Maki Goto
is a J-pop singer currently signed to the sublabel Rhythm Zone under
the Avex Trax label. Before joining Avex, she was a soloist of Hello!
Project and member of Morning Musume. She has performed in numerous
Hello! Project subgroups such as Petitmoni, Akagumi 4, 7-nin Matsuri,
Sexy 8, Gomattou and Nochiura Natsumi.
In 1999, Maki Goto was
selected as the only member for the 3rd generation of Morning Musume.
Their first single after Goto joined, "Love Machine" sold over a
million copies, over nine times the amount of copies they had sold for
their previous single. During her time in Morning Musume she was one of
the founding members of Pucchi Moni and she started a solo singing
career in 2001 with the single "Ai no Bakayarō" (愛のバカやろう?). Until her
graduation from Morning Musume she was one of the leading vocalists in
most of the songs released. Post-graduation she has mostly concentrated
on her solo career and occasionally on limited time Hello! Project
units such as Gomattou, Nochiura Natsumi, and DEF.DIVA. As time has
passed, she has increasingly concentrated on acting in addition to
singing. She has also performed at the Asia song festival 2005 in
Pusan, Korea to represent Japan.
In early 2007, Goto was
chosen to be a member of Morning Musume Tanjō 10 Nen Kinentai —a unit
created to celebrate Morning Musume's 10th anniversary as a group.
Morning Musume Tanjō 10 Nen Kinentai also consists of Natsumi Abe,
Kaori Iida, Risa Niigaki and Koharu Kusumi. Their single, Bokura ga
Ikiru My Asia, was released on January 24, 2007.
Her
seventeenth single, Secret (シークレット?), was released on April 11, 2007.
On September 19, 2007, Goto's fourth original album How to Use Sexy was
released.
On October 20, 2007, Goto's younger brother and
former member of EE Jump idol group Yūki Goto (祐樹?) was arrested on the
grounds he and two accomplices, aged 18 and 19, had broken into a
construction site in Edogawa, Tokyo on July 15, 2007 and made off with
80 reels of electric cable worth approximately 1 million yen. According
to Flash magazine, Goto and one of her brother's accomplices had been
romantically involved for some time, after the two met at Yūki's
wedding in 2005. Due to the circumstances surrounding the robbery
scandal, they haven't been in contact with each other.
On
October 28, 2007, during the last concert of her G-EmotionII ~How to
Use Sexy~ tour, Goto suddenly announced to fans that she would be
graduating from Hello! Project, though she was also leaving UpFront
Agency completely. Her graduation was said to be that she was
overworked and overly stressed, causing her health problems. She also
had different ideas of the direction of her career than what her agency
had planned. Because of her graduation, she would not be able to
participate in the Hello! Project 2008 Winter concert tour, previously
said to be because of "scheduling conflicts".
Goto's
official blog reopened on March 25, 2008. Over the course of several
entries, she revealed that she was in Los Angeles, California, taking
singing and dancing lessons. In mid-June, rumours were confirmed that
Goto signed under the label Rhythm Zone, an Avex Trax sublabel.
Maki debuted with Avex when she participated in the company's
shareholders' meeting on June 22nd, 2008, singing a cover of Whitney
Houston's "Saving All My Love for You." She also participated in
a-nation'08 (Osaka on August 24th and Tokyo on August 31st) alongside
with Kumi Koda, Ai Otsuka, EXILE, Ami Suzuki, AAA, TVXQ, Namie Amuro,
and Ayumi Hamasaki, among others. On a-nation, she performed the
self-written song "Hear me", a song unreleased to the date, drawing
media attention for the first time since her graduation.
On
January 5th, 2009, Maki started a collaboration on the popular program
"PLATOn" on J-WAVE, in a new segment titled "SWEET BLACK Girls" that
brings young women on as guests. The show was an immediate success, as
more than 30,000 messages were received during the first week only.
Maki’s first release with Avex was a song titled “Fly away”, released
to the public on 1/28. A week before, on 1/21, small bits of the song
were released via Chaku-Uta for mobile use, with great success. The
song was released digital-only under the tag “SWEET BLACK feat. MAKI
GOTO” as a result of a cross-media project sponsored by Mixi and
J-Wave. “Fly away” lyrics, penned by Maki herself, are based on Mambo,
a story written by young author Hitomi Kanehara, who won the Akutagawa
Prize for her 2003 novel "Hebi ni Piasu" ("Snakes and Earrings"). The
music video for "Fly away" was filmed on the Italian streets of
Shiodome (in Giza, Tokyo) on Christmas 2008.
A
web-documentary started along the release of “Fly away” called
“Unrecorded”. The series provides a behind-the-scenes look on Goto and
her daily routine. “Unrecorded” can be watched via the Avex Network
YouTube channel. A mail magazine was released simultaneously via
subscription. Goto also posts on a weekly basis on Max Matsuura's blog.
February 25 will witness the second digital single by Goto
Maki, "Lady-Rise". The release is also part of the SWEET BLACK project.
This time, Goto collaborated with Sakurazawa Erika, a Japanese manga
author whose works are mostly published in josei magazines (comics
targeted to a young women audience). Once again, the feelings of a
woman on its twenties are the basis for the lyrics, which Maki wrote
herself.
Birth name: 後藤 真希 (Gotō Maki)
Born: September 23, 1985
Origin: Edogawa, Tokyo, Japan
Genre: Japanese pop
Occupation: Singer
Years active: 1999–present
Labels: Zetima, Piccolo Town, Rhythm Zone
Associated acts: Morning Musume, Gomattou, Nochiura Natsumi, DEF.DIVA,
Petitmoni, Akagumi 4, 7-nin Matsuri, Sexy 8, H.P. All Stars
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