"Pretender" is a song recorded by Japanese band

Official Hige Dandism , commonly abbreviated , is a Japanese pop band formed in Shimane, Japan in 2012 by Satoshi Fujihara (lead vocals, piano), Daisuke Ozasa (lead guitar, backing vocals), Makoto Narazaki (bass, saxophone, backing vocals) and Masaki Matsuura (drums, ...

, released on May 15, 2019, through

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

in physical single format to serve as the theme song of the 2019 film ''The Confidence Man JP''. Upon release, it was a commercial success, and spent seven weeks at number one on the ''Billboard'' Japan Hot 100 and thirty-four weeks at number one on the streaming chart, breaking the record held by " Marigold".

Composition and lyrics

The song is written by vocalist/pianist Satoshi Fujihara and composed in the

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A-flat major A-flat major (or the key of A-flat) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has four flats. The A-flat major scale is: : Its relative minor is F minor. Its parallel minor, A-flat minor, ...

and is set in

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

common time The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

with a tempo of 92 BPM. "Pretender" features a piano, guitar, electric bass, and drums. Begins with melodic guitar arpeggios, the song is described as a sad love song about a man who thinks he is not worthy to fall in love with the woman he likes, and saying 'goodbye' as an expression of giving up.

Music video

The video of "Pretender" was released on April 16, 2019 and directed by Takuto Shimpo. It was filmed in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

, showing the band performing with the night view of Taipei as the background, while theatrical scenes of local

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models and actors are inter-cut in between. On May 22, 2019, the video for the acoustic version of the song was released. It was directed by Yoshiaki Muto, features the band performing with the night view of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

as the background. As of May 2022, "Pretender" has over 400 million views on

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, became their most viewed music video, while the acoustic version has over 7 million views on YouTube.

Track listing

Personnel

*Words, music and programming: Satoshi Fujihara *Arrangement: Official Hige Dandism *Vocal and piano: Satoshi Fujihara *Guitar and chorus: Daisuke Ozasa *Bass and chorus: Makoto Narazaki *Drums and chorus: Masaki Matsuura *Guitar technician: Tatsuya Mochiduki (Innovator Associates Inc.) *Drums technician: Genki Wada *Recorded and mixed by Masahito Komori *Mastered by

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography Ted ...

(at Sterling Sound)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Awards

Covers

* Peaky P-key did a cover of the song for the game '' D4DJ Groovy Mix''.

References

{{Authority control 2019 singles 2019 songs Billboard Japan Hot 100 number-one singles Japanese film songs Official Hige Dandism songs Pony Canyon singles