Yufu Terashima Takes “#Yufu Flight” at her First Solo Concert; Major Debut Announced!

| Idol | Posted by munekata on Feb.13.2015

Photo by Seitaro Tanaka

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Yufu Terashima (ex-BiS) held her first solo concert “Yufu Terashima 1st Solo Live 『#Yufu Flight』” at Shibuya WWW on February 8 and it was announced that she would be making her major label debut as well as releasing a collaboration single with the band phenotas.

Even though it was Terashima’s first solo concert since going out on her own, tickets had been sold out long before the day of the event. It was truly an evening to remember. As “Neko ni Naritai! (Kindan no Tasuketsu remix)” played over the speakers, photographs of Terashima documenting her solo career since 2013 were projected onto a screen on the stage. Compiled through the cooperation of her fans that had been faithfully documenting her performances, it was a glimpse into the journey that Terashima had undertaken to arrive at her first solo concert.

The screen lifted and a female 4-piece band began to play, causing the fans to shout with joy at such an unexpected surprise. Stepping out on the stage in a sparkly white dress, Terashima began with “Suki ga Hajimaru”, the first song she performed as a solo artist, as if to provide a musical history of her solo career. The second song “Koibito Datta no”, an 80’s-influenced song written by the bandleader rionos, was overflowing with the emotion that Terashima is known for. It is from a special limited edition CD “Suki ga Hajimaru II”, which is only available at her event, so keep an eye out for it on Yahoo auctions or come see her perform if you feel that you absolutely must have it. “Kaede”, a cover of the classic song by the beloved Japanese folk-rock band Spitz, followed this. Terashima’s rendition was chill-inducing, capturing the heartbreak of the original, even coloring the performance of the band.

After introducing the band members, Terashima sang “Hatsukoi no Silhouette”, a bittersweet song about first love written for her by GOOD BYE APRIL. The live band segment of the concert ended with the guitar rock of “Suki ga Koboreru”, which was also written by Tomoya Minami (“Suki ga Hajimaru”). It was as if the first part of the concert was tracing a map from the beginnings of Terashima’s career to the present day.

A video played on the screen showing Terashima’s performance on the day that her debut single “#Yuflight” (release date: December 23, 2013) was announced. This was followed by a montage showing some of her other past performances and the covers of the singles she released since that day.

Terashima returned to the stage wearing a pearlescent dress with green accents to begin the second half of the show. She launched into her Oricon weekly top 20-ranked (#16) 3rd single “Neko ni Naritai!” and the first performances of “Onegai Bacchus” and ” Juliet no Paradox” (from “Suki ga Hajimaru II”). She then sang ” Campanula no Yuutsuu” and “80 Denier no Koi” from her 2nd single.

She made the first big announcement of the night when it was revealed that phenotas, a band that had written several songs for her and performed with her at joint concerts would be collaborating with her to release a limited-edition single “Kimi ga Waraeba Hen nano desu” that would be only available at Village Vanguard in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo starting February 25. The single would include a collaboration song “Sayonara made ga Ren’ai Desu” as well as covers of each other’s songs. Using that as a transition, Terashima performed phenotas’ “Headphone Girl”, her first public performance of the song.

Terashima then took the audience back to her early days with “contrast”, “Yuru Koi”, and “Heroine ni Naritai” before bringing them to the climax of the night with the 200 bpm “Nerai Uchi”. Before finishing the main performance with her debut single “#Yuflight”, a song with lyrics written by Nemu Yumemi (Dempagumi.inc) that chronicled the struggles that Terashima had faced during her transition into a solo artist, she had another happy announcement; she was in the process of finalizing the details of her next single. While she was singing, the fans simultaneously took out blue penlights, a gesture which moved her to tears.

As the fans waited for the encore to start, “Campanula no Yuutsuu (ahito inazawa Remix)” played while photographs of Terashima’s beloved yuru-kyara (mascot characters) and the animation from “#Yuflight” was displayed on the screen. Terashima returned for the encore in the outfit from “#Yu-Flight”, as voted on by the fans. She took things back to the 1980’s with a cover of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” and Yasuyuki Okamura’s “Daisuki”“, songs embedded within the collective memory of those that grew up in Japan.

Terashima having changed into a T-shirt, appeared again on the stage as messages of support from yuru-kyara from across Japan, including Chiba-kun, Unari-kun (Narita city), and Okazaemon (Okazaki city, Aichi) played on the screen. Finally, Terashima made the biggest announcement of the night; she would be making her major label debut with EMI RECORDS. Naturally, such news caused the audience to burst into their loudest shout of the night. As there was no way that anyone was in the mood to go home after receiving such great news, Terashima called the band back to the stage and sent them home with “Zenzen”.

It’s been almost 1 year since Yufu Terashima made her debut as a solo artist with “#Yuflight” and within that short time, she had worked almost nonstop, performing at various concerts and yuru-kyara events, appearing on web shows and theater stages. Her efforts had finally produced such a wonderful result of being signed to a major label. “Yufu Terashima 1st Solo Live 『#Yufu Flight』” was certainly an emotionally moving experience.

Set List
01. Suki ga Hajimaru
02. Koibito Datta no
03. Kaede
04. Hatsukoi no Silhouette
05. Suki ga Koboreru
06. Neko ni Naritai!
07. Onegai Bacchus
08. Juliet no Paradox
09. Campanula no Yuutsuu
10. 80 Denier no Koi
11. Headphone Girl
12. contrast
13. Yuru Koi
14. Heroine ni Naritai
15. Nerai Uchi
16. #Yuflight

Encore
Like a Virgin
Daisuki
Zenzen

Author

munekata

Born in 1972, Akimasa Munekata is a music critic who has written for MUSIC MAGAZINE and Record Collectors for rock in Japan after HAPPY END, pop, the flow of western rock and pop after Beach Boys, world music, and folk music. Recently, he has hopped on the bandwagon and begun writing about idols as well.