by Girls Generation Soshi on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 11:43pm
SNSD has proven themselves to be one of the most talented and influential artists in Japan. The wildly popular girl group held their first-ever Japanese concert tour, “SNSD Arena Tour 2011,” on May 31st and June 1st in Osaka, pulling in over 20,000 fans altogether. The fans were able to see the group perform live to over 30 songs, including “Genie,” “Gee,” “Run Devil Run,” and their latest single, “Mr. Taxi,” as well as tracks that haven’t been released in Japan such as “Oh!” and “Into the New World.”
This concert tour was the girl group’s first arena tour since their debut in Japan nine months ago. However, more than 450,000 people applied for tickets, causing SM Entertainment to increase the number of concerts to 14, which as a result is expected to bring in approximately 140,000 people in total for the whole tour. SM Entertainment said that Japanese officials have been very impressed by the high quality performance and stage design of SNSD’s two Osaka concerts, and most major Japanese media provided full coverage of the events.
In addition to their successful concerts, SNSD’s first regular album in Japan, “Girl’s Generation,” has also been a smash hit. It sold a total of 73,583 copies on the day of its release on June 1st which put the group at #1 on the Oricon Daily Album Chart on the same day. This album has caught the attention of many fans prior to its release as it dominated most pre-sales music charts. It was reported that more than 500,000 copies were distributed for the first shipment, which is an unusually high figure for a debut album in Japan.
“We are so happy to successfully finish our first Japanese concerts and to reach #1 on the Oricon Album Charts—it’s hard to express how thrilled we are. We’ll do our best to show great performances in the remaining concerts so please continue show us support and love,” SNSD said in a statement.
Meanwhile, SNSD is scheduled to attend the “2011 MTV Video Music Aid Japan” in Chiba, Japan on June 25th. The next stop for their arena tour is Saitama this weekend followed by Tokyo on June 17th and 18th. They will also fly to France for the “SM Town World Tour in Paris” on June 10th.
[SB12]
