Translation: Nakazawa Yuko Upcoming Interview, Part 1

This is part one of a three part summary of Nakazawa Yuko's interview in the webshow Upcoming as part of Morning Musume's 20th Anniversary celebrations. Part 1 is a summary that encompasses the first 5 minutes of the collective interview.

Translation: Lurkette

Requested by denadel

When asked what spurred her to audition for a rock vocalist in the initial Asayan SharanQ vocalist search, she says that she saw an advertisement for screenings being held in Osaka, and it was an immediate gut feeling that this was her chance and she needed to go for it. Once she failed the audition, she was preparing to go back to her normal life, but then the staff of Asayan asked her to return to Tokyo, with no other details. She went to a staff room at the studio and SharanQ were there, which surprised her, but then the other 4 members who would be the first generation of Morning Musume also arrived, and then they were pitched the idea of forming the group. She says that they never explicitly promised that they would be able to formally debut, but they did say that they would give them an indies single release and if they sold well, they could debut in the future. Nakazawa says that she realized this might be her last chance to be an entertainer even without knowing what all of this meant, so for her, she only ever thought about going for it, about moving forward. It was less worry or fear and more just that she had to do it.

At first, in the indies days, there was no leader position and she honestly had not considered it at all. However, once their debut was announced, their manager told them that she would be the leader of the group. She was shocked and didn't know why, but then she realized she was the oldest and figured that made sense. Once the group started hitting their big break, she says it honestly didn't occur to her that they were getting their break, until she was in a taxi once listening to Love Machine on her headphones. The noise must have carried out, as they tend to do with older headphones, and the taxi driver recognized the song. She realized he knew who Morning Musume was, and that the group might actually be catching on with people. That was the first point at which she felt like the group might be breaking through.

She says that Fukuda Asuka's graduation had a significant impact on her, but it didn't cause her to think about herself graduating at all. However, once Ishiguro Aya graduated, she realized that she would need to think about it, especially because she had more things she wanted to do. When the time came, she tried to keep a countdown of all of her "lasts," but her memories of everything got a bit jumbled with everything going on. Still, she was really grateful that she was able to graduate at Osaka Jo Hall in the city where she auditioned. She laughs when she says whenever she looks at footage from that time, she notices how displeased she looks. It makes her remember how hard she was working back then.

To be continued in part 2!