During a concert at the Saitama Super Arena in April, all-girls vocal group Little Glee Monster performed a new song, Kimi to Ireba. While the track was met with fanfare, it was missing one thing–member Serina was on leave due to health concerns. The four-member version of the song was released in June, but now, Kimi to Ireba -complete ver.- has been released, sung by all five members. 

Little Glee Monster made their major debut in 2014, and has left a mark on the music world with their powerful vocals and skilled harmonies. In 2018, the group won Best Japanese Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards. 

Kimi to Ireba -complete ver.-

Serina made her return to the group after being on leave since December 2020, and is currently taking part in the group’s longest tour to date, Little Glee Monster Live Tour 2020→2021 Bright New World. The group will be performing in 30 locations across Japan, and on the first day of the tour, June 28, the complete version of Kimi to Ireba was performed for the first time at Century Hall in Nagoya. 

To commemorate the complete version of Kimi to Ireba, the song premiered on the official Little Glee Monster YouTube channel on August 15. It uses live footage from the first day of the new concert tour. 

What do you think of the complete track? 

Tokyu Musix Challenge is set to take place at Bunkamura Orchard Hall this year on March 7 at 18:00.

2020 saw the cancellation of music events across the world, with Japan being no exception. Shibuya, Tokyo’s hub of countless live music venues and halls, was particularly affected by the effects of the pandemic. But the energy and power that music artists hold is one they can offer to brighten up peoples’ time during today’s times. That’s where Tokyu Musix Challenge comes in, a new kind of music festival that will bring together a multitude of genres, and where better for it to be held than the cultural melting pot that is Shibuya.

This year will be the first run of the festival, where a collaboration between classical music and contemporary pop music will clash at Bunkamura Orchard Hall. The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, which is recognised as Japan’s oldest symphony orchestra, will play alongside acts such as Little Glee Monster, Ai Higuchi, Win Morisaki, Meimi Tamura, Kayoko Yoshizawa, ROTH BART BARON, and more. And the line-up is set to grow as more performers will be announced in the lead up to the event.

Comments from the Artists

Little Glee Monster

“We are really looking forward to feeling the fresh breeze of our music colliding with the grand scale of an orchestra. We’ll be sure to play our part so that we don’t lose to the overwhelming performance of everyone in the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, but also so that our music complements theirs. We hope that everyone can have a good time and feel good from the strength that music has.”

Ai Higuchi

“In 2020, we may have all lived kind of complicit with so many options in front of us leading down different paths. A certain friend might have gone to a drinking party, another might not have seen their lover for a long time. What choices do we make? We become darker depending on our choices. In Shibuya, a city that continues to change, I will sing my unchanged songs.”

Win Morisaki

“Over this past year, the respect I have for the position I’m in where I can express myself has really sunk in. I’m so happy I’ve been able to get involved with this challenge. And getting to sing with an orchestra, it’s magnificent. I’m so excited about what’s to come.”

Meimi Tamura

“I can’t contain my excitement at a genre collaboration between classic, which is the foundation of music, and pop which is strongly tied to Shibuya. I think I’m going to start feeling tense at getting to perform alongside everyone in the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and singers of all different kinds of music. We don’t have a lot of freedom today during the pandemic, but I will work my hardest so that I can deliver love through music from the city of Shibuya.”

Kayoko Yoshizawa

“My chest roars and having the opportunity to perform along side Japan’s oldest and longest-running Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at the legendary Orchard Hall. It’s my first time experiencing singing with an orchestra, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the songs will be structured, and how my voice will sound, when we do it.”

It has been announced that Little Glee Monster’s new song Kimi ni Todoku Made will be used as the ending theme for the upcoming TV anime series MIX set to begin airing on April 6, 2019.

MIX is a baseball manga series written and illustrated by Mitsuru Adachi and a follow up to his other manga series Touch which it is set 30 years after.

Little Glee’s new song was composed by Yoshiki Mizuno of Ikimono-gakari who also worked on the group’s 2018 track Natsu ni Natte Utae.

Talking about their tie-up with the series, Little Glee Monster’s Karen said the following: “We are honoured to be in charge of this song for MIX, a follow-up to Touch loved by guys and girls of all ages and known by everyone. We didn’t watch Touch when it originally aired, so we hope that our song serves as an introduction to the series to those in our generation who also haven’t seen it. We will put our all into singing this song for the series, Little Glee style.”

Once you hear their beautiful vocal harmonies, you won’t be able to get them out of your head! Their name is Little Glee Monster, a female vocal group that will charm any person with their wonderful voices. For those of you who don’t know Little Glee Monster, let me introduce them to you.

Their average age is 17, and their instrument is their vocal harmonies

They go by the name of Little Glee Monster, or “Little Glee” for short. They are an idol group made up of high school girls who formed as a result of an audition held by Sony Music Records and Watanabe Entertainment Co. Ltd. to find the best female vocalists. The girls each have their own incredible singing abilities and are able to harmonise beautifully which will take your breath away without you thinking.

The group is formed of 6 members including Serina, Asahi, Maju, MAYU, Karen and manaka. They made their major debut on October 29th, 2014 with their 1st single “Houkago High Five”. They released their second single, “Seishun Photograph / Girls be Free!”, the following year. The song was inspired by 60s-70s Western pop music and intends to elicit the listeners’ true self-confidence. Their fourth single, “Suki da.”, was used as the theme song for the TV drama “Omotesandou Koukou Gasshoubu”. The music video which was released on YouTube garnered a lot of views the moment it was released. Their performance in the video touched a lot of the people that watched it.

Their latest single introduces a Little Glee we haven’t seen before!

Their latest single, titled “Watashi Rashiku Ikite Mitai / Kimi no You ni Naritai”, was released this year in summer and features the helping hands of Seiji Kameda and Junji Ishiwatari. The CD jacket sees the members wearing some very colourful wigs. Additionally, “Kimi no You ni Narita” was used as the campaign song for the 2016 Disney film “The Jungle Book”. The song topped the Oricon charts as well as the J-POP album chart on iTunes. The film itself too was received very well.

Little Glee Monster have become much more active, particularly this year, as they continue to appear at larger outdoor festivals, as well as on radio and TV broadcasts. Moreover, they will be performing at the Nippon Budokan next year on January 8th for the very first time. Their dream of standing on the stage at Nippon Budokan while they are high school students has become a reality. In conjunction with this, Little Glee have also started a project called “DREAM20” where they intend to make 20 of their dreams come true by the year 2020. Little Glee are most definitely a breath of fresh air, and it’s because of that that the word “dream” definitely doesn’t sound empty when it comes to these girls; it might even make you want to support them on their journey.

Their long road ahead as artists

Little Glee have a lot of positive songs that cheer listeners on – they are able to sympathise with them, and this is something they are very good at. They have been able to debut as teenagers and have developed incredible singing voices. We must all watch attentively Little Glee Monster as they dance ahead to success. Be sure you see them for yourself live in concert to experience their beautiful harmonies.

Original Text: Noriko Ishimizu

Little Glee Monster Official Website: http://www.littlegleemonster.com/