MORNING MUSUME

Morning Musume (モーニング娘。), sometimes referred to as Momusu (モームス。) or Momusume (often in tabloids, news, モー娘。), is the lead group of the Hello! Project. Beginning back in 1997 on a talent show called ASAYAN,
it quickly became, and still remains one of Japan's top all girl groups
with a number of hit records and albums. They have sold over
16,309,119, copies in Japan only.

History


In 1997, Sharan Q held a series of auditions on ASAYAN to find a female vocalist. The number of people who auditioned were eventually whittled down to 11, and Heike Michiyo was chosen as the winner. The five runners up were challenged by Tsunku
to form a group and release a single, with the incentive that if they
could sell 50,000 records in five days they would receive a record
deal. Given the name Morning Musume, they recorded Ai no Tane and successfully completed his challenge.
After releasing their first official single, Morning Coffee, another audition was held and three more members were added to the group. This began a series of additions and 'graduations' which have seen members come and go, some remaining in Hello! Project
as solo artists or in other units, and some retiring from the music
business. In past years, members also took part in sub-groups, such as Sakura Gumi and Otome Gumi; Tanpopo, Petitmoni, and Minimoni, which released their own singles and albums.
In April 2000, the group began hosting a television variety show called Hello! Morning
which further increased its popularity. They also star in a number of
their own musicals, which are usually done also every year in the
summertime. A massive amount of Morning Musume merchandise has been
released such as calendars, photobooks, posters, etc. They have even starred in their own Playstation 2 game called Space Venus.
The group has gone through many changes in recent years with the
graduation of the long-time leader and last remaining original member Iida Kaori in January 2005, the sudden resignation of then-leader Yaguchi Mari on April 14, 2005, and the addition of Kusumi Koharu and graduation of Ishikawa Rika in May 2005.
2006 was no different, with the graduations of Konno Asami on July 23, 2006 and Ogawa Makoto on August 27, 2006, as well as the addition of Mitsui Aika on December 10, 2006.
On March 15th, 2007, Tsunku announced that Li Chun and Qian Lin, two "exchange students" from China, will join as members of the 8th generation. Leader Yoshizawa Hitomi graduated from Morning Musume on May 6th, 2007, and Fujimoto Miki became the new leader with Takahashi Ai the sub-leader. However, on June 1st, 2007, it was reported that
Fujimoto Miki had left Morning Musume on her own accord, and that Takahashi Ai became the leader and Niigaki Risa took Takahashi's place as sub-leader.
On October 24, 2007, an album containing all 34 singles of the group to date was released.
Their 35th single, Mikan, was released on November 21, 2007.