"Mela!" is a song by Japanese pop rock band

Ryokuoushoku Shakai , abbreviated as , is a Japanese pop rock band formed in 2012 in Aichi Prefecture. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Haruko Nagaya, guitarist Issei Kobayashi, keyboardist Peppe, and bassist Shingo Anami. Originally a five-member group, ...

. It was released as a promotional single on April 13, 2020, by

Epic Records Japan Epic Records Japan is a Japanese record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Its founder was Shigeo Maruyama. Between 1978 and 1988 the label operated as a wholly owned subsidiary: Epic/Sony Inc. () was established in August 1978

, ahead of the band's studio album '' Singalong''. Commercially, the song peaked at number 31 on the

Oricon Combined Singles Chart The is a record chart released weekly by Oricon, a major provider of information on the Japanese music industry. First published on December 24, 2018, it ranks the top fifty singles in Japan based on an album-equivalent unit system factoring phys ...

and number 37 on the ''Billboard'' Japan Hot 100. It was certified Platinum for digital sales and Double Platinum for streams by the

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 prom ...

in January 2023. Ryokuoushoku Shakai made their debut at the year-end ''

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

'' with "Mela!" on the 2022 edition of the television special.

Background and release

Ryokuoushoku Shakai's keyboardist Peppe originally thought of the phrase "mela", but she was unable to expand the image of the song, so she had a jam session with bassist Shingo Anami and they completed the melody. The melody Peppe initially created as the A-melody was used in the chorus. After Nagaya listened to the song, she and Kobayashi wrote the lyrics together based on the plot he wrote, finishing the song. The

analog synthesizer An analog synthesizer () is a synthesizer that uses Analogue electronics, analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a var ...

Prophet-6 is used, and "Mela!" is also the band's first song to include a

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

arrangement. "Mela!" was released on April 13, 2020, ahead of ''Singalong''. It was then used in a commercial for Dariya's "Palty Coloring Milk" starring Tina Tamashiro. The song was also used in the

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as (NTV) or Nippon TV, is a Japanese television station serving the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned and operated by the , a sub ...

show ''Sukkiri'' for "Hitotsu ni Narou! Dance One Project". In 2022, the band made their debut performance in the year-end special 73rd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, performing "Mela!" third as part of the red team.

Music videos

The music video for "Mela!" was released on the band's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel on April 13, 2020. It features a wolf, considered a villain, who changes its destiny. Eight creators participated in the animation of the music video: Sutore, Okawari, , Otomoai, Tatsuhiro Ariyoshi, Sayuri, Jose Shimazaki, and . A second music video, combining footage of the members performing at home and making-of footage from the recording process, was released on April 29, 2020.

Background and release

Music videos

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References