Country Girls (band)

was a Japanese female idol music group that is a part of Hello! Project.

On November 5, 2014, Country Musume was rebooted and renamed with new members.

History

Country Musume era

Country Musume was formed in 1999 and was termed as "Country Girls from Hokkaidō." The initial group consisted of native members of Hokkaidō, Rinne Toda, Azusa Kobayashi, and Hiromi Yanagihara.

Before the release of their first single in July 1999, Hiromi Yanagihara died in a car accident. After the accident, Azusa Kobayashi departed from the group and Rinne Toda carried on as a solo artist and released two singles under the "Country Musume" name by herself. In the summer of 2000, Asami Kimura joined the group and the duo released one more single.

Their popularity rose when Morning Musume's Rika Ishikawa—who is from Kanagawa—was lent to the group in April 2001. Country Musume had their first charting single in Japan with the release of "Hajimete no Happy Birthday." The trio, under the name "Country Musume ni Rika Ishikawa," released two singles and an album. Early in 2002, Mai Satoda was recruited to the group, although she initially auditioned to be a Morning Musume member.

The quartet released one single before Toda, the remaining original member bid farewell at the end of 2002. Afterwards, Kimura, Ishikawa, and Satoda released one more single.

In mid-2003, Country Musume had a major shift in its roster. Miuna Saito, who is from Shizuoka, was recruited to the group. Instead of Rika Ishikawa, the group featured Asami Konno and Miki Fujimoto, who are both Morning Musume and Hokkaidō natives. In this new formation (named "Country Musume ni Konno to Fujimoto"), the quintet has released three singles. In 2004, Country Musume (except the featured singers) participated in the fifth edition of Hello! Project's Folk Song series, where various H!P artists sang covers of Japanese and Western folk songs.

Asami Kimura and Miuna Saito graduated from Country Musume and Hello! Project on its 10th anniversary concert on January 28, 2007, leaving Satoda as the only remaining member.

Country Girls era

On February 11, 2014, it was announced during the Hello! Project 2014 WINTER ~GOiSU MODE~ concert held at Sendai Sun Plaza Hall that audition applications for Country Musume would be accepted until March 31, 2014. On August 7, it was announced that the Country Musume audition has come to an end without any additions.

On November 5, 2014, it was announced that Hello! Pro Kenshūsei members Risa Yamaki and Manaka Inaba, Morning Musume '14 auditionees Chisaki Morito, Uta Shimamura, and Mai Ozeki were selected to join Country Musume.

On November 19, 2019, it was announced that all four members will be graduating from the group and Country Girls will suspend all activity. A final performance was held in December 26 at LINE CUBE SHIBUYA.

Members

Country Girls

Former

The group was supervised by Mai Satoda (a former member of Country Musume)

Uta Shimamura
Manaka Inaba (Former later member of Juice=Juice)
Momoko Tsugunaga (Former member of Berryz Kobo)
Nanami Yanagawa (Former concurrent member of Juice=Juice)
Risa Yamaki (Former concurrent member of College Cosmos)
Chisaki Morito (Former concurrent member of Morning Musume)
Mai Ozeki
Musubu Funaki (Former concurrent member of Angerme)

Country Musume

Former

Rinne Toda
Azusa Kobayashi
Hiromi Yanagihara
Asami Kimura
Mai Satoda
Miuna Saito

Timeline

ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:15

PlotArea = left:100 bottom:120 top:0 right:50

Alignbars = justify

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy

Period = from:27/04/1999 till:26/12/2019

TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy

Colors =

id:member1 value:red legend:1st_Generation

id:member2 value:rgb(1,0.25,0.25) legend:2nd_Generation

id:member3 value:rgb(1,0.50,0.50) legend:3rd_Generation

id:member4 value:rgb(1,0.75,0.75) legend:4th_Generation

id:member5 value:yellowgreen legend:5th_Generation

id:member6 value:limegreen legend:6th_Generation

id:support value:brightblue legend:Morning_Musume_members

id:supervisor value:green legend:Supervisor

id:Lines1 value:lavender legend:Singles

id:lines3 value:orange legend:Digital_Singles

id:Lines2 value:purple legend:Studio_Albums

Legend = position:bottom columns:4 columnwidth:180

ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2000

BarData =

bar:Rinne text:"Toda"

bar:Azusa text:"Kobayashi"

bar:Hiromi text:"Yanagihara"

bar:Asami text:"Kimura"

bar:S-Mai text:"Satoda"

bar:Miuna text:"Saito"

bar:Momoko text:"Tsugunaga"

bar:Risa text:"Yamaki"

bar:Manaka text:"Inaba"

bar:Chisaki text:"Morito"

bar:Uta text:"Shimamura"

bar:O-Mai text:"Ozeki"

bar:Nanami text:"Yanagawa"

bar:Musubu text:"Funaki"

bar:Rika text:"Ishikawa"

bar:Konno text:"Konno"

bar:Miki text:"Fujimoto"

PlotData=

width:7 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from

bar:Rinne from:27/04/1999 till:13/10/2002 color:member1

bar:Azusa from:27/04/1999 till:23/08/1999 color:member1

bar:Hiromi from:27/04/1999 till:16/07/1999 color:member1

bar:Asami from:30/05/2000 till:28/01/2007 color:member2

bar:S-Mai from:02/01/2002 till:31/03/2009 color:member3

bar:S-Mai from:01/04/2009 till:04/11/2014 color:member3 width:1

bar:S-Mai from:05/11/2014 till:end color:supervisor width:3

bar:Miuna from:27/04/2003 till:28/01/2007 color:member4

bar:Uta from:05/11/2014 till:12/06/2015 color:yellow

bar:Momoko from:05/11/2014 till:30/06/2017 color:pink

bar:Risa from:05/11/2014 till:26/12/2019 color:yellowgreen

bar:Manaka from:05/11/2014 till:04/08/2016 color:red

bar:Chisaki from:05/11/2014 till:26/12/2019 color:orange

bar:O-Mai from:05/11/2014 till:26/12/2019 color:blue

bar:Nanami from:05/11/2015 till:11/03/2019 color:purple

bar:Musubu from:05/11/2015 till:26/12/2019 color:yellow

bar:Rika from:18/04/2001 till:23/07/2003 color:support

bar:Konno from:24/07/2003 till:15/08/2004 color:support

bar:Miki from:24/07/2003 till:15/08/2004 color:support

LineData =

at:23/07/1999 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:30/11/1999 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:27/04/2000 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:31/07/2000 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:18/04/2001 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:17/10/2001 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:17/04/2002 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:13/11/2002 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:24/07/2003 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:05/12/2003 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:04/08/2004 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:25/03/2015 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:05/08/2015 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:09/03/2016 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:28/09/2016 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:08/02/2017 color:Lines1 layer:back width:1

at:11/08/2017 color:Lines3 layer:back width:1

at:24/12/2017 color:Lines3 layer:back width:1

at:24/08/2018 color:Lines3 layer:back width:1

at:24/08/2019 color:Lines3 layer:back width:1

at:12/12/2001 color:Lines2 layer:back width:1

at:23/08/2006 color:Lines2 layer:back width:1

at:10/12/2008 color:Lines2 layer:back width:1

at:28/06/2017 color:Lines2 layer:back width:1

at:06/03/2019 color:Lines2 layer:back width:1

at:04/12/2019 color:Lines2 layer:back width:1

</timeline>

Country Musume Timeline

Country Girls Timeline

Discography

Country Musume

Albums

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

!#||Title||Release date||Members

|1||align="left"|||||Toda, Kimura, Ishikawa

|2||align="left"|||||Kimura, Satoda, Saito

|3||align="left"|||||Satoda

Singles

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

!No. Overall||No. by Name||Title||Release date||Oricon Weekly Singles Chart||Members

|1||1||align="left"|||||-||Yanagihara, Kobayashi and Toda

|2||2||align="left"|||||-||rowspan="2"|Toda

|3||3||align="left"|||||-

|4||4||align="left"|||||-||Toda and Kimura

!colspan="6" style="background:#efefdd;"|Country Musume ni Ishikawa Rika

|5||1||align="left"|||||4||rowspan="2"|Toda, Kimura and Ishikawa

|6||2||align="left"|||||6

|7||3||align="left"|||||4||Toda, Kimura, Satoda and Ishikawa

|8||4||align="left"|||||8||Kimura, Satoda and Ishikawa

!colspan="6" style="background:#efefdd;"|Country Musume ni Konno to Fujimoto

|9||1||align="left"|||||7||rowspan="3"|Kimura, Satoda, Saito, Konno and Fujimoto

|10||2||align="left"|||||15

|11||3||align="left"|||||13

DVD

2003-11-17

Country Girls

Studio albums

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

! scope="col" rowspan="3"| Title

! scope="col" rowspan="3"| Album details

! scope="col" colspan="1"| Peak chart positions

! scope="col" colspan="4" |JPN

! style="width:2.5em;"|Album

! scope="row" |

Released: June 28, 2017
Label: PICCOLO TOWN
Formats: CD, digital download

| 19

! scope="row" | Seasons

Released: March 6, 2019
Label: Zetima
Formats: CD, digital download

| 63