My Samurai
| Shanadoo | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Japan |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2006–2014 |
| Labels |
|
| Associated acts | Vivace |
| Website | Shanadoo.com |
| Past members | Marina Kakitsu Chika Takagi Junko Fukuda Manami Fuku |
Shanadoo (Japanese: シャナドゥー Hepburn: Shanadū) were a Japanese dance and pop girl group. Produced in Germany and Japan, the band consisted of four members, lead singer Marina Kakitsu along with Chika Takagi, Manami Fuku and Junko Fukuda. They were signed to Icezone Music and Avex.
Shanadoo is an all female group made up of four young Japanese women from the Platinum Production agency. Chika Takagi, Manami Fuku and Junko Fukuda alrady had worked together before Shanadoo as a part of Avex Trax's promotional unit group, Vivace. Vivace's activities included work as race queens, bikini pin-up modeling and even two Japanese recordings, One of them being their song "Flame love", which features as the last track on the 2004 compilation album Autobacs GT 2004 Series - Japan GT Championship. The other song "On My Own", a cover version of Jade Donno's song of the same name, features on the non-stop megamix edition of the 2004 compilation album Autobacs GT 2004 Series - Japan GT Championship. Both songs also appear on their "Viva Vivace" video album and various other Avex Trax music compilations such as Girl's Box. Marina Kakitsu was added as lead vocalist to complete Shanadoo. The band went into production with noted Eurodance producer, David Brandes, whose credits include acts such as E-Rotic, Bad Boys Blue and Vanilla Ninja.
Released on June 16, 2006 through one of Brandes' record label Icezone Music, Shanadoo's first single, "King Kong", a Japanese cover version of E-Rotic's single of the same name, was met with great success. Shanadoo's first works were exclusive to Germany and other European markets, such as Austria, until December 2006, when Avex announced that a then untitled debut album would be released on February 28, 2007 in Japan. Second and third follow up single releases were "My Samurai" and "Guilty of Love", both reworked Japanese cover versions of E-Rotic's singles "Fred Come to Bed" and "The power of sex", became moderate hits in Germany as well. In December 2006, the band released their debut studio album Welcome to Tokyo in Germany. For this album, Brandes re-used 11 out of 13 tracks from previous released E-Rotic songs, one Bad Boys Blue cover and one original new song. In January 2007, it was announced by Icezone Music that Shanadoo's fourth single, to be released on March 9, 2007 in Germany, which became "Hypnotized", would be of original content to be released as their first single from their second studio album (Thus this song had also be included on a limited re-release version of their debut album Welcome to Tokyo). In October 5, the fifth single "Japanese Boy", a cover version of Scottish singer Aneka, was released and peaked at #23 in German Single chart. In December 7, the bands' sixth single "Think About" has been released along with their second studio album in the European market, titled The Symbol.
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