SHANADOO started their career under the leadership of producer David Brandes, who reused various E-Rotic songs with new lyrics, tunes and typical Japanese kitsch. Musically, they were mainly active as a dance and eurobeat vocal group.
Manami, Junko and Chika first began working together as Vivace under the management of avex trax in Japan. The original line-up consisted of four girls, but Kotomi gave up on the group shortly after its formation. Vivace was not successful at all though, and the discography of the band was limited to appearances on omnibuses.
Swiss producer David Brandes - probably attracted by the cover of Vivace's King Kong made by an another all-girl Japanese group, HINOI team - decided to give the band a try. Against all expectations, Manami, Junko and Chika signed with SMD Icezone Music (Sony BMG).
Brandes also brought a new element to the mix in the form of Marina, who was promoted to the leader of the new group SHANADOO (pronounced "shanado"). Marina was also the youngest; she was born in 1989 while the other members were born between 1984 and 1986.
SHANADOO’s first single came out in June 2006. It used Japanese-style arrangements to bring some fake exoticism to the songs, but nevertheless the record reached number 15 on the German charts and number 14 in Austria! Their next single My Samurai, released three months later, was equally successful. At that time, the band's music video was in heavy rotation on the music channel VIVA and the girls appeared on various TV programmes.
However, Guilty Of Love, released in November 2006, didn't score the same level of success, reaching only number 30 on the charts. Yet this reversal of fortune did not prevent SHANADOO from releasing its first full-length album on December 1, 2006, titled Welcome to Tokyo.
Most likely due to its success in Germany, the album was also distributed in Japan in 2007. The beginning of March already saw the release of the group’s next maxi-single, Hypnotized, around Germany. The pace of their releases slowed down over the rest of the year. In the end, only two more singles and their second album came out.
It was a while before there was any more news of SHANADOO. Returning to Japan, the girls eagerly worked on a "re-debut album" for the Japanese market, which they hoped would fit perfectly with the club scene of Tokyo. In a way, you could say that they built up a completely new identity: a new producer, a new sound, a new look. They also changed their names: Chika became C'k, Manami turned hers into Rose and Junko simply called herself Jun. Only Marina kept her name. SHANADOO's new album Launch Party was released on November 25, 2009 via avex trax. The quartet also performed at various clubs and even after the release, they could often be seen singing at various events.
SHANADOO launched themselves into 2011 with another performance at HOUSE NATION in January. At the beginning of February their digital single Shine came out, and in summer they returned to Germany for a few lives at AnimagiC 2011. Back in Japan, the girls performed at J-POP NIGHT Special!!! at clubaxxcisSHINJUKU at the end of August.
However, until January 15, 2012, when they held a live, SHANADOO LIVE ~kansha~, at morph-tokyo, there were no further activities. Only C'k continued performing, appearing as a DJ at various events, but this activity seemed to drop off as well around March 2012.
Whether or when the four ladies of SHANADOO will become active in the music scene again is currently totally unknown.
