S/mileage

From left to right: Ogawa Saki, Maeda Yuuka, Wada Ayaka, Fukuda Kanon

S/mileage (スマイレージ)

It was announced on Tsunku’s blog on April 4, 2009 that a new group consisting of Hello! Pro Egg members would form. He later revealed on his blog that the members would be Wada Ayaka, Maeda Yuuka, Fukuda Kanon, and Ogawa Saki, and announced that Wada Ayaka would be the Leader. Tsunku has said that in order to make the best group possible, additional members may be added or current members may be removed.

On May 7, 2009 he revealed the groups name to be “S/mileage”. Tsunku explained that the name “S/mileage” is taken from “Smile”, “Mileage”, and “Age”, and that it means “the age of smiles”.

S/mileage’s first indie single (aMa no Jaku) was released at the Hello! Pro Egg ~Nakano STEP!~ concert on June 7, 2009.

On November 23, 2009, after releasing 3 indie singles, they received a video message during the Shinjin Kouen concert from Tsunku, announcing that they would be graduating from Hello Pro Eggs and work towards a major debut in Spring 2010 after releasing one more indie single. However, on February 28, 2010, Tsunku announced that they would debut in May, but there was a catch. In order to debut, they would have to receive 10,000 photos from fans of their smiling face by a deadline of March 25th at midnight JST, and compile them into a 2×4 meter collage. Fans were given information for how to submit their photo to help S/mileage achieve their goal. [1] If they fail, their major debut could be post-poned or cancelled.

Some time in early 2010, the group’s official name was changed to the katakana version of their name (スマイレージ), though it is still romanized as S/mileage.

Without having any news about the results of the smile campaign, the four members of S/mileage graduated from Hello! Pro Egg on March 27, 2010. Tsunku has stated their fate is unknown until the reveal of the 10,000 Smiles Campaign results.

The results for the challenge were revealed on April 3, 2010 at Mano Erina and S/mileage’s joint concert titled Special Joint 2010 Haru ~Kansha Mankai! Mano Erina 2 Shuunen Totsunyuu & S/mileage Major Debut e Sakura Sake! Live~.

The grand total of the challenge resulted to be 16,000 photos (3,110 of those taken by S/mileage personally on the streets) which resulted in Tsunku announcing their major debut single Yume Miru 15sai (release date: May 26, 2010) as well as a stage play featuring S/mileage members set to start in August and their own solo concert tour starting in October of 2010.

Trivia

  • Tsunku explained the group name as being a three-way pun: “As you can see, it’s taken from both Smile and Mileage. It means the age of Smiles, also takes meaning from Smile and Age.”
  • S/mileage members have been backup dancers in four of Mano Erina’s PVs. Hajimete no Keiken, Sekai wa Summer Party, Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo, and Love&Peace=Paradise.
  • The group’s first three indie singles were released under the TNX indie label Good Factory, though the group itself is still signed to Up-Front and is part of Hello! Project.
  • The group consists of all members from Shugo Chara Egg!’s (another Hello! Pro Egg group) first line-up, with the exception of Ogawa Saki taking the place of Saho Akari (who is still a member of Shugo Chara Egg!).


http://wiki.jpopstop.com/wiki/S/mileage

http://j-ongaku.org/wiki/S/mileage