SNH48

SNH48 is a Chinese idol girl group based in Shanghai. Following AKB48's creator Yasushi Akimoto's concept of "idols you can meet", the group features dozens of female members around the age of 20, who perform regularly in the group's own theater and interact with fans predominantly via the official Pocket48/口袋48 App online and offline via theater and handshake events. There are over 200 female members across SNH48 and all its sister groups including GNZ48, BEJ48, CKG48, CGT48 and IDOLS Ft. The group is owned by Chinese companies NineStyle and Star48. Established in 2012, it parted ways with AKB48's groups in June 2016. History 2012–2013: Creation and debut On April 21, 2012, AKS Co., Ltd. and Chinese company Ninestyle jointly announced the establishment of SNH48. A theater was built in Shanghai beginning in October. In January 2013, SNH48 debuted in the show "Give Me Power!", with 16 selected members on stage performing the Chinese version of "Heavy Rotation", "River" and "Ponytail to Shushu". In April MV "River" was released and the group participated in the "2013 Shanghai Strawberry Music Festival". In June the video for "Let's Become Cherry Blossom Trees" was released, as well as their first EP, Heavy Rotation. That same month the group performed overseas for the first time, at the Singapore "Asia Style Collection" Show with AKB48. In July the video for "Ponytail and Scrunchie" was released, and a month later their second EP, Flying Get and SNH48's theater, the Star Dream theater, was opened. In September SNH48 announced the result of their second audition, and 31 new members were added into the group. Mariya Suzuki and Sae Miyazawa made their theater debut in October, after receiving working visas in China. In November the group held a concert in Guangzhou with an audience of 10,000, and released a third EP, Fortune Cookie of Love. In December SNH48 signed up for China's Got Talent (5th season).