is the 58th single by Japanese

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...

Arashi is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 1999 ...

. It was released on July 29, 2020, through

J Storm is a Japanese music and film company owned by Johnny & Associates. It was established on November 12, 2001, initially as a label for the Johnny's group, Arashi, after which it was named. Aside from producing and releasing CDs and DVDs, the co ...

. The release was announced on their Johnny's official page, as well as on their social media profiles.

Background

The song "Kite" served as the theme song for NHK's coverage of the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, including the special program hosted by the group. It was first performed in

70th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen The was the 2019 edition of NHK's television special Kōhaku Uta Gassen, held on December 31 live from NHK Hall (Tokyo, Japan), and broadcast in Japan through NHK General Television and NHK Radio 1, and worldwide through TV Japan (US only) and ...

, December 31, 2019. "Journey to Harmony", the other song included in the single, was performed as a celebratory song for the enthronement of the new Emperor, in November 2019. It is the third part of a 13-minute composition called "Ray of water".

Content and promotion

"Kite" was released on July 29, 2020. The single was made available for pre-order on June 15, 2020. The limited edition comes in two versions, both held in an LP sized jacket and containing a DVD or Blu-ray with the music video and making-of video for "Kite", and a 16-page lyrics booklet. A fan-club limited edition containing a 56-page book titled "2020 Arashi and Tokyo Sky" was also available for pre-order from June 15, 2020 to June 21, 2020, but sold out on the first day. All three versions' covers were painted by member

Satoshi Ohno is a Japanese idol, singer, actor, radio host, artist, dancer, and choreographer. He is the lead vocalist and leader of the boy band Arashi, hence his nickname . Ohno began his career in the entertainment industry when he joined the Japanese ta ...

. Arashi performed "Kite" on '' Music Station'' on July 24, 2020.

Chart performance

"Kite" debuted at number 86 on the ''

Billboard Japan ''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine ''Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway), holding an exclusive licence from ''Bi ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

chart on December 30, 2019, and rose to number 25 on January 13, 2019. On July 28, 2020, the single debuted at number one on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

Daily Singles Chart, selling 680,797 copies on its first day. "Kite" debuted at number one on the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

, with 910,000 copies sold in its first week. It became Arashi's 47th consecutive and 54th overall number-one single, extending their record of the most number-one singles in Japan. It also marked Arashi's largest opening sales week, surpassing their previous record of 756,000 copies with " Calling / Breathless" (2013). On August 29, the single sold additional 138,007 copies, becoming the group's first single to sell a million copies by selling 1,111,451 copies.

Track listing

Charts

References

{{authority control 2020 singles 2019 songs Arashi songs Olympic theme songs