Kenshi Yonezu

Kenshi Yonezu performed for the party royale of “Fortnite” on August 7, 2020, the Asian artist to do so. The Japanese singer-songwriter and music producer’s name immediately trended on Twitter worldwide during his performance.

Prior to this, Yonezu released his fifth studio album titled “STRAY SHEEP.” The pre-sales for the album hit 1 million copies and his music video for “Campanella” is sitting at over 6 million views in less than a week.

“STRAY SHEEP” wasted no time taking over the iTunes Charts, skyrocketing to number 1 under the J-Pop category in over 30 countries and regions along with garnering various positions within the Top 20 All Genres category in 22 countries regions, six of which hit number 1. The album also achieved number 1 in 54 countries and regions under the J-Pop Apple Music Albums Chart.

Within the first three days of release, “STRAY SHEEP” has officially sold 509,127 copies, according to Billboard Japan. This number is the highest initial sales ever since 2008, when Billboard Japan started counting CD album sales for a male solo artist and the number of shipments of this work has exceeded 1 million.

“Lemon,” one of the 15 songs in “STRAY SHEEP,” ranked number 1 on Billboard Japan’s annual cumulative charts for 2 years consecutively. It is the first ever act to do so.

On the Apple J-Pop Charts, “Lemon” hit number 1 in 64 countries. It has been certified by the Japan Record Association for the fastest to achieve 3 million downloads and the music video has broken the Japanese record for the most views, sitting at 600 million currently.

Yonezu is no stranger to breaking records and making history. Recently, he became the first Japanese artist to hit 5 million YouTube subscribers with music video views reaching over 2.8 billion total and counting.

The Japanese musician producer shows no signs of slowing down as he also just debuted a collaboration with UNIQLO. The collection consists of T-shirts featuring his own illustrated designs, available in the Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer’s limited stores in the United States and Canada as well as online.