May 01, 2021
Richard Margarey (centre) as Ladybaby in kawaiicore band Babybeard with bandmates (from left) Suzu and Kotomi. While J-pop fandom can be intense, Ladybaby says he can escape whenever he wants because ‘I take off the dress, and I look like other white guys’.
Facebook/Babybeard
Just now, Japanese pop/heavy metal star Ladybeard might be the celebrity the world needs.
Onstage a five-year-old girl, offstage he is Richard Margarey, 37, from Adelaide in Australia. Since moving to Japan in 2013, he has performed with a series of so-called kawaiicore bands - a genre blending elements of J-pop and heavy metal, the most famous of them called Ladybaby.