Idol (Yoasobi song)

"Idol" (アイドル) is a song by Japanese duo Yoasobi from their third EP, The Book 3 (2023). It was released as a single on April 12, 2023, by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, serving as the opening theme of the 2023 Japanese anime series Oshi no Ko. Written by Ayase and based on Aka Akasaka's short story 45510, "Idol" is a combination of Japanese idol-styled pop, hip hop, rock, and video game music, depicting the two-faced nature of a star in the Japanese idol industry from perspectives on the anime's character Ai Hoshino by her fans, her B-Komachi's groupmates, and herself.

The song received positive reviews from music critics for a "perfect" representation of Ai Hoshino. It was a massive commercial success by peaking at number one on both the Oricon Combined Singles Chart and Billboard Japan Hot 100. The latter topped for 22 non-consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running number-one song in the chart history. It also broke the record for the fastest song to achieve diamond certification for 500 million streaming by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) in about ten months. As Yoasobi's most successful song worldwide to date, "Idol" was marked as the highest position by Japanese act at number seven on the Billboard Global 200, and the first Japanese-language song to top the Global Excl. US, as well as the 19th best-selling song globally in 2023, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

Naoya Nakayama directed the accompanying animated music video for the song, which premiered on April 13, 2023, and exceeded 100 million views in around one month, the fastest among Japanese acts. "Idol" won several awards, including Best Animation Video and Song of the Year at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards Japan, Best Anime Song at the 8th Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Song of the Year by both download and streaming at the 38th Japan Gold Disc Award, and Gold Prize at the 2024 JASRAC Awards. After numerous domestic and overseas performances, the first Japanese televised performance of "Idol" took place at the 74th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, featuring Japanese and Korean idol groups, among others.

Background and release
An anime adaptation of manga series Oshi no Ko was announced in June 2022. During a livestream on its official YouTube channel on February 19, 2023, the anime series revealed the opening theme which would be performed by Yoasobi, titled "Idol". As a "super huge" fan of the manga, Ayase had personally read Oshi no Ko before and written a demo about it around 2022. It was initially titled "Kyūkyoku no Ōgi", portraying a girl who is the strongest and unbeatable fighter, showing some dark side, reminiscing about Street Fighter character Chun-Li. The demo was originally expected to be released as a Vocaloid song, but the plan was changed after the duo received the offer to perform the opening theme for Oshi no Ko; Ayase interwove the demo and the new composition to be the final version.

"Idol" first featured in the anime's trailer, and the full-length version played for the first time in an extended 90-minute first episode, "Mother and Children", which premiered on March 17 at selected movie theaters in Japan. After the first performance of the song at their Denkōsekka Arena Tour on April 5 at Nippon Gaishi Hall, Nagoya, Yoasobi announced that "Idol" would be available on digital music and streaming platforms on April 12, the same date as the anime's televised premiere. A month later, the duo teased a snippet of the English version as a video clip uploaded via Twitter, showing Ikura recording the song in the studio, which the full-length was released digitally on May 26. The limited CD single and 7-inch vinyl formats of the single were released on June 21 and July 26, respectively, which both contain the Japanese, English, anime edit, and instrumental versions. Subsequently, "Idol" was included in the duo's third EP The Book 3, released on October 4, and the English version on their third English-language EP E-Side 3, released on April 12, 2024.

45510


The source of "Idol" is 45510, a short story written by Oshi no Ko's writer Aka Akasaka. The title refers to the initials of the manga's fictional idol girl group B-Komachi founding members: Takamine, Nino, Ai, and Watanabe, when typing on a telephone keypad. Each number corresponds when feeding kana inputs: "ta" (た) as "4", "ni" (に) as "55", "a" (あ) as "1", and "wa" (わ) as "0". The story was first published via Weekly Young Jump website on April 13, shortly after the anime's first episode televised premiere, before being included as a poster booklet on the single physical releases.

The story depicts the points of view of an unidentified one of B-Komachi's former founding members, who found former groupmate and face of the group Ai Hoshino's livestream 16 years after her death. The video showed Hoshino talking to her fans, making her reminisce and her jealousy of Hoshino. After the video stopped and could not find more, the former member tried to log in to B-Komachi's blog, operated by four founding members, whose password is "45510", and found Hoshino's unpublished posts written about her bad feelings, wanting to be like the past. The former member decided to delete the posts because she did not want to show Hoshino's weak side to everyone. Even though she disliked Hoshino, the protagonist also respected Hoshino as a "perfect and ultimate idol".

Lyrics and composition
"Idol" combines pop, hip-hop, rock, and video game music genres with a church choir-like gothic rendition. The Japan Times's Patrick St. Michel described the song as "a mix of varied influences that draws from Akihabara livehouses and Atlanta hip-hop," that is "connected by a piano dash that has come to define Ayase's production." It is driven by the "bright and poppy", "idol-like bubblegum", and "reign of the king" atmosphere-like sounds, and includes "dizzying" transitions and "complicated" structure, such as "gritty" sub-bass, orchestral and electronic-sounded chorus, and trap beat-styled rapping, etc. The song's production was inspired by American musician Ghostemane's strong lows and bass guitar played at Indonesia rapper Rich Brian's performance at the 2022 Head in the Clouds Festival. Music critic Hwang Sun-up noted that "Idol" "reflects a lot of K-pop elements" in terms of sound and composition, citing Blackpink's "How You Like That" for grand intro, and Nmixx's "O.O" for mixed structure. Ikura's vocals in the song are described as alternating between "cutest idol in the world"-like "sweet and clear" voice and "frenzy" and "introspection" with "deep sarcastic" snarls and "K-pop-esque" "rapid-fire" raps.



"Idol" features uncredited background cheering shouts by Akihabara-based B-boy group and YouTuber Real Akiba Boyz, and gospel-styled background vocals sung in English for praise idol. Told only until the end of Oshi no Ko's first episode, the lyrics express the two-faced nature of people in the entertainment industry, specifically Japanese idols, including their perfection, ultimate, culture, fans' psychology, and idolatry. The song shows the three perspectives on Ai Hoshino. The first part expresses the eyes of fans and media about her perfection and making herself look mysterious, by answering fans' questions, and herself about not knowing how to love someone and no longer distinguishing between truths and lies. The second part tells B-Komachi's members' jealousy but respect and gratitude for Hoshino. The last depicts Hoshino's point of view of her secret about lies, greed, and imperfection, as well as her motherhood of twin children, Ruby and Aqua, that she hopes someday her lies become true.

""

Critical reception
Upon its release, "Idol" generally received positive reviews. Danny Guan from Game Rant praises "Idol" as a "perfect" representation of Ai Hoshino, and "jumping from brooding rap verses to energetic J-pop melodies with ease, flipping moods at the drop of a hat." Writing for Yahoo! News Japan, Suzie Suzuki compared the song as a parody of Kyoko Koizumi's 1985 single "Nantettatte Idol" and 2010s female idols, and commented, "It is too well done and has reached a metastructure of 'more idol song-like than a normal idol song.' " Real Sound's Mio Komachi dubbed the song "standing out" among Yoasobi's discography, feeling "the essence of a Vocaloid song", and the "perfect" portrayal of Hoshino with an "almost inorganic" voice, while Tsuki no Hito described the song "having this chaotic sense of balance that incorporates K-pop homage […], and explodes with a clear chorus that is typical of J-pop." Noriko Ashizawa from Spotify Japan described that "Idol" "has a composition in which the scene changes rapidly in a different sense from K-pop," and "the Vocaloid-like irregular melody progression is not similar to any overseas song."

Rockin'On Japans Miho Takahashi called the song "a perfect work that could not be better," while Mikikis S.H.I. "a song representing 2023", stated about "emphasiz[ing] the impression of the performer's presence rather than the musicality." Patrick St. Michel from The Japan Times wrote that the song is "disorienting […] but it's certainly catchy." For the English version, ComicBook.com's Nick Valdez praised that it "captur[ing] the spirit of the original version perfectly." Gumi from Cinemas+ commended the song for retaining most of the message conveyed by the Japanese original lyrics. Writing for Screen Rant, Joshua Fox gave a mixed review, commenting that the song, "while still great to listen to, falls short of the Japanese version"; "the lyrics are largely exact translations with little to no alterations," so "the flow of the English version ends up feeling off in some parts." Fox compared the song to the complete re-writing in English of Hikaru Utada's "Hikari", "Simple & Clean". Economist and entrepreneur Yūsuke Narita dubbed both the Japanese and English versions as Matsuo Bashō's 1686 hokku "furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto" and its English translations in the 21st century. Music critics Tássia Assis called "Idol" "their magnum opus so far".

Japan
"Idol" was an immediate commercial success in Japan. According to Oricon and Billboard Japan, the song became the fastest song to reach 100 million streams in Japan within five weeks, surpassing six weeks of Official Hige Dandism's "Subtitle" and BTS' "Butter". It later broke a string of records for the fastest song to earn 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, and 700 million streams. As of April 2024, the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) certified the song double platinum for digital sales, exceeding 500,000 units; and diamond for streaming with 500 million on-demand streams. The latter marked "Idol" as the fastest song to achieve diamond certification in RIAJ history within 295 days after the song's release.

Oricon
For the issue dated April 24, 2023, "Idol" entered the Oricon Digital Singles Chart at number two, earning 33,867 downloads, behind Man with a Mission and Milet's "Kizuna no Kiseki", and rose to the top the next week with 34,070 downloads, making it as Yoasobi's record for the most number-one song on the chart with 12 songs, tying with Kenshi Yonezu at that time. It spent ten non-consecutive weeks atop the Digital Singles Chart, the fifth song to reach it in history. The song debuted atop the Streaming Chart with 10,328,178 streams, the duo's third number-one song on the chart after "Yoru ni Kakeru", and "Kaibutsu", and topped for 22 consecutive weeks, the second most weeks at number one, behind Official Hige Dandism's "Pretender" (34), and the fifth song to reach number one on the chart for more than ten weeks. With 29,975,897 streams in the week of June 26, it became the duo's and 2023 biggest, and the second most accumulated streams in a single week in Oricon history, blocked from "Butter" (31 million streams), as well as the song with the most weeks exceeding 20 million streams (12), besting "Subtitle" (4).

Moreover, "Idol" is the second song in 2023 since Be:First's "Boom Boom Back", and by the duo to reach number one on both the Oricon Digital Single and Streaming charts in the same week and topped for ten non-consecutive weeks, tying with "Subtitle". "Idol" first opened at number five on the Oricon Combined Singles Chart dated April 24, and peaked at number one in the week of May 29, as the duo's second song since "Yoru ni Kakeru", after staying in the top five for five weeks. The song returned to number one on the week dated January 22, 2024, eight months after the first top. The CD single debuted at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart for the week of July 3, selling 49,385 copies, behind King & Prince's "Nanimono", while the English version peaked at number eight on the Digital Singles Chart with 6,080 units. "Idol" finished at number one on three Oricon 2023 year-end charts: Combined Singles, Digital Singles, and Streaming, earning 557,295 downloads and 570,368,238 streams.

Billboard Japan
"Idol" debuted at number one on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for the week of April 19, 2023. It earned 29,327 digital sales, 8,868,810 streams, and 4,334,923 video views in its first week, scoring Yoasobi's second number-one song in the country since "Yoru ni Kakeru" in 2020. The song stayed at the number-one position for 21 consecutive weeks, beating "Subtitle" as the song with the most both consecutive and total weeks at number one in the chart history, which previously was eight consecutive weeks and 13 overall weeks, respectively. On the week of September 13, the song was finally unseated in the top position by Snow Man's "Dangerholic", King Gnu's "Specialz", and Enhypen's "Bite Me", descending to number four. Four months later, the song re-peaked at number one on the week of January 17, 2024, expanding the longest number-one song to 22 total weeks. "Idol" also peaked at number one on the specific-genre Hot Animation, the third song following "Kaibutsu" and "Shukufuku", for 21 consecutive weeks, tying with Kenshi Yonezu's "Kick Back"; and 37 total weeks, the second longest after 39 weeks of Lisa's "Gurenge". During that time, it was succeeded by "Specialz" for two weeks, and the duo's own "Yūsha" for one week, and finally dethroned by Creepy Nuts' "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born" on the week of January 31, 2024.

For component charts, "Idol" opened at number two on the Download Songs, blocked from "Kizuna no Kiseki", and surged up to the top the next week and spent ten non-consecutive weeks on it. The song topped the Streaming Songs and peaked for 24 non-consecutive weeks. It received 25,860,696 streams in the week of May 17, giving the song the second most streams overall in a single week, behind "Butter" (30 million streams). The CD single sold 53,589 copies on its release week, landing at number two on the Top Singles Sales dated June 26, behind "Nanimono". Following the 7-inch vinyl release, the single jumped from number 84 to 12 in the week of August 2 with 3,884 copies. "Idol" was named the best-performing song of 2023 on the Japan Hot 100. It became the most-streamed, most-downloaded, and most-heard-on-the-radio song in the country that year, receiving 527,143,965 streams, 148,838,759 video views, and 509,751 digital sales, which topped both the year-end Streaming Songs and Download Songs.

Worldwide
Two weeks after its release, Yoasobi's distributor The Orchard reported that "Idol" had been streamed and viewed over 100 million times. The song first entered the Billboard Global Excl. US at number 135 for the issue dated April 22, 2023, within two days of tracking and then surged up 130 spots to number five the next week. Following the English version release and spent the first six of seven weeks in the top ten, the song rose atop the Global Excl. US—collecting 24,000 digital sales and 45.7 million streams in that week—becoming the first Japanese-language song to top the chart, and stayed on it for three non-consecutive weeks. On the Billboard Global 200, "Idol" debuted at number 14 dated April 29, and peaked at number seven nine weeks later, setting a new record as the highest position by Japanese act on the chart, surpassing Lisa's "Homura" (8). The song was charted at number 42 and 19 on the 2023 year-end Global 200 and Global Excl. US, respectively, the highest-ranking J-pop song in history.

Music critic Motohiko Tokuriki compared the success of "Idol" to Fujii Kaze's "Shinunoga E-Wa", which was a hit overseas in 2022, and commented that it "has the potential to be a big step for the Japanese music industry in that it has clearly seen the world from the beginning and has been successful." During the inaugural week of September 14, 2023, "Idol" debuted at number one on the Billboard Japan Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan, which tracks the most streamed and digitally sold songs outside Japan in over 200 territories, and topped for 12 non-consecutive weeks. For music streaming services, the song also reached number one on the global charts of Apple Music and YouTube Music, and was the eighth most streamed song globally, the best-performing Japanese act, on Apple Music in 2023. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported that "Idol" was the nineteenth best-selling song in 2023, earning 1.01 billion subscription streams equivalents globally.

Music video
An accompanying music video for "Idol" premiered on Yoasobi's YouTube and Ayase's Niconico channels on April 13, 2023, at 0:30 JST, shortly after Oshi no Ko televised premiere. Directed by Naoya Nakayama, and produced by Doga Kobo, who also was in charge of anime production, the visual features the same animated visuals as the anime, depicting the "bright and dark" symbolism of Ai Hoshino, and her twin children, Aqua and Ruby. In the end, the music video shows Aqua and Ruby as high school students watching her mother Ai performing on television, which does not appear in the anime. The director described the scene as "the world that Ai wanted to see".

The "Idol" music video became the duo's fourth music video to accrue 100 million views, after "Yoru ni Kakeru", "Kaibutsu", and "Gunjō", as well as the fastest music video to reach this mark by any Japanese act within 35 days, surpassing the 62 days of NiziU's "Make You Happy". It became the 2023 most-viewed music-related video on YouTube in Japan, and has gained over 500 million views as of July 2024, the most-viewed video on the duo's YouTube channel. The music video for the English version was released later in conjunction with the song on May 26.

Live performances
Yoasobi gave the debut performance of "Idol" on April 5, 2023, at their first show of Denkōsekka Arena Tour at Nippon Gaishi Hall, Nagoya, and included it on the tour's setlist as the only song of the encore. The duo also performed the song at the free TikTok special live concert at Theater Milano-za in Shinjuku, Tokyo on April 24 as the last song. The song was part of set lists for several music festivals and concert tours, e.g. Head in the Clouds, Rock in Japan, Summer Sonic, Coachella, their 2023–2024 Asia Tour, and Pop Out Zepp Tour, etc.; the Summer Sonic performance broadcast via television special NHK Music Expo 2023 on September 14, 2023, and the Clockenflap performance aired via the 65th Japan Record Awards on December 30. They debuted the televised performance of the song at South Korean music program M Countdown on September 21. The duo performed the song at the 8th Crunchyroll Anime Awards on March 2, 2024, after the song won Best Anime Song.

74th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen
Yoasobi performed "Idol" live on Japanese television for the first time at the 2023 edition of New Year's Eve television special NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on December 31, held at NHK Hall, Shibuya, Tokyo. It was the duo's third appearance on the television special after attendance in 2020 and 2021 and absence in 2022. The show was choreographed and staged by Sota Kawashima of Ganmi. Despite the lowest rating since 1989, Yoasobi's show was considered to be "the most attracted attention" of the event, especially online. The show recorded viewership rating of 34.2% in Kantō region, the third highest following Misia's "Ai o Arigatō", "Kizu-darake no Ōja", and "Ai no Katachi" and Pocket Biscuits and Black Biscuits' "Yellow Yellow Happy" and "Timing" performances.

Alongside the duo and the band members, the show featured numerous guests, beginning with dance group Avantgardey and B-boy group Real Akiba Boyz. Following the first verse, selected members from ten that year's participating Japanese and Korean idol groups—Seventeen, Nogizaka46, NiziU, Be:First, NewJeans, JO1, Stray Kids, Sakurazaka46, Le Sserafim, and MiSaMo—performed one after another. Next, singer Ano and actress and the program's host Kanna Hashimoto—former idols of You'll Melt More! and Rev. from DVL, respectively—who both previously gained attention from fan-taken photos comparison of the two, nicknamed "the final battle between angel and devil", appeared and did their viral posture during idol career. The show concluded by all performers performing together.

Cover versions


"Idol" has been covered by several other musicians and idols, notably including singer and actress Airi Suzuki, who performed the song at TV Asahi YouTube program Dōga, Hajimete Mimashita on June 10, 2023, which accumulated ten million views as of September. Later, she included the song on the "Self-Cover Medley" of her performance at the 2023 Rock in Japan Festival in August. Rie Takahashi, who voiced Ai Hoshino for the anime, covered "Idol" on November 26 at Ichigo Production Fan Thanksgiving 2023, and uploaded her cover's music video on February 2, 2024. Others included Yuya Tegoshi at his Checkmate Live Tour, Ayaka Hirahara and Avantgardey at 2023 FNS Music Festival Spring, Aya Shimazu at Ongakunohi, Toshi at three-hour special Music Station, Jyunretsu at Best Hits Kayosai, and La Diva at 2023 FNS Music Festival, etc.

During the semi-final round of the 12th season of Thai singing competition program The Mask Singer on June 21, 2023, contestant Jorin Khumpiraphan of Thai idol group 4Eve under the Siberian Husky mask performed "Idol" on the program, which she was eliminated in this round. Japanese dance group Avantgardey performed a routine to the song mashed up with the Japanese and English versions combined at the semi-final round of the 18th season of televised talent show competition America's Got Talent. Japanese YouTuber Hikakin parodied the music video of "Idol", replaced Hoshino by himself, released on July 22. Dialogue's Nene Hieda and Kyōka Moriya, Yucco Miller, Emi Noda, and JBB, etc., released the song's cover commercially.

In popular culture
In late April 2023, Shortly after "Idol" release, a recreated video of the title sequence of Oshi no Ko connecting to the title sequence of Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo, in which "Idol" was changed in the middle of the chorus to JAM Project's "Storm", "Kimi wa kanpeki de kyūkyoku no Gettā", went viral and became an Internet meme, which both Yoasobi and JAM Project former member Ichirou Mizuki's official Twitter accounts each responded the video. This meme resulted in "Storm" being officially released to the music streaming services on July 3, 2023. The phrase "Kimi wa kanpeki de kyūkyoku no Gettā" won Gold Award at the 2023 Internet Buzzword Award, and Niconico Award and second place of Top 20 Words Award at the 2023 Internet Buzzwords 100.

Fan-made and wotagei choreographies of "Idol" also gained attraction as an Internet challenge on video sharing service TikTok, covered by Japanese and Korean idols among others. As of December 2023, the song garnered 7.9 billion views on TikTok. The song was the most-searched and the third most-humed-to-search song on Google in 2023. "Idol" was the best anime song of the Reiwa era on the survey from 10,000 people by TV Asahi television special ''1 Man Nin ga Erabu! Tsui ni Kettei! Reiwa vs Heisei vs Shōwa Anison Ranking, and the second-most voted best anime song on the survey by 1,740 overseas anime fans from the TV Asahi television special Gaikokujin ga Gachi de Tōhyō! Sekai Anison Sōsenkyo'', behind only Yoko Takahashi's "A Cruel Angel's Thesis".

Accolades
At the 65th Japan Record Awards in 2023, despite the success of the song, "Idol" did not receive the Song of the Year award, which is a nomination for the main Grand Prize. Instead, Ayase won Best Composition Award for composing the song, and Yoasobi won the Special International Music Award. The gesture spawned several media and fans questioning about how the nomination process for the Japan Record Awards works.

Track listing

 * Digital download and streaming
 * 1) "Idol" (アイドル) – 3:33


 * Digital download and streaming – English version
 * 1) "Idol" (English version) – 3:33


 * CD single and 7-inch vinyl
 * 1) "Idol" – 3:31
 * 2) "Idol" (English version) – 3:31
 * 3) "Idol" (anime edit) – 1:29
 * 4) "Idol" (instrumental) – 3:31

Credits and personnel

 * Ayase – writer, producer
 * Ikura – vocals
 * Aka Akasaka – based story writer
 * Konnie Aoki – background chorus lyrics, English lyrics, English lyrical and vocal direction
 * BFNK – English lyrical and vocal direction
 * Real Akiba Boyz – background shouts
 * Ebony Bowens – background chorus
 * Chloe Kibble – background chorus
 * Marista Stubbs – background chorus
 * Imani J. Dawson – background chorus
 * Kyte – background chorus
 * Lyle Carr – background chorus
 * Andrew Soda – background chorus
 * Takayuki Saitō – vocal recording
 * Kunio Nishikawara – vocal recording (English version)
 * Hiroaki Okuda – background chorus and shouts recording
 * Masahiko Fukui – mixing
 * Hidekazu Sakai – mastering