Negicco:The longest female idol group with original members

 NEGICCO IS THE LONGEST FEMALE IDOL GROUP with original members. It is also one of the most famous local idols in Japan based in Niigata.

On a personal note, Negicco is the idol that made me get involved with Japanese female idols. Until then, I had no interest in idols, but one day I suddenly became fascinated by their music and became a fan of them.

Negicco's songs are widely supported not only by idol fans but also by music fans. And Negicco is one of the groups that has made a big contribution to today's situation where it has become the norm for local idols to release excellent songs.

In this article, I will introduce the first half of Negicco's 20-year history and why they are able to release excellent songs through it.

Negicco was formed in 2003 to promote Niigata's "Yawahada Negi". Originally, it was planned to be active for one month only, but due to its popularity, the activity was extended. Her first single "Koi Suru Negikko" was distributed nationwide, and they appeared on NHK's TV program "Pop Jam".

However, the entertainment school they belonged to closed, and the campaign that supported them ended, and they spent a long period of misfortune.

Negicco has continued for 20 years because of many miracles, the first of which was meeting Kuma-san(Yoshihito Kumakura). When the entertainment school closed, he became Negicco's manager. Although they had to do their own lessons, they were able to perform at events in Niigata and gain stage experience.

Another miracle is the presence of their first fan, connie. He invited Negicco to his event and had them sing his own song. Since then, Negicco has been able to continue to release his own excellent songs, even in the bad times.

The turning point comes in 2009. Appeared on the Internet TV program "Kachinuki Idol Tengoku Nuki-ten." Those who won the show for four weeks were given the title of Nukiten Queen, and they were supposed to have a strong backup as a major idol, such as CD debut, gravure DVD release, GyaO program regular appearance, etc. They considered this appearance to be their last chance and were determined to disband if they did not become Queen. Negicco progressed smoothly until the third week, but failed once in the fourth week. However, there was an unusual saying (these scenes became one of the most famous scenes in the program), and after several tries, they won the title of Queen. However, due to the poor management of Gyao!, the program operator, the originally planned contract such as "regular appearance on GyaO!'s program" was canceled and the prize money was not paid.

In 2010, Negicco appeared in the "Area Idol No. 1 Decisive Battle 'U.M.U AWARD 2010' ~ Nationwide Idol Order Exhibition ~" to decide the number one local idol. They won the first champion out of 10 teams. The following year, Negicco joined T-Palette Records, an idol specialty label launched by Tower Records. The president of Tower Records, Ikuo Minewaki, is an idol fan, and the members of Negicco knew about Mr. Minewaki, who was a guest on stage, but they didn't know that he was the president. By putting Negicco on his label, the groundwork for their existence and songs to be known nationwide was created.

I plan to write another article about the history of the second half of Negicco's efforts to sell on T-Palette Records. In this article, I explained that the reasons why Negicco's songs are so good are because of the existence of the main songwriter, connie, and the fact that Tower Records has backed up good artists to create the songs.