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By Winfield Ly  It was announced on October 18, 2019 that Country Girls will cease activities on December 26th, 2019 following their concert at LINE CUBE SHIBUYA. They will release a compilation album titled “Country Girls Daizenshuu” on December 4th and it will contain all of their songs and MVs released to date since their revival in 2014.
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 Recently, AKB48 announced the upcoming finale of their popular idol variety show, “AKBINGO!” The show featuring the many 48 Group members has been on-air weekly since its debut in 2008 on Nippon Television and is set to end this September.
In memoriam, we will be (satirically) counting down the most SHOCKING moments on this cancelled Japanese pop idol variety show! #3 may even be too LEWD for you to handle!!  We're big fans of US based idol groups here at A-to-J Connections and we have a special treat for everyone today: an interview with Peachy Parade! Consisting of seven members they've come a long way since their formation with lots of guest spots and performances under their belt, some of the latter even being in Japan. Our rather long talk with them covers everything from their formation, overall goals, core concepts, original music, and lots of randomness tossed in for good measure! It was a really fun interview with a group that we think deserves more recognition than they currently get. Check it out and be sure to give the links at the end a click to follow and support them in realizing the goals that they're still working towards!
 Author's Note: "IDOLS in Thailand" is a four-part series on the growth of idols and idol culture in Thailand, and how the modern Thai idol industry was largely influenced by Japanese idols. I would like to extend my thanks to my informants in Thailand, who have graciously lent their time to show me the history of idol culture in Thailand and acquaint me well with it, so that I may pass it forward. In recent years, Japanese idol culture has become wildly popular overseas. But, in one particular country in Southeast Asia, Japanese idol culture has spawned a local idol culture unique to that country itself and a number of performers / groups that largely follow the Japanese idol concept. That country is Thailand.
 Long-running Japanese idol group Morning Musume ’19 has added three incredibly cute new “musumes”, who will form Morning Musume’s 15th generation. Two of them were picked from a recent Morning Musume ‘19 LOVE Audition, and one member will be joining them from the Hello! Pro Kenshuusei Hokkaido trainee division. In a live-streamed announcement, they were greeted cheerfully by the current Morning Musume members.
 We’ve certainly heard of overseas idols and idol groups wanting to travel to Japan to do performances, but not like this: Vancouver, Canada-based idol group Seishun Youth Academy—one of the few overseas idol sister groups in the world—has launched a crowdfunding effort, with the support of their Japanese agency NoMake, which aims to bring all of the members of Seishun Youth Academy to Japan. There, they would perform together with their Japanese sister group 青SHUN学園 (Seishun Gakuen) at an unspecified major idol festival in August.
TWICE fans (a.k.a. ‘Onces’) are once again finding themselves in a daze as the popular K-POP girl group has released two new music videos for their newest Japanese singles, “Breakthrough” and “HAPPY HAPPY”.
 Seishun Youth Academy Recently, we reported on FES☆TIVE’s announcement of a sister girl group. While smaller ‘sister groups’ are a frequent occurrence in the Japanese idol world, FES☆TIVE’s sister group will have one unique and major aspect that sets it apart from others: it will be based overseas.
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