch-challenged karaoke performance. I'm linking to this one only for the reason that that she performs Konya Dake Ukaretakatta at the 44 minute mark.

I don't know what happened but Mayu sounds really nice this week. I guess she just picked much more compatible songs this week although unfortunately Zutumayo's Byoushin wo Kamu is very skippable. But Aimer's Kataomoi and DISH's Neko are both really well done (in fact I like her version better than DISH's.)



Anyway the main news this week is that she released a video for her song, "Love Rescue," consisting of footage of her trip to Thailand.


The thumbnail spells out TAI

She wrote the lyrics to this upbeat little ditty.

Guess who's back? Well, actually it seems she was never really gone.

tweet

Amped wrote:Up Up Girls (2) announced they will have an audition for new members "Up Up Girls (2) 2023 Aoharu Auditions!"

Up Up Girls (2) New Member Audition!

Up Up Girls (2) is an idol group that is going all out to be the "Don Quixote of the idol world"!

The royal road idol group "Up Up Girls (2)", a.k.a. apga2, is giving their all in their youth!

The group's colorful songs are provided by Tsunku♂, Omori Seiko, michitomo, Yamamoto Sho, and many other sound creators, and their live performances, cultivated through daily practice, make the idol world more exciting than ever!

Love to sing

I like to dance

Loves to entertain people

Loves thrills

Loves surprises

I never fail! Never loses!

Want to be famous!

I want to discover a new me!

I want to walk forward!

I don't want to give up on my dream!

I want to look up!

We are looking forward to hearing from you if you have the same passionate spirit that the members of Up Up Girls have!

For more details about the audition, please visit

https://exam.work/auditions/uug2ki2023


https://upupgirls2.jp/news_post/1998/

"Up Up Girls (2) 2023 Aoharu Auditions" is accepting additional applications till June 11th deadline.

Episode #9 of YoshiKara (Karaoke Diva's Livestream)

This time Mayu invited Yurika from UUG(kari) to sing along with her. Yukka has a really nice voice -- I'll leave it for you to decide whether this was a smart move on Maachan's part or not. At the very least it gives her sweet and gentle personality a chance to shine more than when it's just her talking to a webcam.

Anyway, after a false start due to a mic malfunction, they sang Yasashii Suisei by YOASOBI, Hanamizuki by Hitoto Yo, Time Goes By by ELT, Connect by ClariS (Yurika solo), Kimagure Princess by Morning Musume (40:53), and Ai no Uta by Koda Kumi. Very nice and nostalgic set.

Hoo-chan mentioned on her social media that she has a gravure spread in the June 26 Young Magazine, as well as being on the cover. A tiny lower-right-corner pic but a cover pic nonetheless:



https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct0Kfj6pKx0/

She will also (in the near future) be appearing in Young Magazine's online "NEXT Oshi Girl" feature for 4 weeks in a row.

https://yanmaga.jp/gravures/series/18