Hello Everyone,
Something strange seems to be going in the now quite big world of the Babymetal band. Since a few weeks now, the turmoil is rising.
What? You didn't yet here about it?
Well, the rumor is spreading that YUIMETAL is leaving the band!
Everything started back in when YUIMETAL announced that she would not be participating to latest 2017's concert of the band in Japan. And now the band is touring around the world but YUIMETAL was nowhere to be seen on stage during the first gigs in the US. In addition, it also seems that two new members have joined the band. In addition, if you have looked the latest MV from the band, you may have spotted that for the first time since the group exists, the band members are nowhere to be seen in the video clip!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ce456Nnkt8This could be the prelude of what is called a change of generation in the world of Japanese Idols, and YUIMETAL may be the first to graduate.The graduation is a common practice in the world of Japanese Idols. It consists in older members of the band being replaced by younger ones. This keeps the Idol group alive when members leave the group while maintaining the freshness brought by youth(some Japanese idol groups such as Morning Musume are almost 20 years old!). It is also a mean for members to get away from the pressure of the group; Idols have quite a tough life between singing practices, dance practices, academical lessons, gig rehearsals and touring - and this became big for Babymetal which has been touring around the world relentlessly for the last three years and added alot of interviews in the loop. This leaves little to no room in the life of the Idols for a personal life. And this is another goal of graduations (forced ones): keeping away from scandals that may soon occur when members are getting adult and start claiming their autonomy and a personal life, knowing that paparazzi, in Japan more than anywhere else, are on watch.
Babymetal has been existing for more almost 8 years now, time for the new generation?
This is really not a common practice in Occidental culture to see the members of a band changing every two or three years, and if we are effectively assisting to the graduation of the members of babymetal, will the band international notoriety suffer from it?
We will have news soon!
Stéphane
Update 11/05/2018:
Hardly had the time to fininsh writing this post that the news came in: according to the company repsresenting BABYMETAL, the absence of YUIMETAL is part of the global setting of the new album:
https://www.altpress.com/news/entry/yuimetal_still_in_babymetalI am happy of the news as seeing a member from a band you like is always sad, but whatever: the life of a Japanese idol still remains hard.
