UltraCats

Infobox musical artist
Name = UltraCats
Background = group_or_band
Origin = Japan
Genre =
Years_active = 2001 – 2002
Label = Sony Music Japan
URL = [http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/ultracats/ Official info page]
Current_members =
Past_members = Teruyoshi Uchimura, Kazuki Ōtake, Udo Suzuki, Jinny Lee

UltraCats (ウルトラキャッツ), formed October 19 2001, is group consisting of members Ucchan, Ōtake, Udo, and Jinny. After Jinny left UltraCats, she started solo career as Chae-Yeon.

Members

* Teruyoshi Uchimura, Ucchan, born July 22, 1964
* Kazuki Ōtake, Ōtake, born December 8, 1967
* Udo Suzuki, Udo, January 19, 1970
* Jinny Lee, Jinny, born December 10, 1978

History

Formation in 'Urinari'

UltraCats started off as a singing group in a popular Japanese TV show 'Ucchan-Nanchan's Urinari' in 2001, a year after Jinny's arrival in Japan. Jinny was already in this show for a year since 2000, but she had not had a chance to pursue her dream of becoming a singer to the fullest, although amongst other projects, she had a chance to take part in the short-lived singing group Brand-new Biscuits through the early 2001.

Knowing her dream and struggle, after Brand-new Biscuits' cessation, Uchimura started UltraCats as a part of the show, and besides them, he included the members Udo, which makes it to have a similar member structure to the once popular singing group from the show, Pocket Biscuits, and Ootake later.

Activities in Korea

However, they were not able to sell any CDs until the very end of the show that suddenly came in March, 2002. In terms of the activities as UltraCats in the show, all they did was going to Korea and trying to sell the group by singing their only song at that time "Barem" in Korean on the streets—which attracted a handful of fans that supported them by going around to their street performances and making a website—and by contacting media and producers, which did not always welcome them.

Their first step to success as a professional singing group came when they were offered to sing on a stage after the live broadcasting of a popular Korean music program, 'SBS Popular Song.' They offered that after UltraCats' performance, they would have voting by the audience that came to see the program, and if UltraCats were able to obtain at least 70% support by the audience, they can sell a CD in Korea.

To everyone's surprise, UltraCats was able to obtain over 90% support of 426/473 people, going far over the minimum of 331/473 people, and at that moment, in addition to selling a CD in Korea, it was also decided that the Japanese company Sony Music Entertainment would sell UltraCats' song "Barem" in Japanese in Japan.

New Show 'Ultra C'

During the time when they were still continuing their activities in Korea and not being able to sell any CD's, it was decided that the show 'Urinari' would end at the end of March, 2002. Uchimura asked the producer if they could continue UltraCats as a part of 'Urinari' in some form even after it ended, since he felt responsible for starting the group UltraCats and not being able to do much, especially for Jinny who he knew came to Japan as she wanted to become a singer, but the answer was no.

So Uchimura started asking around almost all the TV stations around Tokyo if they could start a show in any form for UltraCats so that they could continue singing and selling CD's, on the condition that he would not need any salaries (he'd been popular and around for more than 15 years so it would cost a lot to just pay him) and that he would do anything to help out such as providing funding for the show if needed.

Eventually TBS, which is different from the original company that broadcasted 'Urinari' which is NTV, agreed to give them late-evening 30-minute show time from April, 2002, for half a year, which was titled 'Ultra C.' Through this show, UltraCats was able to sell additional CD's and have a concert at the end of the show, after which Jinny went back to Korea and became successful as a singer Chae Yeon in 2003.

Discography

* (single), March 13 2002
* (single), June 19 2002
* (single), September 4 2002
* (album), September 19 2002

References

* http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/ultracats/
* http://www.jinny.info/madang/history.html