Country Musume

Country Musume (カントリー娘。; Country Girls), was an all-female J-pop group within Hello! Project. The group started out with members Rinne Toda, Azusa Kobayashi and Hiromi Yanagihara. After their fourth single their producer called it quits due to difficulties finding more members for the group, and Tsunku took over as their producer. He added Rika Ishikawa from Morning Musume to the group and changed their sound drastically. Their name also changed to Country Musume ni Ishikawa Rika. Later on Mai Satoda was added to the group and Rnne Toda graduated to pursue an acting career as a stage actor, but participated only in one musical. After a few singles Ishikawa left the group and Miuna joined. So did also Asami Konno and Miki Fujimoto from Morning Musume, and the group changed their name to Country Musume ni Konno to Fujimoto. The were active until 2006, when everyone left the group except Mai Satoda. She continued working under the name until her graduation in 2009 (but released no singles). On November 5, 2014, the group was revived with six new members and changed the name to Country Girls.