EXILE Is Now An 18 Members Band! Welcome The 5 New Members

Japanese boy band EXILE held the final selection of the "Coca-Cola Zero Presents EXILE performers battle audition" to determine the new performers for the group on April 27th, 2014. 5 new members have been selected to the group.

The new members have been added to the currently 14 members group and EXILE now stands at 19 people. Leader HIRO retired as a performed at the end of last year but will remain in the group as a producer. Since he does not go on to the stage anymore, the group will continue on as a 18 people band in the future.

The new members from the junior seed participation are 「三代目 J Soul Brothers」's Takanori Iwata(岩田剛典) (25), 「GENERATIONS」's Alan Shirahama(白濱亜嵐) (20), Mandy Sekiguchi(関口メンディー) (23). In addition, Sekai Yamamoto(山本世界) (23) and Hiroki Sato(佐藤大樹) (19) are selected from the general participants.

Along with the 5 new members, the group performed their hit song "Choo Choo TRAIN" on stage in front of 10,000 people in the stadium filled Nippon Budokan. HIRO said, "I am impressed to see the 18 people EXILE's performance. These 18 members will be the face of EXILE in the future."

There were more than 2,000 people participated in the audition and only 11 were selected to participate in the final selection event.




Source: EXILE Official, sponichi.co.jp