THE FIRST Audition Song "Be Free" Gets Digital Release

As previously reported, SKY-HI's boy group audition show "THE FIRST" is currently broadcasting on the streaming platform Hulu and the Japanese TV show "Sukkiri". To help overseas fans follow along, alternate cuts of the episodes are also being uploaded to YouTube with English, Korean and Spanish subtitles at a slower pace.

Currently, the Hulu and "Sukkiri" broadcasts are at part two of the 4th stage of the audition, a month-long training camp held near Yamanaka Lake. The first part of the camp evaluated the contestants' creativity, challenging them to create original song performances in groups of five. Each team was responsible for creating its own vocal melodies, lyrics and choreography, working with the same base track. After that round, three of the 15 contestants were eliminated.

In part two, the remaining 12 contestants have been asked to elevate their performance skills to a pseudo-professional level. They have been split into two competing teams of six, and each team has been given a new original song prepared by SKY-HI and other producers. Over the course of one week, they honed their skills with professional trainers, and they were asked to record vocals in a makeshift studio and to perform the tracks live onstage in front of SKY-HI and rapper CHANMINA, who made a surprise guest appearance. Following the performances, one contestant will be eliminated from the losing team, and the rest will progress to the final part of the training camp.

The first team consists of professional dancer Sota Shimao, former avex trainee Reo Kamimura, aspiring singer-songwriter Manato Hirose, 13 year-old magazine model Rui Kawashima and Reiko Cadsawan and Junon Ikegame, who are both said to be relatively inexperienced in the entertainment industry. Their song Be Free was produced by sty, Chaki Zulu and SKY-HI, with choreography by Oguri from dance unit s**t kingz.

The performance of Be Free aired last week, and the song was just given an official digital release today. Links to download and stream the track are available here. The performance of the second team's song Move On will be revealed this week.

The live performance of Be Free can be viewed below:


Fixed camera versions of the three team performances from part one of the training camp are also available on YouTube: