'Kenshi Yonezu at Party Royale': J-pop star is back with a bang as first Asian artiste to collab with Fortnite
After over two years, Japanese singer-songwriter and music producer, Kenshi Yonezu, has officially released his long-awaited fifth studio album, 'Stray Sheep', along with a music video for the track, 'Campanella'. The album being so highly anticipated was evidenced by the fact that pre-sales for it skyrocketed to 1 million copies, while over 65,000 fans eagerly awaited the premiere of 'Campanella' which currently clocks in at over 3 million views.
To celebrate this release, Yonezu will be collaborating with Fortnite, as the first Asian artiste ever, for the virtual event 'Kenshi Yonezu at Party Royale in Fortnite'. Here's everything you need to know about it.
When
'Kenshi Yonezu at Party Royale' will be held within the Battle Royale Game, Fortnite, on Friday, August 7, at 7 am ET, simultaneously around the world. For those who are unavailable at this time, two encore shows are scheduled to take place at 1 pm and 7 pm on the same date.
What to expect
Kenshi Yonezu is no stranger to breaking records and making history. He recently became the first Japanese artiste to hit 5 million Youtube subscribers, with music video views reaching over 2.8 billion total, and counting. On July 10, Yonezu released the music video for 'Kanden' which skyrocketed to 1 million views in under two hours and it currently sits at 30 million views. This single is off his upcoming album, 'Stray Sheep', and it debuted at No.2 on the Japan Hot 100, blasting in at No.1 for downloads with 158,572 units after dropping digitally July 6, as stated by Billboard. The music video for 'Kanden' marks Yonezu’s 13th music video to reach over 100 million views throughout his career.
'Stray Sheep' is the highly anticipated follow-up to Yonezu's award-winning 2017 album, 'Bootleg'. It consists of 15 songs, including Yonezu’s previously released smash hit 'Lemon', which ranked #1 on Billboard Japan’s annual cumulative charts for two years consecutively, making history as the first-ever act to do so. Furthermore, it’s 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 and it's sitting at almost 600 million currently.
During these uncertain times and unconventional work environment due to Covid-19, Yonezu reflected a lot while working on the song and the album in general, stating, "When I thought about how I’m going to live in this country from now on, I realized that many things were getting me emotional with anger, disappointment, and despair. But in the end, my only choice is to live in this country - in this world. Which led to the conclusion that all I can do is make pop songs. In the end, we need to affirm that we exist and need to live. It’s really easy to be pessimistic and let creativity flow with anger and sadness, but I felt that is not my role. So, I thought about the distant future, where people were living a healthy life reminiscing about 'what happened during those times'. I may have been envisioning those scenes when creating this song."
Fortnite's virtual events
Fortnite has hosted virtual events by artistes such as Marshmello and Travis Scott in the past, with the later, held in April 2020, entitled, 'Astronomical', managing to rack up 27.7 million players worldwide, an unfathomable number for a live show out in the real world. At this particular event, players enter the venue in their respective avatars and enjoy the show as if they’re attending a music festival. Viewers can arrange to meet up with real-world friends within Fortnite grounds and enter the event together. Anyone can join in for free via a multitude of different devices, including smartphones, personal computers, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
Thanks to Fortnite, virtual concerts have been reshaped to bring the experience as close to in-person ones as possible, which has allowed the music industry to keep up with the changing times. Yonezu's collaboration with Fortnite is set to open more doors for Asian artistes hoping to bring the experience of virtual concerts similar to 'Astronomical' to their fans.
Tickets
'Kenshi Yonezu at Party Royale' will be available to watch free of charge, and Fortnite can be downloaded for free as well.
Giveaways
Players that log in to Fortnite from Thursday, August 6, at 8 pm ET to Friday, August 7, at 8 pm ET will receive a free banner icon of the artwork to 'Stray Sheep'.
How to watch
To watch Fortnite Party Royale, download Fortnite on devices such as PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, smartphones and personal computers and join in for free. Once Fortnite has been downloaded, log in to the game from your device and click Party Royale from Battle Royale. It is recommended viewers log in an hour to 30 minutes prior to the event, as the app generally sees a massive influx of traffic during these events. For those who have not logged in for some period of time, it is recommended that the app be updated before the event, as updates might take some time.
For more information on the event, visit 'Kenshi Yonezu at Party Royale'.