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Whiteberry

Whiteberry was a five-piece all-girl Japanese pop/rock band from Hokkaido, Japan. Though the band formed in 1994 they didn't make their national debut until 1999 with the EP after school. After over ten years together and a string of hits, the group disbanded in 2004.

Members

Information

Originally the band formed was formed back in 1994 by a group of life-long friends while in elementary school. The band at first was called the "Strawberry Kids", but later renamed to Whiteberry. When the members grew older they started paying live shows and soon discovered a loyal fanbase in their home of Hokkaido. During one local show their lives were changed when they were scouted out by the members of JUDY AND MARY (YUKI is from Hokkaido).

They offered Whiteberry a recording contract in 1999 with Sony Music Entertainment. Although all the members were still in high school, the girls recorded their first EP "after school". The band would soon follow up with their debut single, "YUKI".

It wasn't until the band's third single that they struckgold. "Natsumatsuri" a song originally released by Jitterin' Jinn, became the band's biggest hit (bigger than the original). The single reached #2 on the Oricon charts (making it the bands only single to chart in the top ten), and stayed on the charts for seventeen weeks selling a total of 648,000 copies (also the bands only single to sell over 100k). Only a month later the band followed up with their first full-length album, (Hatsu).

After the release of their album the girls tried to complete their high school education, while working on their next album. They girls soon released a string of singles, starting with "Akubi" (a re-arranged version of a track from the band's debut EP). Three more singles were released: "Sakura Nakimichi", "Kakurenbo" (the b-side "Mezase Pokemon Master" was used as the theme to the third Pokémon anime movie) and "Tachiiri Kinshi". The band soon then dropped their second full length album, Chameleon in January of 2002. The is considered a superior follow-up to "(Hatsu)" with darker song themes.

After a small tour, the girls released a trilogy of singles in late 2002 ("Jitensha Dorobou, "BE HAPPY", and "Koe ga Nakunaru Made"). The majority of their time was taken trying to finish their final year of high school. As their education took precedence, Whiteberry for the most part left studio recording aside, and stopped touring. The only thing released during this time were two songs recorded for computer animated televisioin series SD Gundam.

It wasn't until Feburary of 2004 that we saw any sort of release from the band. They released their eleventh single, "Shinjiru Chikara" which contained those two tracks used in SD Gundam. The lyrics to "Shinjiru Chikara" were a joint effort by all the members of the band about how they missed each other since graduation, and members' decisions to attend college. Only a week after the singles release the band announced that they were disbanding after ten years together. The band played a couple of tearful fair well shows throughout Tokyo and their native Hokkaido in March of 2004.

After the band split Sony released two compilations. The first was the album KISEKI~the best of Whiteberry~, which was a collection with a mix of a-sides, b-sides, and album tracks. The other was the DVD Videoberry final ~the all clips of Whiteberry~ containing all of the bands music videos.

Discography

Albums

Other Albums

Singles

Compliations / Others

DVD / VHS

External Links