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Biography
[edit] Success in Hello! Project
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 Petitmoni 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 mostly concentrated on her solo career and occasionally on limited time Hello! Project units such as Gomattou, Nochiura Natsumi, and DEF.DIVA. As time passed, she increasingly concentrated on acting in addition to singing. She 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 Kinentaia 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.[1] 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.[2]
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,[3][4] 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.[5] 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".[6]
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.[7]
[edit] Avex signs-in Goto
Late in 2007, after her sudden Hello! Project graduation, rumors aroused the very next day stating that Avex's CEO, Max Matsuura, had shown interest in signing Goto in for Avex. During Goto's brother trial, she disappeared from the media-eye.
On March 25, 2008, Maki re-opened her blog during her stay in Los Angeles, where she studied and practiced different types of song and dance, including R&B, jazz and hip-hop. Her blog didn't include any reference to Up-Front agency (but was still on the same address), and it was assumed that her contract with Up-Front had expired on March 1 and was not renewed as expected. Her last blog entry was on April 22.
On June 19, 2008 (after many rumors had circulated), it was released to the press that Goto Maki had signed with the record label Rhythm Zone under avex.
Maki debuted with Avex when she participated in the company's shareholders' meeting on June 22, 2008, singing a cover of Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love for You." She also participated in a-nation'08 (Osaka on August 24 and Tokyo on August 31) 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 (although a version of the song "mine" was featured on her mini-album SWEET BLACK feat. MAKI GOTO), drawing media attention for the first time since her graduation. She also sang "Saving All My Love for You", and a cover of Diana King's "Shy Guy".
[edit] SWEET BLACK Project
The SWEET BLACK Project is a cross-media collaboration between J-WAVE, Avex and mixi. Goto herself chose the logo and the name, which is meant to reflect the positive and negative side of the life of todays women.
On January 5, 2009, J-WAVE premiered SWEET BLACK Girls, a 15 minutes segment hosted by Goto Maki and Ryu as part of the popular radio show PLATOn. The show airs Mon-Fri and focuses on the life of women on their twenties. Reception was extremely good, as 30,000 messages were received during the first week only.[8]
To complete the project, Mixi, the most used networking community in Japan, opened a special space for Sweet Black,[9] and Avex launched a web-documentary on YouTube based on Gotos daily routine as a singer.[10] Immediate success was acquainted, admittedly beyond expectations.[11]
On January 21, Goto released her first digital single with Avex: Fly away. The 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" .
Barely a month later, on February 25, Goto released her second digital single, titled Lady-Rise, also penned by herself. 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).
On March 7, Goto modeled at Japans biggest fashion event, Tokyo Girls Collection.
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