is a song by Japanese duo

Yoasobi Yoasobi is a Japanese pop duo formed in 2019. It consists of musician and record producer Ayase (music producer), Ayase and singer-songwriter Lilas Ikuta, under the moniker Ikura. With the slogan "novel into music", the duo originally released Y ...

, released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

through

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

on July 26, 2024. The "

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

Sports Theme 2024", the song serves as a theme for NHK's coverage of sports event broadcastings in 2024, as well as the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

and

Paralympics The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

. The song was written by Ayase and based on three short stories by Jun Esaka from three

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'', a ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

: Taizan 5's ''Hanareta Futari'', Yūki Kirishima's ''Parallel Lane'', and Hirusagari Haruno's ''Owaranai Deuce''. Commercially, "Butai ni Tatte" peaked at number 16 on the ''Billboard'' Japan Hot 100, and number 29 on the

Oricon Combined Singles Chart The is a record chart released weekly by Oricon, a major provider of information on the Japanese music industry. First published on December 24, 2018, it ranks the top fifty singles in Japan based on an album-equivalent unit system factoring phys ...

Background and release

On May 22, 2024,

announced that

would be in charge of "NHK Sports Theme 2024", a song using for the broadcaster's coverage of sports event broadcastings in 2024, including the

and

, taking place in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. The song's title "Butai ni Tatte" was revealed on June 27 and it debuted on the 108th

Japan Championships in Athletics The is an annual outdoor track and field competition, organized by Japan Association of Athletics Federations. Currently it takes place in June or July. The competition is also for the qualifying trial for the Japanese national team of internati ...

broadcasting the next day, which featured the

montage Montage may refer to: Arts and entertainment Filmmaking and films * Montage (filmmaking), a technique in film editing * ''Montage'' (2013 film), a South Korean film Music * Montage (music), or sound collage * ''Montage'' (EP), a 2017 EP by ...

of Japanese athletes in various sports. The song was available for

digital music Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, samp ...

and

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

platforms on July 26, 2024, in conjunction with the Summer Olympics opening ceremony. The English version of the song, titled "On the Stage", was released on August 11, the same day as the last day of competition and the

closing ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

Based stories

The song was based on three short stories written by Jun Esaka, sourced from three sport-themed

: by Taizan 5, by Yūki Kirishima, and by Hirusagari Haruno. All manga were published digitally via manga platform ''

Shōnen Jump+ is a manga platform created by Shueisha. Launched on September 22, 2014, it operates as a free mobile app and website. Jump+ serializes original titles and titles from other Shueisha manga magazines, and also carries digital editions of ''Weekl ...

'' between July 26 and 28, respectively. The first, ''Hanareta Futari'', is about the changing relationship after attending high school between Kotaro and Subaru, who have been playing in

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

and striker positions, respectively, in the same football team since elementary school. Next, ''Parallel Lane'' expresses Ren Natsunagi, a former swimmer, losing his right leg due to a traffic accident, making him getting depressed. He meets Ibuki Samejima, who was born as a

physically disabled A physical disability is a limitation on a person's physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina. Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living, such as respiratory disorders, blindness, epilepsy ...

person, which transfer to his class. Ibuki inspired him to become "the world's best

para swimmer Para swimming is an adaptation of the sport of swimming for athletes with disabilities. Para swimmers compete at the Summer Paralympic Games and at other sports competitions throughout the world. The sport is governed by the International Paralym ...

". ''Owaranai Deuce'' depicts the woman's singles tennis world championship between world-famous Merle Angelica and Ichi Yamada, with the 100 times of deuce score.

Composition

Musically, "Butai ni Tatte" is described as a guitar rock track about conflicts, excitements, struggles, and hopes that athletes face in their mind to take a courageous step forward, which compares to their artist career. In Yoasobi's ''

News Watch 9 is the flagship evening news program of the public Japanese broadcaster, NHK. It airs weekdays on NHK general television and worldwide on NHK World Premium and is also available on the networks video-on-demand service. As of 2025, it is presente ...

'' interview on July 5, 2024, Ayase told that he imagined a slightly lighter shade of blue for the song, expressing "sometimes it is sweat and tears, or the struggle to reach something, which I think is very youthful, regardless of era or age." Writing for ''

Real Sound ''Real Sound: Kaze no Regret'' is an adventure audio game developed and published by Warp. The game was first released for the Sega Saturn in July 1997, and was later ported to the Dreamcast in March 1999. The game was designed to provide equal ...

'', Eriko Ishii called the song's sound "surprisingly straightforward, almost like a standard for youth

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

s."

Commercial performance

"Butai ni Tatte" topped on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

Digital Singles for the issue dated August 5, 2024, with 11,236 digital sales, becoming their 14th song to top the chart and the second most number-one song on the chart at that time (14), behind only

Kenshi Yonezu is a Japanese singer-songwriter and illustrator. He started releasing Vocaloid music under the stage name in 2009. In 2012, he debuted under his real name, releasing music with his own voice. He has sold at least 4.2 million physical copies and ...

(15). The song debuted at number 43 on the ''Billboard'' Japan Hot 100 dated July 31 with three-day tracking period, and rose to number 16 the next week. For its component charts, the song reached number one on the Download Songs with 10,735 downloads, and number 35 on the

Streaming Songs The Streaming Songs chart is released weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine and lists each week's top streamed radio songs, on-demand songs and videos on leading online music services in the United States. The chart represents one ...

Music video

An accompanying music video for "Butai ni Tatte" was first previewed on July 26, 2024, before premiere on August 6 at 20:00 JST. Directed by Margt of Perimetron, the animated visual depicts the protagonist keep running with determination, facing forward, difficulties, and setbacks along the way. It also features athletes in various sports, including from ''Hanareta Futari'', ''Parallel Lane'', and ''Owaranai Deuce''. The music video for the English version was uploaded on August 11.

Live performances

Yoasobi included "Butai ni Tatter" on the setlist of their

Chō-genjitsu Dome Live The was the third Japanese concert tour and fifth overall by Japanese duo Yoasobi for their fifth anniversary commemoration since the formation. Comprised four all-dome shows, it began in Osaka on October 26, 2024, and concluded in Tokyo on Nove ...

, where they debuted the performance at

Kyocera Dome Osaka The (official name: ) is a baseball stadium located in Osaka, Osaka, Japan. Opened in 1997, the stadium was the home field of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. In 2005, the stadium became one of the homes of the Orix Buffaloes, a result of the merg ...

for the Osaka show on October 26, 2024.

Other uses

"Butai ni Tatte" featured on the Tokyo Projection Mapping Project's "Tokyo Night & Light"

projection mapping Projection mapping, similar to video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a video projection, projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into display surfaces for video projection. The objects may be complex industr ...

created by Kuma!, starting on July 26, 2024, at the exterior of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building No. 1,

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

. The song featured as a

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

on commercials for Haruyama suits, starring

Fumiya Takahashi is a Japanese actor and model. He is best known for his lead roles in ''Kamen Rider Zero-One'' and '' Fermat no Ryōri''. Early life Takahashi was born on March 12, 2001, in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. He rose to prominence in 2017 after winn ...

and

Natsuki Deguchi is a Japanese actress and model who is affiliated with Incent. Biography Natsuki Deguchi was born on October 4, 2001, in China, to a Chinese mother and Japanese father. She has three elder sisters and one younger brother; they were raised i ...

; and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which the first two shows audience using the smartphone filming the performance of the song at the

Chō-genjitsu Asia Tour The was the third overseas concert tour and sixth overall by Japanese duo Yoasobi. Comprising fourteen shows, the tour began in Incheon, South Korea on December 7, 2024, and concluded in Jakarta, Indonesia on February 27, 2025, for 140,000 audie ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, and the other one expresses the singer-songwriter Unas trying to perform "Butai ni Tatte" on the

skyway A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of Cover ...

during noise.

Track listing

* Digital download and streaming # – 3:27 * Digital download and streaming – English version # "On the Stage" – 3:27

Credits and personnel

* Ayase – writer, producer *

Ikura Red caviar is a caviar made from the roe of salmonid fishes (various species of salmon and trout), which has an intense reddish hue. It is distinct from black caviar, which is made from the roe of sturgeon.Nichola Fletcher, ''Caviar: A Globa ...

– vocals * Konnie Aoki – English lyrics * Rockwell – guitar * Jun Esaka – based story writer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

External links

''Hanareta Futari'' (short story version)

''Parallel Lane'' (short story version)

''Owaranai Deuce'' (short story version)
{{Yoasobi 2024 singles 2024 songs Animated music videos Music based on short fiction Olympic theme songs Rock songs Song recordings produced by Ayase (music producer) Songs in Japanese Songs used as jingles Songs written by Ayase (music producer) Sony Music Entertainment Japan singles Sports television theme songs Yoasobi songs