"Test Drive" is the

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

(EP) by Japanese singer and former KAT-TUN member Jin Akanishi, serving as his debut single in the United States. The EP which features American singer

Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer and songwriter.

was released digitally to the American market on November 8, 2011, while on December 7, 2011 was released physically in Japan where it topped 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 ...

and ''

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'' album charts.

Background

In February 2010 Akanishi held over 30 concerts titled "You & Jin" in Japan, while in June had 3 sold-out shows at

Club Nokia Club Nokia was a mobile internet digital distribution portal, similar to an App Store, operated by Nokia to provide special offers, paid-for ringtones, picture messages and game content directly to members. Following resistance from its mobile ope ...

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. In July was announced that he would permanently leave the group KAT-TUN, becoming the first solo artist of Johnny & Associates to perform in the United States. In November was held tour "Yellow Gold Tour 3010", named after the tour's title song "Yellow Gold", and the venues included were

Rosemont Theatre The Rosemont Theatre is a concert hall in Rosemont, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The venue, which has seats for 4,400 people, opened in 1995 and hosts many different musical artists and shows. It is located near O'Hare International Airport, F ...

in Rosemont, The Warfield in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, House of Blues in

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, Club Nokia in Los Angeles, and MTV Iggy Studio and

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. After signing a global deal with

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

in December 2010, on March 2, 2011 in Japan was released his first single "

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Release

The extended play was released as "Test Drive (Remixes) feat. Jason Derulo" on November 8, 2011 through all major digital music stores, serving as his US debut single. As "Test Drive featuring Jason Derulo" or simply "Test Drive", was released in Japan on December 7, in standard and limited edition, both featuring three versions of the title track, plus the songs "My MP3" and "Paparats". The standard edition features also a bouns track "Tipsy Love", while limited instead a DVD with making-of and music video. To promote the record were held a number of promotional events on the 8th of November, including a Ustream Q&A session, followed by a single release party at the Beverly Center, attended by 300 fans. It was followed on December 28 by his second physical single release in Japan, " Seasons". Later on January 6, 2012, was held a sold-out concert at 12,000 seat Yokohama Arena, which live was streamed at the

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Track listing

Charts and certifications

The release charted in both single, and as far as the sales are concerned, most albums charts. The digital EP reached the number one spot on

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album charts, and tenth spot on the overall Albums chart. On the ''

'' charts, it peaked at number one on Hot Singles Sales, number two on

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, and number eleven for five weeks on

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. In Japan has reached number sixteen on the ''Billboard''s

Japan Hot 100 The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and '' Hanshin Contents Link'' since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thur ...

and debuted at number one on the Top Album chart. It has debuted on the

's weekly album charts at number one, selling nearly 109,000 copies in its first week of release, and charted for seven weeks. It was the best performance by a Japanese artist's foreign album release since

Hikaru Utada , who is also known by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American pop singer, songwriter and producer. By 2010, Utada had become one of the most influential, and best-selling, musical artists in Japan. Born in the United States to Japanese parent ...

released ''

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'' in 2004. It was the 55th best-selling album of the year in Japan, and was certified Gold by

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include p ...

References

External links

Test Drive on iTunes
{{Authority control Jin Akanishi EPs 2011 EPs Music videos directed by Frank Borin