TOKYO, JAPAN (Top40 Charts) J-Pop singer-songwriter and music producer Kenshi Yonezu, released new single "M87," a theme song to the new Shin Ultraman (New Ultraman) film, on May 18 (Wed.). Ranked #1 on the Billboard JAPAN HOT 100, #69 on the Billboard Global 200, and #16 on Billboard Global Excl. US on May 25.
On May 13 (Fri.), Yonezu released the music video for "M87" skyrocketed to 3M views in less than a day, and it currently sits at 10M. This single is blasting in at #1 for downloads for two consecutive weeks with 82,000 downloads (82,343DL) on the Oricon Weekly Streaming Ranking [Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly]. It is Yonezu's 10th single to rank #1 — more than any other performing act in Japan.
The movie "Shin Ultraman," was No. 1 for two weeks in a row in the nationwide movie ranking, already drawing 1.34 million viewers, and grossing over 2 billion yen at the box office. This movie is helmed by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno as writer and planner and Shinji Higuchi as director and is the spiritual successor to 2016's Shin Godzilla.
Kenshi Yonezu is no stranger to breaking records and making history; he became the first Asian artist ever, for a virtual 2020 Event / STRAY SHEEP in Fortnite. Released 5th album "STRAY SHEEP" on August 5th of the same year, a million units were shipped on the day before the release and million sales was achieved on August 13th. Sales of the album reached 1.5 million sales and recorded 2 million sales on the Oricon Cumulative album chart which led him to top 46 year-end charts of 2020.
Yonezu had collaborative UT T-shirt with Uniqlo available in Uniqlo shops worldwide, his participation in the GIVENCHY SS21 collection look book with other notable celebrities across the globe as well as his other ambitious efforts are all contributing factors to his high acclaim within and outside of Japan. He ranked 7th in the IFPI GLOBAL Chart and listed in Forbes as one of Asia's
Digital Stars 100. Adding to this accolade, he received numerous awards, Best Newcomer, the
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Art Department Prize in Japan.
In January 2022, Yonezu released a song of the new PlayStation® commercial, "A World Without Fun｜Play Has No Limits" featuring Yonezu and his new song "POP SONG", as the first time ever for a song to be unveiled at PlayStation®.
As for his music videos, "
Lemon" has over 740 million views and the numbers continue to grow as he continues to set new records for a Japanese artist. A total of 15 songs ("
Lemon", "Eine Kleine", "LOSER", "Peace Sign", "Haiiro to Ao [with Masaki Suda]" ["Grey And Blue"], "orion", "
Flamingo", "Uchiage Hanabi" ["
Fireworks"], "
Paprika", "Shunrai" ["Spring Thunder"], "
Paprika", "
Uma To Shika" ["Horse and Deer"]) , "
Paprika" sung by Foorin, "
Machigai Sagashi" ["Spotting The Mistake" sung by Masaki Suda], "Kanden") have been viewed a staggering 100 million times and he has over 6.25 million subscribers on his official YouTube channel.
