[1] They were not an instant hit initially, but their fourth single "Jōkyō Monogatari" (上・京・物・語, Tale of Going to the Capital) broke the top 50 of the Oricon charts.
Runners-up Yuko Nakazawa, Natsumi Abe, Kaori Iida, Aya Ishiguro, and Asuka Fukuda took up Tsunku's offer after the competition to form a group he would personally produce if they could sell 50,000 copies of their debut independent single Ai no Tane in five days.
Tsunku originally wrote and composed the song for Morning Musume, who debuted their recording two weeks before Sharam Q's rendition.
In March 2014, Tsunku announced on his blog that he had laryngeal cancer, which he found out after having throat surgery due to an unspecified condition.
On April 4, 2015, Tsunku revealed that he had his vocal cords removed as part of his cancer treatment, whereupon Sharam Q's activities ceased.