Hello! Database: Maki Goto

Ever since Maki first appeared as a member of Morning Musume in 1999, she has always been one of the most popular members. There were multiple factors contributing to this. One of the things affecting this was that Maki was chosen through audition searching for an additional lead vocalist, which made sure that she would be one of the most visible people in the group.

The 3rd generation audition in general wasn't as good as Tsunku had anticipated, as the original plan was to add two new members to Morning Musume, but in the end only Maki was chosen.

The first single Maki participated in was Love Machine. The single became a huge hit and much of its success was credited to Maki. After that she remained in the position of (one of) lead singers until her graduation from Morning Musume in 2002.

Maki was one of the original members of Pucchi Moni. If the success of Love Machine wasn't enough, Pucchi Moni's single Chokotto Love came second in sales numbers only to Love Machine, as far as all H!P releases are concerned.

After her graduation Maki has been in two 3-people groups consisting of H!P soloists. The first one was gomattou, which featured Maki, Aya Matsuura and then still soloist Miki Fujimoto. More recently, in late 2004, she was one of the members of Nochiuranatsumi, again with Aya, and with Natsumi Abe. Due to Natsumi's hiatus some of the performances were done by only Maki and Aya.

Since her graduation she has been one of the most productive H!P solo artists. Single sales are degrading from single to single, though.