ZARD�s memorial live DVD, �ZARD What a beautiful memory ~forever you~� officially went on sale on August 10th and sold 8,373 copies in its first week, topping the Oricon Weekly DVD Ranking for the week of August 22nd. For ZARD, it�s been four years and nine months since their last top ranking with their 15th anniversary DVD �ZARD Le Portfolio 1991 � 2006� which was released back in October 25, 2006.

Since member Sakai Izumi�s death back in 2007, the band held a memorial live for two years straight but decided to end any further memorial lives as they have met their 20th anniversary since their debut. This DVD is based on their last performance at Nippon Budoukan which occurred on May 27th (the date of Sakai�s death) of this year. In this performance, they brought together all eleven musicians who had connections with ZARD and invited five guest artists to perform along with Sakai�s video clips in front of 8,000 fans who gathered to the venue. They performed various hit songs such as �Makenaide�, �Yureru Omoi�, and �My Friend� and even songs that they have never performed before.

Since the start of Oricon DVD Rankings, there is only one other deceased artist who sold this many copies in its first week � �Michael Jackson VISION� (released on November 24th 2010). Now, if you include the video rankings as well, they are only fourth in the ranking after hide (1st), Michael Jackson (2nd), and Ozaki Yutaka (3rd).

Congratulations to ZARD for this incredible feat.

Source & Image: Oricon News