Morning Musume Announce 13th Generation Audition

            Hey guys! Michele here coming at you with a little bit of Hello! Project news, and by "little" I actually mean "pretty important"! It was announced on January 2nd, 2016, during the “Hello! Project 2016 WINTER ~ DANCING! SINGING! EXCITING!” concert that Morning Musume ’16 will be holding their “Morning Musume’16 Shinseiki Audition” to form their 13th Generation! The date for these auditions has not been announced as of yet and although not many details have been given, we can only hope they give us snippets of information as time goes on. For those of you that don’t know, Morning Musume is a Japanese pop idol group with continuous line-up changes with older members graduating and newer girls being added at regular intervals. Recently this seems to almost be annual occurrence. With the recent graduation of 9th generation member and ace, Sayashi Riho, coming into 2016 without newer members would have been almost something of a shock. While details are few, they are looking for applicants between the ages of 10-17 who have a passion for singing and dancing as well as a headstrong feeling for their future. Girls who love Morning Musume more than anything else in the world are also encouraged.

            Now having followed all of Hello! Project acts since 2010, I have witnessed quite a few Morning Musume graduations myself, as well as many auditions. While this was of no shock to me, with the somewhat recent addition of 12th generation members, Nonaka Miki, Makino Maria, Ogata Haruna and Haga Akane, they could have fooled anyone! Now as auditions can go on for several months and new members are usually announced at the end the next tour, that means if auditions were announced in the winter we can hope to get the new generation announced by the end of the summer tour. As history is bound to repeat itself, applicants that do not make it into the group may have the opportunity to become Hello Pro Kenshuusei, a group of girls that are given dancing and singing lessons within Hello! Project in hopes that one day they will debut into one of the many groups in Hello! Project. These girls mainly perform as back-up dancers for major acts but have also formed groups of their own. This is going to be an exciting year for Morning Musume ’16 fans, I know I said I wasn’t shocked to hear about the news of another generation, but I am definitely excited to see where this will as Morning Musume ’16 will definitely turn into quite a large group! Until next time!

-Michele

Official Announcement - facebook.com/notes/up-front-link/en-new-audition-for-morning-musume16-announced

Official 13th Generation Audition Page - musume-audition.com