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Ecomoni
is a Japanese musical collective consisting of all female recording artists and groups under Up-Front Promotion, a subsidiary of Up-Front Group. The name was initially used as Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume's fan club name in 1999, but has since then been used to represent all female recording artists at Up-Front Promotion. Until 2014, their songs were primarily produced by Tsunku. Hello! Project's main acts consist of Morning Musume, Angerme, Juice=Juice, Camellia Factory, Beyooooonds, and Ocha Norma. Notable acts in the past associated with Hello! Project include Aya Matsuura, Maki Goto, Mini-Moni, W, Melon Kinenbi, Berryz Kobo, and Cute. Artists Yuko Nakazawa was Hello! Project's leader from April 15, 2001 to March 31, 2009. Ai Takahashi became the group's leader from April 1, 2009 to September 30, 2011. Risa Niigaki then became the leader from October 1, 2011 to May 18, 2012. After her departure, Sayumi Michishige became the leader from May 19, 2012 to November 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sayumi Michishige
is a Japanese singer, actress and model. She is a former sixth-generation member and former leader of the J-pop group Morning Musume. Following the departure of fifth-generation member Risa Niigaki on October 12, 2013, Michishige has the longest tenure of any member in the group's history. Michishige was born in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. She joined Morning Musume in 2003 along with Eri Kamei, Miki Fujimoto, and Reina Tanaka, who all debuted with Morning Musume on the group's nineteenth single, "Shabondama". In 2005, she was assigned as mentor to seventh-generation member Koharu Kusumi, until Kusumi left the group in December 2009. Michishige was also a member of the Hello! Project unit Ecomoni, along with former Morning Musume member Rika Ishikawa. She portrays a visual-focused, self-confident image of herself in more TV shows, often calling herself the cutest member in Morning Musume and saying that her cuteness overwhelms her poor singing skills. In one of the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Up-Front Promotion
is a Japanese holding company for various entertainment companies. Its subsidiaries include the talent agency Up-Front Promotion and Up-Front Works, a music production and sales company that manages such record labels as Zetima, Piccolo Town, and Hachama. Artists Up-Front Promotion All groups under Up-Front Promotion are collectively known as Hello! Project. Groups * Morning Musume * Angerme * Juice=Juice * Camellia Factory * Beyooooonds ** Chica#Tetsu ** Rain Forest River Ocean ** SeasoningS * Ocha Norma Soloists/Entertainers * Sayumi Michishige * Chinami Tokunaga * Risako Sugaya Trainees * Hello Pro Kenshūsei Up-Front Works Groups * Bitter & Sweet * Brothers 5 * Dream Morning Musume * Lovendor * Pink Cres. * Sharam Q * Up Up Girls Kakko Kari Soloists/Entertainers * Ai Takahashi * Airi Suzuki * Akira Inaba * Akira Kagawa * Chisato Moritaka * Chisato Okai * Eric Fukusaki * Erina Mano * Gen Takayama * Hirofumi Bannba * Jirou Sugita * Junko Yanagisawa * Kan (musician), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Up-Front Group
is a Japanese holding company for various entertainment companies. Its subsidiaries include the talent agency Up-Front Promotion and Up-Front Works, a music production and sales company that manages such record labels as Zetima, Piccolo Town, and Hachama. Artists Up-Front Promotion All groups under Up-Front Promotion are collectively known as Hello! Project. Groups * Morning Musume * Angerme * Juice=Juice * Camellia Factory * Beyooooonds ** Chica#Tetsu ** Rain Forest River Ocean ** SeasoningS * Ocha Norma Soloists/Entertainers * Sayumi Michishige * Chinami Tokunaga * Risako Sugaya Trainees * Hello Pro Kenshūsei Up-Front Works Groups * Bitter & Sweet * Brothers 5 * Dream Morning Musume * Lovendor * Pink Cres. * Sharam Q * Up Up Girls Kakko Kari Soloists/Entertainers * Ai Takahashi * Airi Suzuki * Akira Inaba * Akira Kagawa * Chisato Moritaka * Chisato Okai * Eric Fukusaki * Erina Mano * Gen Takayama * Hirofumi Bannba * Jirou Sugita * Junko Yanagisawa * Kan * Mai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morning Musume
, formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an amount of 64. Morning Musume was formed in 1997 by rock singer-songwriter turned record producer Tsunku, who later composed the vast majority of the group's songs over the decade. They are the lead group of Hello! Project that specialises in upbeat, pop-oriented music coupled with dance performance. The group produced several splinter groups, and often collaborates with other Hello! Project acts, including Country Musume, Berryz Kobo, Cute (Japanese idol group), Cute, Melon Kinenbi, and v-u-den. The group's name can be translated as "Morning Girls" or "Morning Daughters"; as the name suggests, it consists of members mostly in their late adolescence and early 20s. History 1997-1998: Formation and beginnings Japanese producer Tsun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. Originally a fishing village named Edo, the city became politically prominent in 1603, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo was one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over one million people. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo" (). Tokyo was dev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cute (Japanese Idol Group)
, was a Japanese girl group associated with Hello! Project and produced by Tsunku. Cute consisted of Maimi Yajima, Saki Nakajima, Airi Suzuki, Chisato Okai, and Mai Hagiwara, who were all members of Hello! Project Kids prior to the group's formation. The original member line-up also consisted of fellow Hello! Project Kids members Megumi Murakami and Erika Umeda, as well as Hello! Project trainee Kanna Arihara, prior to their departure. After releasing a string of independent hits, Cute made its major debut in 2007 with "Sakura Chirari" and that year won the Japan Record Award for Best New Artist. In 2008, the group was nominated for the main Japan Record Award, the Grand Prix, its song being named one of the year's best songs. All_of_the_group's_major_label">major-label_single_(music).html" ;"title="major_label.html" ;"title="WP:REALTIME.html" ;"title="acts must be presented in a way that will remain unchanged with the passage of time, see WP:REALTIME">acts must be presented ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yuko Nakazawa
is a Japanese pop and enka singer, and actress, best known as one of the original members of the all-female J-pop group Morning Musume. She is also a member of Japanese pop group Dream Morning Musume. Biography Yuko Nakazawa was born in Kyoto Prefecture. She was one of five runners-up in a 1997 talent contest for a new Japanese rock idol. After the contest, musician and producer Tsunku offered Nakazawa and the four other runners-up ( Natsumi Abe, Kaori Iida, Aya Ishiguro, and Asuka Fukuda) the chance to be taken under his wing under one condition: they must sell 50,000 CDs of their debut song "Ai no Tane" with five days of live promotion. The quintet accomplished that task in four and thus Morning Musume was born. The group has since grown increasingly popular, it maintains a "school-like" system for their continuous line-up changes, with older members "graduating" and new, usually younger, members selected from nationwide auditions admitted to the group almost annually. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ai Takahashi
(born September 14, 1986) is a Japanese singer and actress formerly associated with the Hello! Project and is best known as the leader of Morning Musume and Hello! Project until 2011. She is also a former member of its popular subgroup Mini Moni. Biography Morning Musume Career (2001–2011) In 2001, Ai Takahashi joined the Japanese idol group ''Morning Musume'' as part of the group's fifth generation of performers, along with Makoto Ogawa, Asami Konno, and Risa Niigaki. Her audition involved a three-day training camp where participants were expected to learn a new song, a dance routine and a script. Takahashi was one of nine applicants selected out of 25,000 for the camp. Her debut with the group was on their single " Mr. Moonlight: Ai no Big Band", and her first appearance on a Morning Musume full-length release was their fourth studio album, ''4th Ikimasshoi!''. Her first appearance within a Hello! Project shuffle unit release was on the 2002 single "Shiawase Beam! S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc. was originally set up as a subsidiary of Original Confidence and took over the latter's Oricon record charts in April 2002. The charts are compiled from data drawn from some 39,700 retail outlets (as of April 2011) and provide sales rankings of music CDs, DVDs, electronic games, and other entertainment products based on weekly tabulations. Results are announced every Tuesday and published in ''Oricon Style'' by subsidiary Oricon Entertainment Inc. The group also lists panel survey-based popularity ratings for television commercials on its official website. Oricon started publishing Combined Chart, which includes CD sales, digital sales, and streaming together, on Decembe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Risa Niigaki
is a Japanese actress and singer. She was a fifth-generation member of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume. She joined Morning Musume in 2001 along with 3 others- Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa. She grew up in Yokohama after moving there at the age of six. She was one of the longest serving members of Morning Musume, and was the leader of the group from October 2011 to her graduation on May 18, 2012. Biography History Niigaki was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa. She was the runner-up for the 'Kiss Girl Audition' in becoming the Tomy image girl before joining Morning Musume. She appeared with the winner Ai Hasegawa in a Tomy Karaoke Machine commercial. In 2001, Niigaki joined Morning Musume as the fifth generation along with Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno, and Makoto Ogawa. Morning Musume producer Tsunku said he chose Niigaki because she "shined during the final studio recording" for the audition song that all the finalists had to sing. She debuted and lead on the group's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayaka Wada
is a Japanese singer and idol signed to YU-M Entertainment. She was a first generation member and the leader of Angerme as well as the leader of Hello! Project. * Biography Wada joined Hello! Project as a member of Hello! Pro Egg in June 2004. Wada continued her training and appeared at numerous Hello! Project group concerts as a backing dancer, including the Country Musume concert ''Country Musume Live 2006: Shibuya des Date''. In November 2007, Wada received a part in the musical ''Reverse! Watashi no karada doko desu ka?''. In 2008, Wada was chosen as one of the four members of the new Hello! Pro Egg unit Shugo Chara Egg! alongside Yuuka Maeda, Kanon Fukuda, and Akari Saho. On 4 April 2009, Wada was selected to debut in the Hello! Project group S/mileage along with Yuuka Maeda, Kanon Fukuda, and Saki Ogawa and was named the leader of the group. S/mileage members, including Wada, then left Hello! Pro Egg and Shugo Chara Egg! to focus on their new group activities. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maimi Yajima
is a Japanese singer and actress. She was a member and the leader of Cute, a girl idol group within Hello! Project. Career Yajima first joined Hello! Project in 2002 as one of the fifteen children chosen from the Hello! Project Kids auditions after performing "Momoiro Kataomoi" by Aya Matsuura. She debuted the same year in the movie '' Koinu Dan no Monogatari'', taking on one of the main roles as an antagonist. The following year, she joined the first of the kids' groups, ZYX, which released two singles. In 2004, Berryz Kobo was formed, with the intention of rotating the girls throughout the unit. Yajima did not make the original pick, and the idea was eventually dropped. The remaining girls eventually ended up forming Cute in 2005. Despite not being the oldest, Yajima still became the group's leader, after Erika Umeda turned down the role. The group did not make its official debut until late in 2006, with their first official single released in February 2007. Aside from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
