高橋愛

Takahashi Ai (高橋愛, born September 14, 1986) is a Japanese pop singer associated with Hello! Project, best known as a member of Morning Musume (モーニング娘。) and its most popular subgroup, Mini Moni (ミニモニ。). She is considered to have one of the most distinct and recognizable voices in the group. Ai Takahashi joined Morning Musume in 2001 as part of the group's fifth generation, along with Makoto Ogawa, Asami Konno, and Risa Niigaki. Her debut appearance with the group was on their single "Mr.

Takahashi Ai (高橋愛, born September 14, 1986) is a Japanese pop singer associated with Hello! Project, best known as a member of Morning Musume (モーニング娘。) and its most popular subgroup, Mini Moni (ミニモニ。). She is considered to have one of the most distinct and recognizable voices in the group. Ai Takahashi joined Morning Musume in 2001 as part of the group's fifth generation, along with Makoto Ogawa, Asami Konno, and Risa Niigaki. Her debut appearance 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, the appropriately named 4th Ikimashoi!. Her first appearance on a Hello! Project Summer Shuffle release was on the 2002 single "Shiawase Beam! Suki Suki Beam!" under the group name Happy 7. In 2003, she was tapped to replace Mari Yaguchi in the Morning Musume spinoff group Mini Moni, first appearing in the group's movie MiniMoni Ja Movie: Okashina Daibouken and its accompanying soundtrack.

Her best-known nickname amongst non-Japanese fans, "Takitty", derived from the catsuit (complete with tail) that she wears in the movie. That same year, she was part of the Morning Musume splinter group Morning Musume Sakuragumi, which performed mainly slower numbers on the group's two EPs, "Hare Ame Nochi Suki" and "Sakura Mankai", and the shuffle group 7AIR, an R&B-inspired septet. Takahashi's vocals became more prominent on the second and final MiniMoni album, MiniMoni Songs 2 (2004), as well as on Morning Musume's singles from their Spring 2004 release "Roman~MY DEAR BOY~" onward. She also had a duet with Tsunku on the cover version of Tsunku and Ayumi Hamasaki's duet "Love ~since 1999~" on his solo album TAKE1. In 2005, Morning Musume's first single release of the year, "THE MANPOWER!!!", featured Takahashi in a prominent co-lead-vocal role, a role she has retained on subsequent singles since. In the summer of that year, she became part of the 2005 Shuffle Group Elegies. Takahashi is also part of the new Hello! Project kickball team, Metro Rabbits H.P., and is the captain of the team. She replaced Ai Kago, who was suspended by UFA for smoking. In Summer 2006, Takahashi released her first solo single "Yume Kara Samete" as an online-only audio purchase. In Ribbon no Kishi: The Musical, Morning Musume's summer musical for 2006, Takahashi played the lead role of Sapphire.

On May 6th 2007, she became the sub-leader of Morning Musume, with Miki Fujimoto becoming the new leader of the group. On June 1st 2007, Miki Fujimoto resigned from Morning Musume, and Ai Takahashi has become the new leader of Morning Musume, with Risa Niigaki as sub-leader. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..