| |
|---|---|
| PIGGS | |
| a.k.a |
Idol Kenkyuujou (アイドル研究所) |
| Years Active |
2020-present |
| Origin |
Tokyo |
| Associated Acts | |
| Website | |
| Members | |
PIGGS (Produce Idol Go to world is Good Society) is a Japanese idol group formed and produced by Pour Lui.
The group's theme is "More Emo Than Moe".
Members
Former Members
- Unknown (Withdrew February 29th, 2020, before her name or face was revealed)
History
On January 6th, 2020, Pour Lui announced on twitter that she was going to celebrate her tenth year of being an idol by founding her own company, PourPourLand, and producing a new unit that she would also be a member of. WACK CEO Watanabe Junnosuke would also invest in the group's formation. While the group was being developed, it was given the temporary name of "Idol Kenkyuujou".
Audition interviews took place at WACK's headquarters on February 2nd for women aged 18 to 29. During the audition process, Pour Lui kept a daily vlog on her personal YouTube channel where she talked about her progress in forming the group. On February 29th, auditions were opened again after one of the audition winners quit before debut due to family issues.
The group was scheduled to record their debut music video on March 3rd, and invited fans to participate in the filming. However, this was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing government-imposed limits on public events. When most of Japan began self-isolating from the outbreak in early April, Pour Lui revealed on twitter that she and the other members of the group were living together. She also gave fans their first glimpse of the new unit; a photo of the members in an apartment, with their backs to the camera and heads hastily-censored.
In the days after, Pour Lui posted more pictures with censored faces first identifying the member censored with the colour blue as "Ao-chan (pseudonym)". The other members were given heart emojis with various colours in lieu of names until the next day, where they were all given Japanese female given names corresponding to a colour. The exception to this is Pink, who's name was the colour pink in English.
On April 19th, the group's name, PIGGS, and its starting lineup was finally unveiled, with the members being Pour Lui, UMI, CHIYO-P, BAN-BAN and SHELLME. They debuted their first song, "KICKS" on YouTube the same day, and their debut album was announced for July 1st.
Immediately after their initial reveal, PIGGS announced a web campaign, named "I HATE PIGGS". During this campaign, PIGGS members would be given a new challenge every day, building up to one hundred challenges in total. These challenges would all be livestreamed, with new songs being released depending on how many challenges they clear. Pour Lui's reasoning for the challenge was that she wanted the members to love PIGGS so much that they begin to hate it.
Discography
Albums
- [2020.07.01] Title TBA
Songs
- [2020.04.19] KICKS
- [2020.04.22] Velvet Shisouka (ヴェルヴェット思想家; Velvet Thinker)