BABYMETAL has changed shape more than once. The lineup beside her has changed, the stages have grown, the collaborators have come from every corner of heavy music. One thing has stayed where it was since 2010: SU-METAL sings lead.
Hiroshima
Suzuka Nakamoto was born in Hiroshima on 20 December 1997. She entered Actor’s School Hiroshima in 2006, signed with the agency Amuse the following year, and by 2008 was singing anime theme songs in the trio Karen Girl’s.
In April 2010 she became a founding member of the idol group Sakura Gakuin. That group ran themed sub-units it called clubs, and its heavy music club was BABYMETAL. She was twelve. When she graduated from Sakura Gakuin on 31 March 2013, BABYMETAL carried on as a group in its own right.
The Stages
The dates tell the story quickly. The first album came out on 26 February 2014. On 2 April 2016, BABYMETAL became the first Japanese act to headline Wembley Arena in London; she was eighteen. That September the group played two nights at Tokyo Dome. Metal Galaxy in 2019 made BABYMETAL the first Asian act to top Billboard’s rock albums chart.
On 30 May 2025, the group headlined the O2 Arena in London, the first Japanese act to do so. Metal Forth, released on 8 August 2025, entered the Billboard 200 at number nine.
For a longer view of how that happened, and how it compares with the route LOUDNESS took in the 1980s, read our piece on the two roads to the stadium.
The Lyricist
For most of the group’s history, the words were written for her. That changed with “Divine Attack - Shingeki -” in 2022, her first credit as a lyricist. In 2025 she was the sole credited lyricist of “White Flame.”
It is a late and interesting turn. A singer who started as a child performing other people’s material is, fifteen years in, writing her own.
The Constant
MOAMETAL has been beside her from the start, and MOMOMETAL became the third member in 2023. Every version of BABYMETAL has been built around the same lead voice.
Start with Metal Resistance, then Metal Forth.
