To promote the album, the group performed in several awards ceremonies and year-end music shows, and member Junki Kono did two solo performances on the music YouTube channel The First Take. The group also held online concerts Starlight on December 19, 2020, and Starlight Deluxe on February 20, 2021. The concerts drew over 240,000 viewers from 40 countries and regions.
Seven months after their debut, on October 5, 2020, JO1 held a press conference at Tokyo's Esports Ginza Studio to announce the release of their first studio album, The Star, and their first online concert, Starlight.[6] In keeping with the theme of their previous release, the album's concept images were unveiled on the same day and featured the members dressed in light-colored star-studded costumes, expressing their "shining selves".[7]
The album was released in four editions on November 25, 2020, with seven new songs as well as all songs from previous EP singles, Protostar and Stargazer.[8] The three limited editions (Red, Blue, Green) each has 15 tracks, including "Starlight", "Shine a Light", and a new song that is unique to each edition. The limited edition Red comes with a bonus DVD called JO1 Party, which is a talk segment with the members. The limited edition Green and Blue come with a photo book and an accordion card, respectively.[9] The normal edition comes with a solo poster and features 19 tracks, including all new songs in the limited editions and JO1 version of Produce 101 Japan's "Yancha Boy Yancha Girl" and "Happy Merry Christmas".[7] It was also released in digital format for streaming and download.
Promotion
To celebrate the album's release, JO1 organized a live stream event on their official YouTube channel that day.[10] They also appeared in a special episode of Music On! TV and released their second official Line sticker set.[11][12] JO1 later released performance videos for "Safety Zone" and "Monstar",[13][14] both directed by Naokazu Mitsuishi[ja].[15][16]
JO1 promoted the album by performing "Shine a Light" in several television shows, including the 2020 FNS Music Festival on December 2, 2020.[17] They also performed it alongside "Infinity" at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards Japan and the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) where they won the Rising Star Award and the Best New Asian Artist, respectively.[18][19][20] In December, member Junki Kono performed an acoustic solo rendition of "Infinity" and "Voice" on the music YouTube channel The First Take.[21] Both songs were later released as digital singles on January 13, 2021.[22] On February 25, JO1 made their debut performance in South Korea by appearing on M Countdown.[23] On February 28, JO1 headlined for Tokyo Girls Collection for the second time in a row, performing songs from the album.[24] From November 3 to December 6, 2020, a special exhibition titled JO1 Museum: The Star was held sequentially at six HMV Museums across the country.[25]
Singles
The album's lead singleProtostar was released on March 4, 2020, marking JO1's debut. It was released as an extended play with "Infinity" as the lead track.[26] The single reached number one on the Oricon Singles Chart and Billboard Japan Hot 100[27][28] and was certified Platinum by the RIAJ.[29] Earning an estimated 640 million yen, the single helped JO1 become the second best-selling new artist on the Oricon chart in the first half of 2020.[30]
Stargazer was released as the album's second single on August 26, 2020.[31] The single continued the group's number one position on the Oricon and Billboard Japan charts.[32][33] The music video of its lead track "Oh-Eh-Oh", which was released with the theme of teenagers in distress, portrays members of JO1 fighting against a mysterious group as high school students.[34]Hui of South Korean boy group Pentagon co-produced the song.[35]
The music video for the promotional single "Shine a Light" was released on November 10.[36] Yasuhiro Arafune directed the music video,[37] with "intersecting space-time" as the concept. It depicts the members walking around the same intersection in a fictional city, divided by time and era, with a shining light as the only link between the different timelines.[38] The song peaked at number fifty-eight on the Japan Hot 100.[39]
Starlight (stylized as JO1 1st Live Streaming Concert "Starlight") was the first online concert by JO1, held on December 19, 2020, via Pia Live Stream[ja].[6][40] The concert lasted two hours and twenty minutes and included talk and game segments.[41] It attracted an estimated 120,000 viewers from 30 countries and regions besides Japan, including the United States, Australia, China, South Korea, and Indonesia.[42][43] The concert was broadcast on TBS' cable television channel TBS Channel 1[ja] on January 31, 2021, featuring an exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and an interview with the members.[44]
Starlight Deluxe (stylized as JO1 Live Streaming Concert "Starlight Deluxe") was the second online concert by JO1, held on February 20, 2021.[43] It was live streamed from Paju, South Korea.[45] The show, themed around the group's journey into space, in space with the group, featured a longer set list, a series of spacecraft-themed VCRs, and a live band.[46][47] It was viewed by more than 120,000 people from 40 countries and regions, including Japan, the United States, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, India, and France.[48] The band versions of "Oh-Eh-Oh" and "Grandmaster" were released as digital singles on August 8, 2021.[49]
Azusa Takahashi of Real Sound[ja] praised the group's rapid growth, which is visible throughout The Star, particularly in singing. She also stated that one of the album's charms is the amount of possibility shown by the wide range of tastes in the songs. Although some tracks were performed in Produce 101 Japan, she described them as "cohesive while retaining the freshness of the time." Takahashi closed her review by writing that the album is good in showing "factors that makeup JO1 as an artist", which include the bond between members, the "spices" found in the songs due to the members' uniqueness, and gratitude to their fans.[50]
Commercial performance
The Star debuted at number one on the Oricon Daily Albums Chart with an estimated 114,560 copies sold.[51] It eventually peaked at number two on the weekly chart behind BTS' album Be, selling 158,333 copies and earning a Gold certification from the RIAJ.[52][53] The album also peaked at number two on Billboard Japan Hot Albums and topped the sales component chart on its release week.[54][55] The album's commercial success also propelled JO1 to third place on Billboard Japan Artist 100.[56] By the end of 2020, the album has sold 173,753 physical copies, placing it at number twenty-one on the Oricon's annual ranking.[57]
Because its release date did not occur within the aggregation period in 2020, The Star ranked number ten on the Billboard Japan album sales chart in the first half of 2021, with 195,255 physical copies sold.[58] It eventually ranked twenty-second on the 2021 Year-End Hot Albums chart.[59]
Track listing
"Starlight", "Shine a Light" and "My Friends" are common track 1, 2 and 15, respectively, for all limited editions.
Track listing of The Star– Limited edition red (CD)
1 2 "Billboard Japan Hot Albums". Billboard Japan (in Japanese). September 7, 2020. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
1 2 オリコン年間ランキング2020[Oricon Annual Ranking 2020 - Albums]. Oricon (in Japanese). December 25, 2020. Archived from the original on December 25, 2020. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
↑ "オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」"[Oricon Ranking Information Service 'You Big Tree' (Annual Combined Albums Ranking 2020)]. Oricon (in Japanese). Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
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