Aya Ishiguro
| Aya Ishiguro 石黒 彩 | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 12, 1978 Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan |
| Other names | Ayappe |
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| Spouse(s) | Shinya Yamada (m.2000-present) |
| Children | 3 |
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Musical career | |
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| Years active |
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| Website |
ameblo |
Aya Yamada (山田 亜弥), better known by her birth name Aya Ishiguro (石黒 彩, born May 12, 1978) is a Japanese singer, writer, TV personality, fashion designer. She is most famous for her participation in Japanese pop girl group Morning Musume
Overview
Aya Ishiguro was a runner-up in a 1997 contest to find a new female rock idol. After the contest was over—with the winner being solo singer Michiyo Heike—music producer, former rock musician, and contest judge Tsunku decided to focus on five runners-up, which included Ishiguro, Natsumi Abe, Kaori Iida, Asuka Fukuda, and Yuko Nakazawa.
Tsunku promised to take the quintet under his wing if they sold 50,000 copies of their debut single "Ai no Tane" within five days. They accomplished this task within four, and Tsunku upheld his end of the bargain.
During Ishiguro's years in Morning Musume, she was given mostly harmony lines due to her low singing voice, which was used to support the voices of others. However, in late 1998 Tsunku decided to create first sub-group Tanpopo, a subgroup of Morning Musume (by then consisting of eight members) that included Ishiguro, Iida and second generation member Mari Yaguchi. Tanpopo's songs were slower and more mature than the majority of Morning Musume's, which allowed Ishiguro's voice to shine through. After seven singles and three albums with Morning Musume, and four singles and one album with Tanpopo, Ishiguro left both groups and Hello! Project in January 2000, shortly after the release of the single "Love Machine" in September 1999.
Ishiguro has published a book about her transition from Morning Musume to motherhood in 2003 called Musume Kara Mama e-Ishiguro Aya no LOVE2 Ko Sodate Revolution.She released a follow-up book in 2004 called Ko Sodate Project!
On February 23,2012 it was announced that she will make a guest appearance at Dream Morning Musume's last live at Nippon Bukudan with Nozomi Tsuji and Maki Goto after 12 years
Personal life
In May 2000, Ishiguro married drummer Shinya Yamada from the visual kei rock band Luna Sea while four months pregnant and changed her name to Aya Yamada (山田 亜弥). The couple have three children: two daughters Rimu (玲夢) (born 2000) and Sona (宙奈) (born 2002) and a son Youta (耀太) (born 2004).
Ishiguro became a homemaker who dabbled in various careers ranging from fashion designing and writing (she has written a 2004 book about her transition from being a Japanese idol to a mother, Kosodate Project), and hosting television shows, in which she interviewed celebrity wives. She also re-united with the new Tanpopo members briefly to sing the Grand Symphonic version of the song "Tanpopo".