is a

Japanese pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

and

enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ''ryūkōka'' music, p ...

singer, and actress, best known as one of the original members of the all-female J-pop group

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

. She is also a member of Japanese pop group

Dream Morning Musume is a Japanese female pop group, consisting of 10 former members of the Japanese girl group Morning Musume. It was created in 2011. As with Morning Musume, the group is managed by the Up-Front Agency and produced by Tsunku. During the announcem ...

Biography

Yuko Nakazawa was born in Kyoto Prefecture. She was one of five runners-up in a 1997 talent contest for a new

Japanese rock , sometimes abbreviated to , is rock music from Japan. Influenced by American and British rock of the 1960s, the first rock bands in Japan performed what is called Group Sounds, with lyrics almost exclusively in English. Folk rock band Happy ...

idol. After the contest, musician and producer

Tsunku , known professionally as , is a Japanese singer, record producer, and songwriter. He is the lead singer of the rock band Sharam Q. As a songwriter, Tsunku is the primary producer for Morning Musume and other Hello! Project acts, such as Coco ...

offered Nakazawa and the four other runners-up (

Natsumi Abe is a Japanese singer and actress, a former member of Morning Musume, and currently a member of Dream Morning Musume. Biography Career She was born in Muroran, Hokkaidō, Japan. On August 13, 2003, she released her first single, "22 Sai no Wat ...

Kaori Iida is a Japanese pop singer and actress, associated with Hello! Project and best known as a founding member of the girl band Morning Musume. She has also recorded with the Morning Musume side project band Tanpopo and is currently a solo artist. ...

Aya Ishiguro , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

, and

Asuka Fukuda (born December 17, 1984) is a Japanese pop singer, and she was a member of Japanese girl group Morning Musume from 1997 until April 18, 1999. Her only album with the group is the 1998 release '' First Time''. She was the first ever Hello! Pro ...

) the chance to be taken under his wing under one condition: they must sell 50,000 CDs of their debut song "

Ai no Tane is the unofficial debut single of Japanese pop idol group Morning Musume, released under a defunct Up-Front Group-affiliated independent label on November 3, 1997. It is sometimes called the "zeroth single"— being the "first single" and so ...

" with five days of live promotion. The quintet accomplished that task in four and thus

was born. The group has since grown increasingly popular, it maintains a "school-like" system for their continuous line-up changes, with older members "graduating" and new, usually younger, members selected from nationwide auditions admitted to the group almost annually. In 1998, shortly after Morning Musume's formation, Nakazawa began a solo career, beginning with

styled songs. She gradually moved to a more pop sound, but has recently gone back to enka with her eleventh single, " Urara." Her solo work has allowed her voice to shine in a way it rarely did in Morning Musume, as she mostly sung harmonies with only a few solo lines. Nakazawa has been a regular featured singer on Hello! Project's "

Folk Songs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...

" series. She was also placed in Akagumi 4 in Hello! Project's 2000 summer shuffles and

Puripuri Pink was a Japanese idol project group formed by Up-Front Promotion in 2000 and associated with Hello! Project. Beginning in 2000, the Shuffle Unit project was a yearly collaboration among existing Hello! Project acts, where members were recombined i ...

in Hello!Project's 2005 summer shuffles, as well as participating in H.P. All Stars along with most of the rest of Hello!Project in 2004. Being the oldest of the 1st generation of Morning Musume—she was 24 at the time of formation and nearly 28 upon leaving the group—Nakazawa held the role of the group's leader until her graduation on April 15, 2001. She has cited her reasons for leaving as being her age (she was 14 years older than the youngest member of the troupe, then 13-year-old

Ai Kago is a Japanese actress and former singer. In 2000, Kago debuted as a 4th generation member of the idol girl group Morning Musume. During her time in the group, she was also part of Mini-Moni and other Hello! Project sub-groups. In 2004, Kago de ...

, at the time of her departure) and her desire to pursue other things by the time she was 30. Since then, Nakazawa has done some work in Japanese dramas such as ''

Beauty 7 Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...

'' and ''

Home Maker A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

'', performed in various plays, and continued in her solo singing career at a steady pace with reasonable success. She worked closely with Morning Musume and hosted their weekly show ''

Hello! Morning was a weekly Japanese TV show featuring members of Morning Musume, and sometimes other Hello! Project members on TV Tokyo. It was also known by the shorter name of . On April 1, 2007, the show ended after seven years of broadcast. A new show fe ...

'' (first regularly, then occasionally), until its end in early 2007. It was announced on October 19, 2008 by Hello! Project that Nakazawa, along with the rest of Elder Club will graduate from Hello! Project on March 31, 2009. On February 1, 2009, during the "Hello Pro Award '09 ~Elder Club Sotsugyō Kinen Special~" concert held at

Yokohama Arena is an indoor arena located in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The capacity of the arena is 17,000 and was opened in 1989. The arena was modeled after US sports venue Madison Square Garden in New York City. It is a five-minute walk from the ...

, Nakazawa passed on her leadership position in Hello! Project to

Ai Takahashi (born September 14, 1986) is a Japanese singer and actress formerly associated with the Hello! Project and is best known as the leader of Morning Musume and Hello! Project until 2011. She is also a former member of its popular subgroup Mini Mon ...

of Morning Musume. In 2010, it was announced Yuko Nakazawa will be joining the new group, "Dream Morning Musume" alongside other former-Morning Musume members.

Personal life

In March 2012, it was announced that Nakazawa had married an information technology company president one year her senior in a private ceremony."Nakazawa Yuko gets married on April 1st"
''Tokyo Hive''.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Videos / DVDs

Acts

Dramas

Variety shows

Movies

Radio shows

* Nakazawa Yuko no

All Night Nippon is a Japanese radio program broadcast by Nippon Broadcasting System and other radio stations from 1–5 am (JST). It preempts broadcasts from TBS Radio's programming heard on stations under both JRN and NRN (TBC Radio, CBC Radio, etc.). D ...

Super! ** Nakazawa Yuko no All Night Nippon Sunday Special → Nakazawa Yuko no All Night Nippon Sunday Super! * Young Town Douyoubi * Music Plaza's Kimama ni Classic *

Maji Asa! Maji may refer to: Places * Maji, Ethiopia, city in southwestern Ethiopia ** Maji (woreda) * Maji, Iran, a village *Maji, Luhe District, a town in Jiangsu Province, China Other uses * Maji (surname), an Indian family name * Dizi people, als ...

Commercials

* Elleseine * Nihon Chouou Keiba * Oriko card * Shiseidou City Veil

Publications

Photobooks

Essay books

* 2002 – * 2003 – * 2013 –

References

External links

Official blog

–

Up-Front Works is a Japanese holding company for various entertainment companies. Its subsidiaries include the talent agency Up-Front Promotion and Up-Front Works, a music production and sales company that manages such record labels as Zetima, Piccolo Town, ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nakazawa, Yuko 1973 births Living people Morning Musume members Hello! Project solo singers Puripuri Pink members People from Kyoto Prefecture Japanese actresses Japanese idols Dream Morning Musume members Enka singers Musicians from Kyoto Prefecture