NiZiU

NiziU, also stylized as NIZIU, is a Japanese girl group formed by JYP Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan in 2020. 

The 9 members were chosen from reality-survival program Nizi Project which featured 20 contestants. The auditions were held at 8 cities in Japan and in Hawaii, Los Angeles in USA. The show ran from Jan - Jun 2020 on Hulu & JYP's YouTube channel. On the final episode the 9 members were revealed.

NiZiU Members: 9 (Mako; Rio; Maya; Riku; Ayaka; Mayuka; Rima; Miihi; Nina)

Their digital pre-debut EP, Make You Happy, was pre-released on June 30 in Japan, South Korea and on July 1 Internationally, which became a Commercial Success topping Billboard Japan and several other Japanese Music Charts. 

They debuted in December 2020 with debut single "Step and a step" which hit #1 on Oricon Japan Weekly Charts selling 318,562 copies, becoming the second Japanese girl group to reach number one on debut. 

They went on to sell more than 400,000 copies. They have released 1 Studio Album, 1 EP and 7 Singles as of December 2021.

They became the fastest artist to have appeared in a Kōhaku Uta Gassen, making their appearance only 29 days after their debut. They received a Special Achievement Award at the 62nd Japan Record Awards and Excellent Work Award at the 63rd edition. Adding to that they won 3 Japan Gold Disc Awards in 2021 and 2 MTV Video Music Awards Japan. They also ranked very high in many of Billboard Music Japan Year-end Charts. 

Music: It's pure KPop in Japanese. And when I say KPop it's got everything the Dance Pop, Electropop, The Notorious Bops, Rapping and English Words & Sentences jammed in for good measure, yet is called JPop as it's all Japanese! 

Music Videos/Audio:

Make you happy - A Mix of TWICE Candy Pop and What is Love? I'm Happy Now.

Step and a step - One step at a time, please.

Take A Picture - Very Loud and Noisy.

Poppin' Shakin' - Pop Written all over and its shaking!

I AM - Very ITZYish Power Song.

Joyful - The Best song IMHO by NiZiU. By far!

Singing Quality/Performance: But the singing is very high quality stuff, no beating that. They are sure to give any KPop girl group a good run for their money. Dance routines and performances are equally good. JYP's JPop investment is worth every penny.

MV/Choreography/Style: Very TWICE-ISH and ITZY-ish as many songs almost derived or variants of songs by their JYP KPop Sister groups. 

NiZiU fanbase according to Fandom:

On June 30th, 2020, NiziU revealed their official fandom name through their twitter account. The name stems from NiziU's meaning of "Need You", the “U” in the fanclub name “WithU” means the fans that support NiziU (U = YOU = fans), and the fans are always close by.

Release of first album "U"

"U" is NiziU's first full length studio album by NiziU. The album was released on November 24, 2021 by JYP Entertainment / Epic (Sony Music Japan) label.

Tracklist: “Chopstick” was chosen as the album's title track. The album features 12 songs and an extra 7 songs on the B Version. Basically a collection of songs from their past releases plus a few new ones.

01 Chopstick – title track

02 Take a picture

03 FESTA

04 Make you happy

05 Wonder Dream

06 Twinkle Twinkle

07 Poppin’ Shakin’

08 I AM

09 Super Summer

10 Step and a step

11 9 colors

12 Need U

01 Baby I’m a star

02 Boom Boom Boom

03 Beyond the Rainbow

04 Make you happy (Korean ver.)

05 Step and a step (Korean ver.)

06 Take a picture (English ver.)

07 Poppin’ Shakin’ (English ver.)

Best Songs: I AM, Take a picture, Poppin’ Shakin’, Step and a step and Make you happy are the best songs of the album. An exception from the album was surprisingly the song Joyful which was released in single Step and a step.

Rating: 

4 out of 5 Stars. 

If you are a KPop fan and equally dig JPop, this album is for you!

JYP Formula: TWICE + ITZY (KPop) = NiZiU (JPop)

Fan Essentials:

Official Instagram: @niziu_info_official
Artist Instagram: @niziu_artist_official
Twitter: @NiziU__official
Facebook: NiziUinfoofficial
Official Website: NiziU
Youtube: NiziU Official