Hello! Project

Hello! Project (ハロー!プロジェクト, Haroo! Purojekuto^?) is the general name of idols who are signed to Up-Front Group and managed by Up-Front Promotion. Most recordings by Hello! artists Project are published by Up-Front Works on the zetima, Piccolo Town or hachama record labels. The flagship group of Hello! Project is Morning Musume, having co-founded Hello! Project with former soloist Heike Michiyo. Morning Musume mainly stands out in many aspects of the company due to its track record of success. Due to the number of members graduating over the years, Morning Musume was first surpassed in seniority in late 2014 by Berryz Kobo and ℃-ute, but returned to the position in mid-2017, after ℃-ute would dissolve. In June 2019, the current leader of Hello! Project is Morning Musume leader Mizuki Fukumura.

History

1997–2000: Beginning, Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume

In 1997, Japanese rock group Sharam Q led by Tsunku began auditions for a female vocalist. These auditions were broadcast through the reality show Asayan and resulted in Michiyo Heike being crowned the winner. Tsunku decided to give five of the finalists, Yuko Nakazawa Natsumi Abe Kaori Iida Asuka Fukuda and Aya Ishiguro called " Morning Musume ", the opportunity to become a group selling 50,000 copies of their demo single " Ai no Tane ". . 4; in just five days. The girls sold the required number of copies in four days and subsequently became an official group.

Morning Musume's debut single, " Morning Coffee ", was released on January 28, 1998 on the One Up Music label and peaked at number 6 on the Oricon weekly chart. The group's first official appearance was a joint concert in August 1998, at the Shibuya Public Hall (now Shibuya CC Lemon Hall), under the name "Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume" (平家みちよとモーニング娘。) the fan club of the two. acts was called "Hello!" The first "units" Officials were Tanpopo and Petitmoni created in October 1998. The first "audition of Michiyo Heike & Morning Musume Imotōbun", which resulted in the addition of the "second generation" by Morning Musume, Mari Yaguchi and Kei Yasuda.

In January 1999, auditions were held for Country Musume on "Idol o Sagase!" (アイドルをさがせ! Look for an idol!). In April of that year, the girls' official fan club was renamed 'Hello! Project", a name later used to represent a company of girl groups that change members. Auditions were held once again in Asayan between April and July, resulting in Taiyō to Ciscomoon and Coconuts Musume and the official formation of Country Musume was announced. In July, the first live concert of Hello! The 'Hello!' project was carried out. Project '99 at Yokohama Arena'. The first random units were formed in March 2000, launching the "theme" from Hello! Project as side B. The first Hello! Television program project, " Hello! Morning ", was created in April.

2001–2006: Rise to popularity, Berryz Kobo & Cute

In March 2001, Morning Musume co-founder and leader Yuko Nakazawa announced her graduation from the group, which took place in April. Nakazawa was subsequently named leader of the entire Hello! Project. Nakazawa's was the first graduation in the history of Hello! Project, and garnered considerable media attention as a result. ^{[ citation needed ] [ by whom? ]}

Between April and June 2002, auditions for Hello! Project Kids was held for girls under 12 years old. Of 27,958 applicants, fifteen primary school girls were chosen. After making minor appearances in television, film and music, Hello! Project Kids later debuted as Berryz Kobo and Cute who would debut in March 2004 and February 2007 respectively, and also spawned spin-off auditions such as auditions for Hello! Pro egg and hello! Kansai Project.

2007–2010: Expansion in Asia and formation of Smileage

In 2007, Hello! Project attempted to expand into the Chinese market by secretly inviting potential Chinese artists to audition, which ultimately resulted in Li Chun and Qian Lin joining Morning Musume's roster. Hello! Project also established an overseas branch in Taiwan, titled Hello! Project Taiwan, and held the "Hello! audition Project New Star" to recruit members. In September 2008, the group Ice Creamusume formed under a Taiwan-affiliated label as Hello! The first foreign group of the project. The duo Frances & Aiko, later called Big Small Sister, was also announced at the same audition.

In February 2009, Hello! Project also held a series of auditions in South Korea with the cooperation of Mnet. However, Hello! The project failed to enter the Chinese market due to piracy and its Chinese artists failed to attract an audience. Ice Creamusume also performed below expectations. Hello! Project scaled back initial plans to expand overseas around 2010 and refocused its interests on Japan.

On October 19, 2008, Hello! Project announced that their entire Elder Club would graduate on March 31, 2009. On February 1, 2009, at the Yokohama Arena Hello! Project held the biggest concert in its history: Hello! PRO'09 Awards: Elder Club Graduation Special. During the concert, former Hello! Project leader Yuko Nakazawa passed the leadership position from her to Morning Musume leader Ai Takahashi.

Later, in 2009, several of the formerly inactive units were reactivated. Tanpopo Minimoni Petitmoni ZYX Ah! and vu-den returned with new lineups, and High-King returned from hiatus with its original members. These groups became a new concert unit, 'Champloo'.

In April 2009, Tsunku announced a new group consisting of four Hello! Members of Pro Egg, called Smileage who later made their major label debut in May 2010 with the single " Yume Miru 15 ".

2011-2014: Changes in training and production

On January 28, 2011, Dream Morning Musume formed with former members of Morning Musume. On September 30, 2011, Ai Takahashi graduated and handed over his position as leader of Morning Musume and Hello! Project over to his classmate Risa Niigaki who also graduated on May 18, 2012. Sayumi Michishige was later named the group's new leader.

During the last concert of Winter 2013 Hello! Project concert, Juice=Juice a new unit composed of Hello! Pro Kenshusei Members Announced They previewed their debut song at the Hello Project concert series held on March 2-3.

On November 26, 2014, Sayumi Michishige graduated and handed over her position as Hello! Project leader for Maimi Yajima of C-ute.

Tsunku revealed in his 2015 memoir, Dakara, Ikiru that he resigned as Hello! general manager of Project sometime after Morning Musume's concert in New York in 2014; However, he still remains involved with Morning Musume as their sound producer.

2015–Present: post-Tsunku era

On January 2, 2015, during the Hello! Project Winter Concert 2015, a new group formed by Hello Pro Kenshusei members was announced and called Magnolia Factory. On April 29, 2015, Magnolia Factory's sister group Camellia Factory was also formed. When the group Morning Musume, which was launched by the group's vocalist Sharan Q called Tsunku in the late 1990s, rose to fame, this He took on the task of discovering and promoting new youth talents, which would not exactly be included in the Morning Musume group. This is how Hello! was born. Project.

Grouped as a large musical family were all these new talents, which increased over time, giving rise to groups such as: Country Musume, Coconuts Musume and Melon Kinenbi. At the same time, new proposals from solo singers such as Aya Matsuura were released.

Currently, several groups and soloists have been launched from this musical conglomerate and it is worth mentioning that former members of Morning Musume such as Maki Goto, Yuko Nakazawa, Natsumi Abe or Kaori Iida have begun or already made their careers as soloists included within this conglomerate..

The recordings of Hello! Project are released under the Zetima, Hachama and PICCOLO TOWN labels.

On February 1, 2009, at Yokohama Arena, the largest concert in the history of Hello! took place. Project: "Hello Pro Award '09 ~Elder Club Sotsugyō Kinen Special~". It featured 21 groups and 72 members of Hello! Project, including Nozomi Tsuji, who had been inactive since her wedding to Taiyo Sugiura in June 2007 and her motherhood in November of the same year, making this concert her first official event since then.

This concert was special, since for the first time in the history of Hello! Project graduated in its entirety from one of the Units created for concerts: the Elder Club. During the concert, Yūko Nakazawa, the first leader of Morning Musume and the then leader of Hello! Project, passed the leadership to former Morning Musume leader Ai Takahashi.

Morning Musume leader Sayumi Michishige stepped into this position after the graduation of the former Morning Musume leader and Hello! Project, Risa Niigaki on May 18, 2012 at the Nippon Budokan together with Aika Mitsui.

In 2014, with the graduation of Sayumi Michishige, she is proclaimed leader of Hello! Project to Maimi Yajima from the group °C-ute.

In 2016, with the dissolution of ℃-ute (which meant the graduation of Maimi Yajima) the leadership was passed to Ayaka Wada belonging to the Angerme group, who began his duties as leader of the conglomerate from the following year, 2017.

In 2019, Mizuki Fukumura, leader of Morning Musume, is proclaimed the seventh leader of Hello! Project after Ayaka Wada's graduation.

Leaders

• Yūko Nakazawa (2001-2009)
• Ai Takahashi, 2009-2011
• Risa Niigaki (2011-2012)
• Sayumi Michishige (2012-2014)
• Maimi Yajima (2014-2016)
• Ayaka Wada (2017-2019)
• Mizuki Fukumura (2019-2023)

Deputy Leaders

• Kei Yasuda (2003-2009)
• Mizuki Fukumura (2017-2019)

Current Groups

Hello! Project

• Morning Musume
  • Mizuki Fukumura (January 2011; leader, graduates on 29 November 2023)
  • Erina Ikuta (January 2011; sub-leader)
  • Ayumi Ishida (September 2011; sub-leader)
  • Sakura Oda (September 2012)
  • Miki Nonaka (September 2014)
  • Maria Makino (September 2014)
  • Akane Haga (September 2014)
  • Queen Yokoyama (December 2016)
  • Rio Kitagawa (June 2019)
  • Homare Okamura (June 2019)
  • Mei Yamazaki (June 2019)
  • Rio Sakurai (June 2022)
  • Haruka Inoue (May 2023)
  • Ako Yumigeta (May 2023)
• ANGERME (formerly called S/mileage)
  • Moe Kamikokuryo (November 2015; Leader)
  • Ayano Kawamura (June 2017; sub-leader)
  • Rikako Sasaki (October 2014)
  • Layla Ise (November 2018)
  • Rin Hashisako (July 2019)
  • Rin Kawana (November 2020)
  • Shion Tamenaga (November 2020)
  • Wakana Matsumoto (December 2020)
  • Yuki Hirayama (December 2021)
  • Yukiho Shimoitani (May 2023)
  • Hana Goto (May 2023)
• Juice=Juice
  • Akari Uemura (February 2013; leader, graduates in spring 2024)
  • Ruru Dambara (June 2017; sub-leader)
  • Rei Inoue (April 2020; former member of Kobushi Factory, and transferred after dissolution)
  • Yume Kudo (June 2019)
  • Riai Matsunaga (June 2019)
  • Ichika Arisawa (July 2021)
  • Risa Irie (July 2021)
  • Kisaki Ebata (July 2021)
  • Sakura Ishiyama (June 2022)
  • Akari Endo (June 2022)
  • Mifu Kawashima (May 2023)
• Tsubaki Factory
  • Kisora Niinuma (April 2015; Leader)
  • Ami Tanimoto (April 2015; sub-leader)
  • Mizuho Ono (August 2016)
  • Saori Onoda (August 2016)
  • Mao Akiyama (August 2016)
  • Yuumi Kasai (July 2021)
  • Shiori Yagi (July 2021)
  • Marine Fukuda (July 2021)
  • Runo Yofu (July 2021)
• BEYOOOOOOONDS
  • CHICA#TETSU:
    • Reina Ichioka (May 2017; leader)
    • Rika Shikamura (June 2018)
    • Shiori Nishida (June 2018)
    • Saya Eguchi (June 2018)
  • Ame no Mori Kawa Umi:
    • Kurumi Takase (May 2017; leader)
    • Kokoro Maeda (June 2018)
    • Yuhane Yamazaki (June 2018)
    • Minami Okamura (June 2018)
    • Momohime Kiyono (May 2017)
  • SeasoningS:
    • Miyo Hirai (December 2018; leader)
    • Hon Kobayashi (December 2018)
    • Utano Satoyoshi (December 2018)

• OCHA NORMA
  • Madoka Saito (December 2021; leader)
  • Ruli Hiromoto (December 2021; sub-leader)
  • Kanami Ishiguri (December 2021)
  • Kirara Yonemura (December 2021)
  • Nanami Kubota (December 2021)
  • Sumire Tashiro (December 2021)
  • Natsume Nakayama (December 2021)
  • Miku Nishizaki (December 2021)
  • Momo Kitahara (December 2021)
  • Roco Tsutsui (December 2021)

• Hello! Procentric Kenshuusei (vigorous singing)^?)
• Hello! Pro Kenshuusei UNIT’23 (New group that will debut in 2024)
  • Yulia Matsubara (June 2022)
  • Karin Onoda (June 2022)
  • Honoka Hashida (June 2022)
  • Ayana Murakoshi (June 2022)
  • Hasumi Uemura (June 2022)
  • Hinoha Yoshida (May 2023)
  • Rena Kamimura (May 2023)

• Hello! Pro Kenshuusei Hokkaido (no apprentices currently)

Graduated Groups and Artists

The graduating members left Hello! Project with a graduation ceremony and other members left, retired, resigned or were fired. There is also the possibility of leaving a subgroup and remaining in Hello! Project as soloists, and can continue in UP-FRONT PROMOTION (Since 2012).

Hello! Project and football

With the rise of soccer in Japan increased by the last FIFA World Cup Korea-Japan 2002, a women's futsal league, or indoor exhibition soccer, was created, in which Hello! Project has its representative team called Gatas Brilhantes H.P, led by Tsuyoshi Kitazawa. The list of members until the hiatus were:

Members at the time of the indefinite hiatus (2015)

Wotagei

Hello! fans Project (wotas) during the concerts have begun to carry out a practice that has been called wotagei - pronounced otagei -. With specific steps, fans perform a series of synchronized movements, shouts and applause with which they give greater color and showiness to the concert performances. However, because this activity represents great synchronization, wota organizations meet in parks and public places to practice their routines.

Games

There are currently two H!P StepMania (known as StepMania feat. Hello! Project) games & UltraStar, the StepMania game is about the dance mat with arrows to H!P songs (DDR style), and UltraStar is H!P songs for singstar.

There is also the fighting game called 'Hello! Project Battle Festival" where the combatants are the girls from Hello! Project. Released in 2016. Currently there is a Hello! app. Project named "H!P Mobile"