Girl power rocks out with Scandal

Scandal
Origin:     Osaka, Japan
Genres:    Pop rock
Years active:     2006–present
Labels:     Kitty 2008-2009
Epic 2009-present
Wasabi (EU)
Website:   http://www.scandal-4.com/
Members
Haruna Ono (lead vocals, secondary guitarist), Mami Sasazaki (lead guitarist, secondary vocals), Tomomi Ogawa (bassist, secondary vocals), and, Rina Suzuki (drummer, secondary vocals)

Scandal (スキャンダル Sukyandaru?, stylized as SCANDAL) is a Japanese pop rock girl band from Osaka, Japan. Scandal is considered as The representative of Japan’s Girl Bands and self-proclaimed as The Most Powerful Japanese Girlie Pop-Rock. Scandal was formed in August 2006 by four high school girls. The girls, Haruna, Mami, Tomomi, and Rina, met in an Osaka vocal and dance school called Caless.  Shortly thereafter, they started performing street lives every weekend at Shiroten in Osaka Castle Park. Soon, they started getting offers from clubs in Osaka and Kyoto. The band's name originates from a sign near Studio Brotherz, a studio where they practiced in their early days. The studio is on the sixth floor of a building shared with other businesses, namely adult shops. The girls decided to choose the biggest sign among the shops, "Scandal" (スキャンダル Sukyandaru?), as the name for their band.

Scandal signed with indie label Kitty Records and released three singles exclusive to Tower Records in 2008. The first, "Space Ranger", ranked #2 on the Tower indie charts and the other two, "Koi Moyō" and "Kagerō", ranked #1.  In March, they embarked on the Japan Nite US tour 2008, touring six major cities in the United States. They also performed at Sakura-Con, one of the largest anime conventions in the United States. In July, they performed in front of 10,000 people at France's Japan Expo and also at Hong Kong's Animation-Comic-Game Hong Kong in August. Scandal concluded their indie career with the release of their first mini-album, Yah! Yah! Yah! Hello Scandal: Maido! Scandal Desu! Yah Yah Yah!.

2008 continued to be an eventful year for Scandal. In October, they made their major debut on Epic Records Japan with the single "Doll". It gave them more exposure, including appearances on mainstream music television shows like Music Station. The band released their second major single "Sakura Goodbye" in March 2009 to commemorate Mami and Tomomi's high school graduation. The song is a new version of their indie song, "Sakura", only heard live. The following month, their then upcoming third major single "Shōjo S" was used as the tenth opening theme for the anime Bleach. This brought their popularity up even higher as the single ranked #6 on the Oricon charts when it was released two months later in June.

On October 14, Scandal released their fourth major single, "Yumemiru Tsubasa" which was followed with their major debut album, Best Scandal, the next week. The album ranked #5 on the Oricon weekly chart, making them the first girl band since Zone to have a debut album chart in the top five.

2010 began with Scandal's fifth major single in February, "Shunkan Sentimental". It was used as the fourth ending theme for the anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Scandal continued into 2011 with their ninth major single on February 9. Titled "Pride", the song was used as the second ending theme for the anime Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto. The single also includes the tracks "Cute!", a collaboration with Sanrio's Cinnamoroll, and "Emotion", their first song that was written solely by a band member. Their tenth major single, "Haruka", was released on April 20. The title track was used as the theme song for the animated film Tofu Kozou, while the song "Satisfaction" was later used as the promotional song for the release of Windows 8. This was followed by their eleventh major single, "Love Survive", as well as their third studio album Baby Action. They also embarked on their first Asian Tour, performing to sell out crowds in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

2012 proved to be a year of firsts for Scandal. The title track of their twelfth single, "Harukaze", was used as the opening theme for the anime Bleach. The following month, they released their first compilation album, Scandal Show, as well as holding their first concert at the Nippon Budokan, thus becoming the fastest girl band to perform there since their debut. In July, they released their thirteenth major single, "Taiyō Scandalous". This single marked the first official release of their subunits, Dobondobondo (Mami x Tomomi) and Almond Crush (Haruna x Rina). This was followed by their fourteenth major single, "Pin Heel Surfer", and their fourth major album, Queens Are Trumps: Kirifuda wa Queen. With this release, they became the first girl band to achieve four consecutive top 5 positions in the Oricon Weekly charts. They also held a concert in Malaysia in December, becoming the first Japanese band to hold a solo concert there.

Scandal started 2013 by fulfilling one of their biggest dreams they had since their formation by performing in their hometown at the Osaka-jō Hall in March. Later that month they also performed to sellout crowds on their 2nd Asian Tour in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. During this period they also announced their fourteenth major single "Awanai Tsumori no, Genki de ne" released in May, with the title track being used as the theme song for the movie "Ore wa Mada Honki Dashitenai Dake". They also took part in some music festivals like KAWAii!! MATSURi 2013 at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, and Rock in Japan Festival 2013 at Hitachi Seaside Park.

A sample list of some of Scandal's songs:
2008: "Doll"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF7WryzsPH0

2009: "Shoujo S" [LIVE]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HiCenws3Ic

2010: "Shunkan Sentimental"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEkerSi5Fig

2010: "Scandal Nanka Buttobase"
http://vimeo.com/72499232

2011: "Love Survive"
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=193148170739763

2012: "Harukaze"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ufh2CL-K4k

2013: "Over Drive"
http://www.jpopasia.com/group/scandal/videos/over-drive::37701.html