Atsuko Maeda - AKB48

AKB48

AKB48 released "Aitakatta" on the major label Defstar Records. Before this release, two singles were released as independent records. For this song, 20 members were selected from the 36 members of Team A & Team K. Maeda was one of these selected members, and she performed a leading role in the promotional video of this song. She has appeared at the front of every single ever since.

The group's 12th single, "Namida Surprise!", included voting tickets for the 2009 AKB48 Senbatsu Election, where fans can vote for who will be featured in the next single. Maeda won with 4,630 votes, becoming AKB48's most popular member and frontgirl for their 13th single, "Iiwake Maybe". However, in 2010, another election was held and Maeda lost to Yuko Oshima, who had 31,448 votes, whereas Maeda had 30,851 votes, so Yuko became the frontgirl for "Heavy Rotation".

Later that year a different type of election was held (AKB48 Janken Senbatsu Tournament) where any member in the group could be front girl. The members were selected by using the rock-paper-scissors method and Mayumi Uchida received the top spot of AKB48's single "Chance no Junban" which marked the first time a relatively unknown member has been at the front of a single. Maeda and Yuko were back at the front spots for the next single, "Beginner".

In 2011, a third AKB48 senbatsu election was held. During the early results, Yuko Oshima was leading with first place. However in the final results Maeda won first place with 139,892 votes whereas Yuko Oshima had 122,843 votes beating her with 17,049 votes.

On 25 March 2012, during an AKB48 Concert at the Saitama Super Arena, Maeda announced that she would quit AKB48 soon. Later, it was announced that Maeda would quit right after AKB48's Tokyo Dome 3-day concert that took place from 24 to 26 August 2012. It was also announced that she would not be in the 27th single senbatsu election due to her having quit the band in August.

Maeda's last appearance on stage as an AKB48 member was "Team A 6th Stage Mokugekisha" (目撃者, Eyewitnesses?) at the AKB48 Theater in Akihabara on 27 August 2012, right after AKB48's first concert at Tokyo Dome on 24, 25, and 26 August. Her last stage was aired live on the AKB48 Official YouTube Channel as well as on Fuji TV's music show 'Hey! Hey! Hey!'.