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Glastonbury Festival is full of surprises and very would have expected to see Babymetal included on today's line-up for the Other Stage (Sunday, June 30).

The Japanese kawaii metal band will be sandwiched by punk rock duo Slaves and Bring me the Horizon on what is promising to be a raucous afternoon at Worthy Farm.

The fierce yet fresh-faced trio combine J-pop, heavy metal and Japanese idol genres - so do not expect cheery pop songs.

But who are they, what's the genre of music like and what should we expect from their 40-minute set at Glasto?

Who are Babymetal and where are they from?

The band was originally made up by Suzuka Nakamoto (Su-metal), 21, Moa Kikuchi, 19, (Moametal) and Yui Mizuno (Yuimetal), 20.

They formed in Tokyo, Japan, in 2010 and Wikipedia describes their music genre as a combination of kawaii metal, heavy metal, J-pop, power metal and alternative metal.

The band is produced by Kobametal from the Amuse talent agency . Their vocals are backed by heavy metal instrumentation played by the Kami Band during live performances.

Initially formed in 2010 as a sub-unit of the Japanese idol group Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal became an independent act in 2013, following Nakamoto's departure from Sakura Gakuin. Babymetal released their debut album in February 2014.

When will they play at Glastonbury 2019?

Babymetal are billed to play the Other Stage from 2.35pm until 3.15pm on Sunday (June 30), after SK Shlomo, Circa Waves, and Slaves.

What are their best known songs?

This year, Elevator Girl reached number four in the US World Chart and 38 in the Japan Hot 100. Last year saw Distortion reach number two in the US chart and six in the Japan Hot 100 while Starlight hit four and 24, respectively.

KARATE, probably one of the band's better known tracks and features on album Metal Resistance, reached number two in the US World Chart and 17 in the Japanese Hot 100. It's been played a staggering 15,047,746 times on Spotify, with Gimme Chocolate!! (Babymetal) creeping up with 15,531,362.

What is Kawaii metal?

This genre is also known as idol metal, cute metal or kawaiicore and blends J-pop and heavy metal. It was pioneered in Japan in the early 2010s and the lyrical topics are often less hostile than those of other typical metal genres.

What to expect from Babymetal

They will be like nothing you've ever seen before. Forming as Japanese schoolgirls, their songs combine high-pitched, idol culture vocals with aggressive hard rock guitar riffs. The crowd will go wild during their high-energy set, so, if mosh circles and mosh pits aren't for you, steer clear.

What do they wear on stage?

Band members have regularly taken to the stage wearing frilly red skirts and what appear to 'armoured' Roman tunics with frilly sleeves. Quite often they have also worn bows in their hair, long black socks, boots and leather bracelets to complete the schoolgirl-come-metal band appeareance.

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