AI TAKAHASHI
Takahashi Ai born September 14, 1986 is a Japanese pop singer associated with Hello! Project. She is best known as the former leader of Morning Museum and as a former member of Minimoni. She joined Morning Museum in 2001 through the fifth generation auditions. In 2009, Takahashi became leader of Hello! Project. However, on September 30, 2011, she passed her leadership of Morning Museum and Hello! Project to Niigaki Risa when she graduated. As of 2009, she was the longest-serving Leader.
Ai Takahashi joined Morning Museum in 2001 as part of the group's fifth generation, along with Makoto Ogawa, Asami Konno, and Risa Niigaki. Her audition involved a training camp of three days and two nights, in which participants were expected to learn a new song, a dance routine and a script. Out of 25,000 applicants, nine were selected for the camp in which Takahashi passed.
Her debut with the group was on their single "Mr. Moonlight: Ai no Big Band", and her first appearance on a Morning Museum 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 "Shiawassee Beam! Suki Suki Beam!" under the group name Happy 7. In 2003, Takahashi replaced Mari Yaguchi in the Morning Museum spin-off group Mini Moni, first appearing in the group's movie Mini Moni ja Movie: Okashi na DaibÅken! And it’s accompanying soundtrack. Her best-known nickname amongst non-Japanese fans, "Takitty", was derived from the cat suit which she wears in the movie. Later in 2003, she was part of the Morning Museum splinter group Morning Museum 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 Mini Moni album, Mini Moni Songs 2 , 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.