Rika Ishikawa (çŸ³å· æ¢¨è¯, Ishikawa Rika), born January 19, 1985, Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese pop singer, TV and radio hostess, associated with the Hello! Project banner and best known as a former member of Hello! Project's mothership band, the J-pop all-female supergroup Morning Musume. She is currently the leader of the trio v-u-den and the host of the TV show Hello! Morning. Ishikawa joined Morning Musume as a fourth generation member along with Hitomi Yoshizawa, Nozomi Tsuji, and Ai Kago, and made her debut in 2000 along with the rest of the fourth generation on the band's tenth single, "Happy Summer Wedding". In 2001, simultaneously with her Morning Musume obligations, Ishikawa became a featured member of the then-semi-dormant Hello! Project group Country Musume and a second-generation member of Morning Musume's first subgroup, Tanpopo. She also participated in her first shuffle group recording, 3nin Matsuri, with fellow Morning Musume/Tanpopo member Ai Kago and solo singer Aya Matsuura (previously, she had been a replacement member in the 2000 shuffle group Aoiro 7). Although possessing a good singing voice, ironically one of Ishikawa's most referenced vocal parts during her Morning Musume days was a frantic spoken word piece in the middle eight of their 2003 single "Shabondama". In September of 2004, her new trio, v-u-den, released their debut single. She graduated from Morning Musume on May 7, 2005, and after five singles, v-u-den finally released their debut album, Suiteroom Number 1, in November of 2005. Ishikawa has also played for the Gatas Brilhantes H.P., starred in a Hamtaro movie with Aya Matsuura and her Ecomoni partner, Sayumi Michishige and was a Pocky Girl (for the group's Pocky commercial). Ishikawa will be starring in the fourth live-action adaptation Japanese film of Sukeban Deka opposite Aya Matsuura, due to be released September 30, 2006. |