Country Girls going major!

It was announced today that debut release for Country Girls will no longer be an indie release late this month but now a major debut to come out March 25th. The single will still be a double A-side of the songs Itooshikutte Gomen Ne and Koi Dorobou but they will include Tsugunaga Momoko now as she will be fully committed to the group by the time the single is released.

Girls News article (Japanese only)


I am so beyond excited with this. It definitely explains why things have been so quiet in announcing new news for the indie release and of course they would want to wait to have a concert in Sapporo to announce things with the group's Hokkaido roots.

There have been reports that Shimamura Uta being a big hit with fans at the current Hello! Project concerts and the other members not doing poorly either with attracting fans. I think this warm reception played a big part in changing this release from indies to major and deciding to wait until late March so they could include Momoko in the line up makes sense. She is the one member that has some mainstream popularity with her variety work and should be able to make sure the group gets on the right programs to promote this single so it will do well on the major charts. Not to mention having her be able to promote the group for when she is on something solo much like she does with Berryz Kobo.

And this should hopefully clear things up for those confused in what Momoko's position with the group is. She will be part of the group as well as working on some of the behind the scenes stuff with Satoda Mai, which I guess it is such a unique concept with idols it may have been hard to imagine for some as I noticed quite some confusion over it.

What has me most excited is that with a major release I will not have to worry if I can actually get my hands on a copy of the single, something I may not have been able to do if it were indie. So now I am waiting for the pre-order information to go up on CDJapan to figure out what version, or versions, I will get. It may not do anything for the Oricon chart but I still believe in getting official versions of goods and merchandise as it still will support the group in the end.

Again I am just really happy with this news and I hope the girls are ready to prove themselves ready for being major. With Momoko there to support them they should do fine and I cannot wait to see how they do and continue to grow as a group.