Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi (???, Takahashi Ai?, born September 14, 1986) is a Japanese pop singer associated with Hello! Project, best known as a member of Morning Musume and its most popular subgroup, Mini Moni. She is considered to have one of the most distinct and recognizable voices in the group.
Name: Ai Takahashi (???, Takahashi Ai?)
Nickname: Ai-chan (????, Ai-chan?), Lovely (????, Lovely?), Tettekete (??????, Tettekete?) (on Utaban)
Birth Date: September 14, 1986
Birth Place: Fukui Prefecture, Japan
Bloodtype: A
Height: 153 cm
Hobby: classical ballet
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 Mini Moni 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.
In Morning Musume's 2006 musical, "Ribbon no Kishi The Musical", Takahashi auditioned for and won the lead role of Sapphire. The musical is based on Tezuka Osamu's manga and also stars v-u-den, Marcia, and Ebira Kaoru of the Takarazuka Revue.