ღ♥ღĥĕŘŰŁ_Săʼnღ♥ღ^o^

Who I'd like to meet:

konnichiwa minnasan... tomodachi genki... my name is hairul desh... I was a simple person... nothing special about me... just a simple person... I love momusu very much. mooooooooooooningu musuuuuuuuuuume..... .^_*. momusu kawaiiiiiiiiiiii-ne


PROFILE Morning Musume is an ultra-commercialised all-girl group that is well known for its constant member changes and upbeat singing and dancing to typical pop melodies. Morning Musume is the brain child of Japanese producer Tsunku and more famously known as the ‘Mother’ of the Hello! Project. Author : Cage (2006-08-07)
BIOGRAPHY Morning Musume first appeared in 1997 through a female rock vocalist audition for Tsunku’s band Sharam Q, held on the Japanese TV show Asayan. The winner of the audition was Heike Michiyo, later to become a solo act of the Hello! Project. It was only a short while after this audition that Tsunku decided to form a girl group consisting of five of the runners-up: Yuko Nakazawa, Kaori Iida, Aya Ishiuro, Natsumi Abe and Asuka Fukada. Tsunku issued the girls a challenge to prove their worth, which was to sell 50,000 copies of their demo single, Ai no tane, in five days. Remarkably the group managed this feat in four days and Tsunku was now determined to create one of the most famous all-girl groups in Japanese history, giving them dance and vocal lessons to perfect their talents. In the beginning of 1998 the girls were ready to start off with their first official single, Morning Coffee. The success of this single brought them three new members: Kei Yasuda, Mari Yaguchi and Sayaka Ichii. It was only with the release of their third single Daite! HOLD ON ME that Musume finally hit the number one spot on the Oricon. However, it was also during this time that the group held their first ‘graduation’ with band leader Yuko Nakazawa pursuing a solo career. Expectations for the third generation audition were to admit two new girls to the group, but ultimately, only one girl was added to the group, Maki Goto, the youngest member of the group at thirteen. The success of their seventh single, LOVE Machine, with the addition of Goto, dramatically increased the idol popularity of the group, but most arguably making Goto the most popular member of Morning Musume. In 2000, Aya Ishiguro left Morning Musume to marry Shinya, drummer of LUNA SEA. The now reduced Musume released one more single koi no Dance-Site before producing their fourth generation consisting of Rika Ishikawa, Hitomi Yoshizawa, Nozomi Tsuji, and Ai Kago. This most famously gave the group their youngest members yet, the duo of both Tsuji and Kago at a mere twelve years old. The year 2000 also saw the creation of Summer Shuffle Units, in which all members of Hello! Project, were shuffled around to form three one-time summer groups. As an idol group, they were extremely successful, drawing comparisons to the popularity of former girl idol group SPEED. At the end of 2001, four new girls joined the group as the fifth generation through the audition LOVE AUDITION 21: Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno, Makoto Ogawa, and Risa Niigaki, bringing the group total to thirteen. Late 2002 was marked by the graduation of Maki Goto and a mass re-shuffle of the sub-units. In the beginning of 2003, three new girls were added as the sixth generation: Eri Kamei, Sayumi Michishige, and Reina Tanaka. After a successful appearance on the New Year's music program Kōhaku Uta Gassen, with several Morning Musume members dancing as backup, Tsunku also added in Miki Fujimoto (who was originally an up-and-coming solo singer under Hello! Project) as part of the sixth generation. Their debut concert was also Kei Yasuda’s graduation concert, and Tsunku has said that this sixteen member group is the largest Morning Musume will ever be. Later in 2003, Morning Musume was split into two subgroups so that it could tour more cities (especially smaller cities that could not support a 15-member troupe). Morning Musume Sakuragumi and Morning Musume Otomegumi. Seventh generation auditions (named "Lucky 7" to commemorate the 7th generation, 7th year of Morning Musume, and 7 auditioning locations across Japan) were held in various Japanese cities in 2004, resulting in 6 finalists. However, on January 9th, 2005, Tsunku announced that no one in the Lucky 7 audition would be added onto Morning Musume, adding that he had set his expectations extra high this year in hopes of finding an "ace". In February, Tsunku started another audition for Morning Musume's 7th generation. He noted that he was still intent on finding an "ace". This audition resulted with Koharu Kusumi finally being chosen as the sole "miracle" member of the new generation. In April, photos were taken of Mari Yaguchi with a male actor. Only a day before the photographs were due to be published, Yaguchi announced that she would "retire" from Morning Musume and would continue on with solo activities. In her public statement, Yaguchi said that due to the scandal and its publicity, she could no longer sustain an "idol" image befitting of Morning Musume. Sub-leader Hitomi Yoshizawa took over as the leader of Morning Musume, and Miki Fujimoto became sub-leader as of July 15, 2005. On December 31, 2005, graduated Morning Musume members Mari Yaguchi, Kaori Iida, Natsumi Abe, Yuko Nakazawa, Ai Kago, Nozomi Tsuji, Rika Ishikawa, Maki Goto and Kei Yasuda joined the current line up of Morning Musume to perform the band's signature hit Love Machine on the 2005/2006 edition of Kouhaku Uta Gassen, a famous singing competition of the TV channel NHK. In January 2006, it was announced that Morning Musume had won a Kanagawa Image Up Award in recognition of Hello! Project's support of an anti-pollution campaign. Yoshizawa, Fujimoto, and Takahashi represented the band to accept the award. In April, it was announced by Tsunku that Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa were going to graduate from the band. Mid-2006, the Eighth Generation audition for Morning Musume was announced by Tsunku, called Morning Musume Happy 8 Audition. The audition started in August and ended in Tokyo in October. On December 10, 2006's Hello! Morning, it was announced that the only new member was Aika Mitsui. In early 2007, Morning Musume Tanjou 10 Nen Kinentai, a unit consisting of Kaori Iida, Natsumi Abe, Maki Goto, Risa Niigaki, and Koharu Kusumi, was created to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Morning Musume. On January 2, 2007, an announcement was made during Hello! Project's 2007 Winter concert: the group's leader up until then, Hitomi Yoshizawa would graduate from Morning Musume on May 6, the last day of Morning Musume's 2007 spring tour. Tsunku revealed on March 15th that two other Eighth Generation members would be joining the group—Li Chun and Qian Lin, both of Chinese ancestry, were to join as "exchange students." On May 6, Hitomi Yoshizawa graduated. Miki Fujimoto took her place as leader and Ai Takahashi replaced Fujimoto as sub-leader. As of June 1st Miki Fujimoto resigned from Morning Musume, due to a tabloid magazine article. Ai Takahashi replaced Fujimoto as leader and Risa Niigaki became subleader. With the release of their latest single toward the end of July, Morning Musume have certainly proved that a super unit can be effective. Tsunku‘s efforts as a producer should however, not be ignored and it is perhaps he who should receive the most praise as being a tactical and competent composer.