Ishikawa Rika (石川梨華, born January 19, 1985 in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan), is a Japanese pop singer formerly signed to Hello! Project, having since graduated from the label along with the rest of the Elder Club. Before her graduation, Ishikawa Rika had been a soloist within Hello! Project, having been the leader of the trio v-u-den, a member of the first Morning Musume sub-group Tanpopo, a member of Country Musume, one half of Ecomoni and a member of ROMANS.
Ishikawa auditioned for the japanese pop group Morning Musume while it was holding it's fourth generation auditions. She suceeded and entered the fourth generation with three other girls; Yoshizawa Hitomi, Tsuji Nozomi and Kago Ai. The fourth generation's debut single was Morning Musume's 9th single, "Happy Summer Wedding". Ishikawa Rika breifly became a replacement member for the 2000 shuffle unit, Aoiro 7.
In 2001, Ishikawa was added to the then-semi-dormant Hello! Project group Country Musume. It was hoped that she could help get the fairly quiet group back onto it's feet and allow her fans to spill over to the group to aid in it's sales. At the same time as this, Ishikawa was added as a second generation member to the first official Morning Musume sub-group, Tanpopo.
As Ishikawa was working hard within both these groups, she was also performing as a full recording member of Morning Musume and in 2001 she recieved a prominent part in Morning Musume's twelth single "The☆Peace!". The part was not a singing part but rather a spoken part near the end that focused entirely on her. The song became a personal favorite of Ishikawa as the monologue spoken by her towards the end of the song became one of her favorite moments of being in Morning Musume.
Ishikawa also took part in her first shuffle unit recording as a part of 3-nin Matsuri alongside her fellow Morning Musume member Kago Ai and Hello! Project soloist Matsuura Aya.
Ishikawa continued her duties within Morning Musume, Tanpopo and Country Musume during 2002, taking part in the 2002 shuffle unit Sexy 8. Sexy 8 won the competition that the Hello! Project shuffle units competed in every year; selling the most copies of their singles out of the three shuffle groups.
In a surprise move by Tsunku, Morning Musume was split into two halfs - Morning Musume Otome Gumi and Morning Musume Sakura Gumi - so that the large group could perform in smaller towns that could not hold the larger numbers the full ensemble needed. Ishikawa was placed into Otome Gumi and released two single with the group before the groups merged together and formed Morning Musume once more. Ishikawa was included in the 2003 Elemental Shuffle Groups as a member of 7AIR.
It was in 2003 that Ishikawa ended her duties as leader within Tanpopo and as a member of Country Musume. She instead joined the short-lived ROMANS group in 2003, releasing only one single, "Sexy Night ~Wasurerarenai Kare~", on August 20, 2003 before disbanding the same year.
In the second quarter of 2004, the formation of a new Hello! Project group Ecomoni was announced. Ishikawa was to be partnered with Morning Musume's Michishige Sayumi in the hopes that their group could promote enviromental awareness. The group was originally supposed to be a temporary Hello! Project group, existing only for the duration of the Acchi Chikyuu wo Samasunda (熱っちぃ地球を冷ますんだ, Cool Down the Hot Earth) environmental festival, lasting from June 19, 2004 to June 20, 2004. After the festival, instead of disbanding the group, Ecomoni started to appear on Japanese TV, especially on the program Oha Star (おはスタ).
In August, the formation of another Hello! Project group involving Ishikawa was announced. Ishikawa was going to be the leader of a new group v-u-den, alongside Hello! Pro Kenshuusei member Okada Yui and Tsunku♂ Produce Hello! Project Shin Unit Audition winner Miyoshi Erika. The group released their debut single "Koi no Nukegara" on September 23, 2004. The new group also starred in their own television show Majokko Rikachan no Magical v-u-den (魔女っ娘。梨華ちゃんのマジカル美勇伝) between October 4, 2004 and December 24, 2004.
On May 7, Ishikawa graduated from Morning Musume Nippon Budokan to concentrate her efforts on v-u-den. The group released four more singles which was then followed by their debut album, "Suiteroom Number 1", in November 2005.
It was announced that on June 29, 2008 v-u-den would be disbanding after four years of being one of the most active Hello! Project groups in regards to single and album releases. On April 23, 2008 v-u-den released their final single, Nanni mo Iwazu ni I LOVE YOU and officially disbanded after their last concert during their v-u-densetsu 5 tour. Ishikawa was to go on with her career as a member of Ongaku Gatas and as a player for Gatas Brilhantes H.P.. Ongaku Gatas released their first album "1st GOODSAL" on February 6 and their third single on August 10.
On October 12, 2008 it was announced that Ishikawa was going to be paired up with fellow ex-Morning Musume member Yoshizawa Hitomi in the new unit Hangry & Angry in collaboration with a Harajuku fashion store of the same name. Hangry & Angry will be making their first United States performance at Sakura-Con in Seattle, Washington in April 2009.Ishikawa Rika during auditions, 2000.
On January 1, 2010 Ishikawa opened up an official blog.
On February 9, 2010, It was announced Ishikawa and Hello! Pro Kenshuusei members Kikkawa Yuu and Sengoku Minami will be in a stage play titled Tiger Breathing. The play wiil runn from 5/7-11.
On July 9, 2010, It was announced that Ishikawa will have an FC-exclusive solo event titled Ishikawa Rika Casual Dinner Show. [1]
The event will have two shows (times are only for shows, the dinner will take place much earlier) on 8/21 Flamingo the Arusha – 14:00/ 18:30.
From October 8-10, 2010, Ishikawa appeared as one half of HANGRY & ANGRY at the New York Anime Festival (NYAF). She participated in the h.Naoto fashion show and panel.
On September 2,2010, It was announced Ishikawa and Yoshizawa Hitomi will have an FC exclusive event titled Ishikawa Rika & Yoshizawa Hitomi FC Event. The event will take place at Yokohama BLITZ on the following dates:
10/25 – 19:00 and at 10/27 – 19. [2]
On January 28, 2011, it was announced that Ishikawa was part of the OG member group Dream Morning Musume and that they will be releasing the groups first album, called "Dreams. 1", on April 20th, 2011. On July 04, 2011 Okai Chisato and Ishikawa will be in a mini drama titled Tokusou Shirei! Aichi Police.
In April 2012, Ishikawa starred in the movie Atsuhime Number 1 where she played the role of a Shogun's wife travelling through a time slipped into the future, present day Japan.
In short previews of Suugaku♥Joshi Gakuen, it was is revealed that Ishikawa plays Machida Nina's big sister.
She considers her mother her rival because she always says to Ishikawa that she used to be cuter.
One of her nicknames as a child was "Chimu", due to the fact that she used to be chubby (muchimuchi).
Her favorite baseball team is the Hanshin Tigers.
She previously suffered from severe ornithophobia (fear of birds), which was frequently made fun of during her appearances on Utaban. During a 2005 New Year's Day special, however, she seemed to respond well to hypnotherapy, and she has mostly outgrown her fear since then.
Hates injections, and stated that she has it tough, since she has small, hard-to-find blood vessels.
Is known to have a very noticeable chin. Abe Natsumi sometimes calls her "Ago-chan" ("ago" means "chin"). Yoshizawa Hitomi constantly teases her about her chin as well.
While she was the host in Hello!Morning, she had the nickname "Charmy", due to her charming and narcissistic personality.
She is quite knowledgable about baseball due to the fact that her father is a big baseball fan.
AKB48 Team B member Kashiwagi Yuki is a huge fan of Ishikawa, and was her reason to become an idol. Yuki finally met Ishikawa, and both got along well with each other.
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