2010–2012: Early career In 2009, the band's producer and
heavy metal enthusiast
Kobametal started planning the launch of a "metal dance unit" that would fuse the heavy metal and
Japanese idol genres. Impressed by the performance of
Suzuka Nakamoto (who was then around 11 or 12 years old) with her previous group
Karen Girl's, he believed she would be suitable as the lead vocalist for the new group. The band was formed in 2010 in
Tokyo, Japan serving as the (sub-unit) of the female idol group
Sakura Gakuin, which was also formed that year. The band's name is a combination of and , and the Japanese pronunciation rhymes with "heavy metal". "Baby" here refers to "the birth of a new genre of music". According to Kobametal,
Yui Mizuno and
Moa Kikuchi were added to the band to complement Nakamoto's "unique stage presence" with their smaller statures, dancing around her "like angels".
Mikiko was put in charge of creating the choreography the three would perform. Babymetal's first live appearance was on November 28, 2010, at Sakura Gakuin's first solo concert,
Sakura Gakuin Festival ☆ 2010. In July 2011, Babymetal premiered the song "
Ijime, Dame, Zettai" ("No More Bullying") at a Sakura Gakuin concert, but the song was not released commercially until 2013. and was released as a
DVD single in late 2011, under the independent Toy's Factory sublabel Juonbu Records. Babymetal's first
CD single was a collaboration with the band Kiba of Akiba, titled "
Babymetal / Kiba of Akiba". Released in March 2012 by Juonbu Records, the single ranked at number three on the
Oricon weekly indie chart and number one in the
Tower Records Shibuya weekly indie ranking. In the summer of 2012, the band released a music video for their next single, "
Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!", In August 2012, Babymetal performed at Japan's
Summer Sonic Festival, becoming the youngest act ever to perform at the festival.
2013–2015: Major label debut and Babymetal On January 9, 2013, the band debuted on a major record label with "
Ijime, Dame, Zettai". Released under the main Toy's Factory label and Juonbu Records, it sold 19,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number six in the
Oricon Weekly Singles Chart. In the spring of 2013, Nakamoto graduated from junior high school and therefore had to "graduate" from Sakura Gakuin (a group of elementary and junior high school girls). However, their management decided Babymetal would not dissolve and would continue its activities as a band. The group released its next single, "
Megitsune", on June 19, 2013, under Toy's Factory and the band's new sublabel BMD Fox Records. The single also included the song "Onedari Daisakusen" (おねだり大作戦, "Begging Operation") performed by Yuimetal and Moametal under the stage name of Black Babymetal. On August 10 and 11, 2013, Babymetal again took part in the
Summer Sonic Festival, performing both in
Chiba and
Osaka, Japan. Later, in October, Babymetal also became the youngest artists ever to perform at the heavy metal music festival
Loud Park at the
Saitama Super Arena in
Saitama City, Japan. In November, Babymetal released a promo video for the Japanese premiere of
Metallica's movie
Through the Never, and released its first live music video
Live: Legend I, D, Z Apocalypse, which debuted at seventh place in the weekly Oricon Blu-ray Disc charts, and at second place among music Blu-rays. In December, Babymetal performed at Anime Festival Asia Indonesia 2013 and performed for a second time in Singapore. On February 26, 2014, Babymetal released their first,
eponymous album. It contained thirteen tracks and was also available in a limited edition that included a DVD with music videos and live footage. The album was well received by music critics as well as the public, selling over 37,000 copies in Japan its first week, debuting at number four on the Oricon Weekly Album Chart, and number two in
Billboard Japan. It also topped
iTunes Metal charts in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and reached number 187 on the US
Billboard 200 chart on March 22. Their album also made it into the
Heatseekers chart at number four. On March 1 and 2, 2014, the band played two concerts at the
Budokan. With an average age of 14.6 years, they became youngest-ever female act to perform a show there. The two concerts were attended by 20,000 people. On April 3, 2014, an episode of the
Fine Brothers'
YouTubers React show was uploaded to YouTube, covering the band and the music videos of "
Doki Doki Morning", "
Iine!", and "
Gimme Chocolate!!"; the band members' own reaction to the video would later be released in 2016. At the end of their concert on March 2, Babymetal also announced their first world tour, the
Babymetal World Tour 2014, initially performing in
Paris, France and
Cologne, Germany. The
Sonisphere Festival 2014 at the
Knebworth House,
England was added to the tour after the band were formally invited to play there following a successful fan campaign called "Babymetal For Sonisphere UK 2014", which Sonisphere later acknowledged on its website. After the UK leg of the tour, the band went on to make their debut appearance in the United States on July 27 with a headlining show at
The Fonda Theatre in
Hollywood,
Los Angeles. They played at the
Heavy Montréal in
Montreal, Canada on August 9, 2014 alongside
Metallica,
Slayer, and
Anthrax; and performed at the
Summer Sonic 2014 in
Chiba and
Osaka, Japan on the Mountain Stage with bands such as
Avenged Sevenfold and
Megadeth. Babymetal was also the opening act to five of
Lady Gaga's concerts in her
ArtRave: The Artpop Ball 2014 tour in August along the
Western United States. Babymetal also released their second live album
Live: Legend 1999 & 1997 Apocalypse on October 19, 2014, featuring their live performances at both the
NHK Hall in
Shibuya,
Tokyo and at the
Makuhari Messe Event Hall in
Chiba, Japan from 2013. 2015 ceremony in Tokyo; they won the Special Prize "Discovery of the Year" award. In August 2014, it was announced the band would play another show at the
O2 Academy Brixton in
London, England on November 8, 2014, their final European show of the year as part of the group's "Babymetal Apocalypse" phase. It was later announced the band would also return to
New York City, which they had visited earlier in the year without giving an actual performance, performing at the
Hammerstein Ballroom on November 4. At their Brixton performance, the band debuted a new song titled "
Road of Resistance." Later revealed to be a collaboration with
Sam Totman and
Herman Li of British
power metal band
DragonForce, the song was subsequently released as a bonus track of their first live album
Live at Budokan: Red Night, released simultaneously along with the band's third live video album
Live at Budokan: Red Night & Black Night Apocalypse on January 7, 2015, and later released as a digital single. In 2015, they re-released their eponymous album via
earMusic and RAL/Sony Music Entertainment. Ahead of their performance at the
Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards on June 15, the trio made a surprise appearance during
DragonForce's set at
Download Festival at the
Donington Park in
Leicestershire, England performing "Gimme Chocolate!!", despite event organizer Andy Copping stating he would never book the band.
2016–2017: Touring and Metal Resistance in
London, April 2015 During the band's headlining shows in December 2015 at the
Yokohama Arena in
Yokohama, Japan, they announced a second studio album to be released on April 1, 2016, as well as a world tour starting at the
Wembley Arena in
London, England and concluding in
Tokyo, Japan with a debut at the
Tokyo Dome. On January 15, 2016, the album's title was revealed to be
Metal Resistance. Their second album had shown differences from their debut album. Yuimetal stated that "compared to the first album and definitely the second album they challenged themselves to a lot of new, different types of genres of music, even more than before". Another difference was more use of positive lyrics than ever before. The band made a point to provide a wide variety of styles to attract a wider audience and performed a full song in English. On April 2, one day after the release of
Metal Resistance, Babymetal became the first Japanese act to headline Wembley Arena, with the largest sale of merchandise for a single day event in the venue's history, coinciding with the highest ever entry for an album in the UK charts for a Japanese act. On April 5, Babymetal made their U.S. television debut, performing "Gimme Chocolate!!" on
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Babymetal were added as a character skin in the
Wii U video game
Super Mario Maker in 2016. On May 26, 2016,
WWE's
Triple H announced on Twitter that Babymetal's song "
Karate", along with
A Day to Remember's "
Paranoia", would be used as official theme songs of
NXT TakeOver: The End. On July 18, the band made a special appearance at the
Alternative Press Music Awards where they performed "Karate" before being joined onstage by
Judas Priest frontman
Rob Halford. Halford, along with Nakamoto and the Kami Band, performed an abridged version of "
Painkiller", followed by a performance of "
Breaking the Law" where they were rejoined by Mizuno and Kikuchi on guitars. On July 27,
Metal Hammer readers voted Babymetal's
debut album as the best album of the 21st century. In September 2016,
Warner Bros. announced that a hybrid live action-animation fantasy-adventure short form series featuring the members of the band was under development. The series would be developed by Blue Ribbon Content in collaboration with Amuse Group USA (an Amuse Inc. subsidiary based in the United States). The band's producer, Kobametal, is also involved with production of the series. On September 19 (Red Night) and September 20, 2016 (Black Night), Babymetal ended their
Babymetal World Tour 2016: Legend Metal Resistance by performing at the
Tokyo Dome, with both nights sold out and approximately 55,000 people attending each night. These included fans from Japan and many others from around the world. Yuimetal admitted she was "still in shock" that she was playing at the venue. Moametal felt the same, calling it "a big challenge for young girls of our age to stand on that stage". Su-metal explained that "in Japan we have played many big venues like
Budokan and others, but Tokyo Dome was always a place that I have been dreaming of performing at." In December 2016, Babymetal supported the
Red Hot Chili Peppers during their
The Getaway World Tour at
The O2 Arena in
London, England. During their final show on the tour, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer
Chad Smith joined Babymetal onstage to perform their covers of
Judas Priest's songs "
Painkiller" and "
Breaking the Law". After the performance, Smith thanked Babymetal for being on tour with them and led the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to Su-metal. In January 2017, Babymetal supported
Metallica for their
WorldWired Tour at
Gocheok Sky Dome in
Seoul, South Korea and also appeared in Japan's performance of the
Guns N' Roses'
Not in This Lifetime... Tour as the opening act. In April 2017, Babymetal supported the Red Hot Chili Peppers during
The Getaway World Tour in the US. In June 2017, Babymetal performed at the
KISW Pain in the Grass music event in
Auburn,
Washington. During the summer of 2017, they supported
Korn on their Serenity of Summer Tour. Afterwards, they commenced their
The Five Fox Festival in Japan tour. In October 2017, Babymetal were officially revealed as the performers of the "Unikitty Theme" for the
Unikitty! TV series. On December 2 and 3, 2017, Babymetal performed at the
Hiroshima Green Arena, with the shows billed
Legend "S" Baptism XX. It was the first time the group performed in Su-metal's hometown of
Hiroshima, and it was an early
coming of age celebration for her, since December 20, 2017 was her 20th birthday (as hinted in the show title), the
age of majority in Japan; the lyrics to "
Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!", about a girl's fifteenth birthday, were even modified for the occasion. It was also Babymetal's first performance without all three members, as Yuimetal was unable to perform due to illness. On December 30, 2017, Kami Band guitarist Mikio Fujioka fell from an observation deck; he died from his injuries on January 5, 2018. Babymetal released a eulogy on Twitter on January 9, commemorating his work with the band.
2018–2020: The Chosen Seven era, departure of Yuimetal, Metal Galaxy in 2018 On April 1, 2018, Babymetal posted a video to YouTube entitled "Metal Resistance Episode VII – The Revelation". In the video, it is explained that a "dark side" of Babymetal exists, "with seven metal spirits", and that a "new era is about to begin". A
graphic novel entitled
Apocrypha: The Legend of Babymetal was also announced in the following days. Written by "the Prophet of the Fox God" and Illustrated by GMB Chomichuk, it was released on October 30 by
Z2 Comics. On May 1, 2018, Babymetal announced they were launching their own record label, named Babymetal Records. On May 8, just ahead of the Babymetal World Tour 2018, the band released a music video for a new single, "
Distortion". Yuimetal was absent from Babymetal's tour of the United States in May 2018, with no advance warning. Amid fan speculation on Mizuno's status with the group, a representative of 5B Management, the American management company representing Babymetal, replied to an inquiry from
Alternative Press Magazine by saying that "Yuimetal remains a member of the band, but she is not on this current U.S. tour." The reply also hinted about "a new narrative for the future of the band which is currently evolving" and a "storyline" that "has changed". Mizuno remained absent for the rest of their tour, until their agency announced at a
shareholders' meeting in June that she had been in poor health since December 2017, and was "currently recovering". On October 19, 2018, shortly before the Japan leg of the tour, the band released a new single, "
Starlight". On the same day, the band officially announced Mizuno's departure from the group. Afterward, she released a statement explaining her decision and her desire to pursue a solo career. During their tour, Babymetal also performed at
Rock on the Range in
Columbus, Ohio, the
Download Festival in
Donington Park, England, and the
Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals in
Nürburgring and
Zeppelinfeld, Germany. On July 9, 2018, the band was declared champion of the Heavy Metal World Cup 2018. On April 1, 2019, Babymetal announced they would be releasing their third album later that year. On May 10, 2019, the band released the single "
Elevator Girl". On May 29, 2019, it was announced Babymetal would perform at the
Glastonbury Festival in
England on June 30, making them the first Japanese band to play on one of the festival's main stages. Babymetal also revealed plans for their first arena concert in the United States at
The Forum in
Los Angeles,
California, set for October 11, 2019. The date of the concert coinceded with the release date of their third studio album,
Metal Galaxy. Their performance at The Forum was compiled into a live album,
Live at the Forum, released in
DVD and
Blu-ray formats on May 13, 2020. On June 27, 2019, Babymetal released the single "
Pa Pa Ya!!", featuring Thai rapper , before their concert at
Yokohama Arena the same day. The video, released on July 1, featured footage from their concert in Yokohama. It included touring member Kano Fujihira, one of three girls rotating in Yui's place—
Kano Fujihira,
Riho Sayashi, and
Momoko Okazaki—who are known as the "Avengers". A scheduled performance at
Clockenflap in
Hong Kong in November 2019 was canceled due to the
2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. Further concerts in Asia were initially postponed on March 4 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, but were ultimately canceled in June. In April, they
streamed two "Stay Home, Stay Metal" shows on YouTube during the pandemic, which consisted of footage from two prior concerts from 2016. Their performances at
Makuhari Messe in January 2020 were compiled into the live album
Legend – Metal Galaxy, which was released on September 9. In October 2019, the band became the first Asian act to reach the peak of Billboard Top Rock Albums Chart. In 2020, Babymetal was featured as a guest artist on British
rock band
Bring Me the Horizon's EP
Post Human: Survival Horror, on the song "
Kingslayer". On November 16, 2020,
NHK announced that Babymetal would take part in the
71st NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on
New Year's Eve, marking their first appearance in the competition. A poll conducted by Yahoo! Japan ahead of the airing determined that the most anticipated song of the night was Babymetal's performance of "
Ijime, Dame, Zettai", with 26.3% of the vote. Participating on the red team, they won with 2,635,200 votes compared to the white team's 1,383,180 votes.
2021–2024: The Other One and Momometal in
Amsterdam, May 2023|alt=Three women standing on stage carrying flags over their shoulders. The flags contain the Babymetal logo. A drummer is visible in the back, and a guitarist on the very right, cut off by the edge of the image. in
Brussels, December 2023 The band's first retrospective album
10 Babymetal Years was released on December 23, 2020. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the band's formation, their live videos were released in audio-only vinyl format on August 25, 2021. On October 11, 2021, the band released a cryptic video hinting a hiatus or end of the band with the message "The 3 metal spirits that have been shining since 2010, even if they were to leave Earth, would continue to shine forever in our hearts and across the Metal Galaxy. A legend turns into a myth which turns into a Living Legend... What lies ahead beyond the end of the stairway to becoming a Living Legend is something only the Fox God knows." Babymetal announced their fourth album
The Other One on October 11, 2022, which they revealed to be a
concept album. The album was released on March 24, 2023. The lead single from the album, "Divine Attack (Shingeki)" (), was released on October 20, 2022. This is the first Babymetal song for which all lyrics were written by Nakamoto. The second single from the album, "Monochrome", was released on November 17 with a
lyric video, a first for the band. On January 19, 2023, Babymetal released the single "Metal Kingdom", along with revealing the track list for
The Other One. On October 18, 2022, Swedish metal band
Sabaton announced that Babymetal would perform at their shows for the European leg of their world tour alongside Finnish band
Lordi. On January 28 and 29, 2023, Babymetal played at
Makuhari Messe, marking their first live concert in nearly two years. They played a total of 13 songs, five of which were from their album
The Other One. Footage from the concerts was used for the music video for "Metal Kingdom", which released on February 3, 2023. They released the song "Light And Darkness" on February 23 with an accompanying music video, which likewise consisted of footage from their concerts at Makuhari Messe. On the days prior to the release, they posted two teasers for the video to their YouTube channel. Nakamoto and Kikuchi performed a piano version of the song "Monochrome" for
The First Take, which premiered on their YouTube channel on March 10, 2023. On March 15, the band announced their first tour since 2019, the Babymetal World Tour 2023, where they will play in Asia and Australia. Babymetal released the focus single from their concept album
The Other One, "Mirror Mirror", on March 23 with a lyric video. The album released the following day through the record label
Cooking Vinyl. On April 1, 2023, during Babymetal's performance at
Pia Arena MM in Kanagawa, Okazaki was officially announced as the new member of a "reborn Babymetal", adopting the stage name Momometal. Her first video appearance as an official member was the music video for "Mirror Mirror", uploaded to YouTube on April 7, featuring footage from Babymetal's performance at Pia Arena MM. On August 18, 2023, Babymetal released the single "Metali!!" featuring
Tom Morello, with Momometal providing a spoken interlude in the song. Two concerts were held at the Yokohama Arena on March 2 and 3, 2024, under the title of Legend – MM, to celebrate the birthday of Momometal. The first night was titled 20 Night, as she was 20 years old at the time, and the second night was titled 21 Night, coinciding with her 21st birthday. Approximately 30,000 people were in attendance over the two days. On May 23, Babymetal collaborated with German band
Electric Callboy on the song "
Ratatata". It was subsequently used by WWE as the theme song for the 2024
Bash in Berlin event. The band made a cameo appearance in the Finnish comedy film
Heavier Trip, which premiered in September. On December 6, Babymetal was featured on the single "Bekhauf" by the Indian metal band
Bloodywood.
2025–present: Metal Forth Since January 4, 2025, the members of Babymetal have hosted the radio show on
Tokyo FM, with each episode featuring a new guest talking to the band about their experiences with heavy metal music. A notable episode featured politician
Sanae Takaichi, a heavy metal fan and drummer who became Japan's Prime Minister one month later. On April 1, the band announced their fifth studio album,
Metal Forth, for release on June 13. They also revealed they had signed a global deal with
Capitol Records. The album was delayed to June 27, then again to August 8. On May 30, the band became the first Japanese musicians to headline and sell out a show at
The O2 Arena in London, which was recorded and released as the
concert film Live at the O2 Arena on December 19.
Metal Forth became the first release by an all-Japanese band to reach the top 10 of the
Billboard 200, where it debuted at No. 9. In February 2026, Babymetal collaborated with Japanese vocalist
Tatsuya Kitani to release "
Kasuka na Hana", the opening theme song for the
second season of the anime ''
Hell's Paradise''. == Artistry ==