HAPPINESS part 1
In October 2008, HIRO recruited five girls from EXPG, SAYAKA, MIMU, KAEDE, KAREN and MIYUU, to back dance on EXILE’s live tours.
From left to right: MIMU, MIYUU, KAREN, SAYAKA and KAEDE.
In July of 2009 the LDH DREAM GIRLS AUDITION 2008 was held, from that audition LDH chose the contestant that won the second prize, YURINO, to become Happiness’ new performer. HIRO already had in mind to create another group that shared the same DNA-type of EXILE and had a similar structure.
The three members behind (left to right): MIYUU, YURINO and KAEDE. The three on front (left to right): MIMU, KAREN and SAYAKA.
In October, Happiness launched a DVD-single as an indie act, Happy Talk, being 6 members and having only one vocalist: KAREN.
Although there’s sometimes confusion about whether the song features YURINO’s vocals, the only vocalist listed on the credits was KAREN. The confusion comes from the fact that some fans believe that the audition YURINO passed was a singing one; however, that audition (according to Oricon’s news blog) was about finding different types of talent among the people of the regions of Kyushuu and Hokkaido.
The song was used for a donuts shop’s CM (Mister Donut), and the theme was all hot pink, like the utensils from Mister Donut they use in the music video. This color has been often used for Happiness’ 24karats tracksuits and other outfits for their performances. The other color featured in the music video -used on the girls’ performance shots outfits- is chocolate’s color.
With the idea of having a group more similar to EXILE, they organized in the month of December the Happiness VOCAL BATTLE AUDITION, to find MAYU, the seventh member.
In 2011 they did their major debut with label UNIVERSAL, with the single Kiss Me (January 27th).
The members from the major debut line-up:
Performer, KAEDE.
Vocalist & Performer, KAREN.
Vocalist, MAYU.
Performer, MIMU.
Performer, MIYUU.
Performer, SAYAKA.
Performer, YURINO.
That year they would drop two more singles: Friends (April 27th) and Wish (August 17th). That last single reached number 12 at the Oricon charts, the best position they had till then, staying 3 weeks on the chart.
Wish was written by Ryosuke “Dr.R” Sakai and Kanata Okajima, produced by UTA. Friends, is a song by Kiyoshi Matsuo, produced by MAESTRO-T.
Happiness’ songs from that period were always cheerful and carefree, but adding R&B/Soul soft melodies and electronic arrangements more R&B/Pop flavored. They live up to their name trying to bring joy into their live performances, with smooth dance moves, well executed, with a unique way to do different hip-hop dance moves, adapting to their main concept of offering a cheerful performance.
On January 27th 2012 MIMU announced that she would go on an indefinite hiatus to concentrate on her studies in order to pass her high school entrance tests, and she promised she’d be back afterwards.That closed the first chapter of this group as it would soon enter a different dynamics with the increase of the EXILE sisters’ groups’ mega-unit, E-Girls. But that is something we’ll explain in another chapter.
Image sources:
http://natalie.mu/music/news/20988
http://ameblo.jp/iroharose/entry-11151103108.html
http://www.baike.com/wiki/happiness%E7%BB%84%E5%90%88
Sources:
http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1340235908
http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/57272/full/
