Ayaka Wada (和田 彩花, Wada Ayaka, born 1 August 1994) is a Japanese singer and idol signed to YU-M Entertainment. She was a first generation member and the leader of Angerme as well as the leader of Hello! Project.
Biography
Wada joined Hello! Project as a member of Hello! Pro Egg in June 2004. Wada continued her training and appeared at numerous Hello! Project group concerts as a backing dancer, including the Country Musume concert Country Musume Live 2006: Shibuya des Date. In November 2007, Wada received a part in the musical Reverse! Watashi no karada doko desu ka?.
In July 2010, Wada joined the Hello! Project revival unit ZYX-α. In 2011, Wada, along with Yuuka Maeda and Kanon Fukuda, was chosen to voice act in the anime Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri. Together, the trio formed the unit Lilpri and sang the opening and ending themes for the anime as well as the insert songs. In 2012, Wada joined the Hello! Project and SATOYAMA movement unit Peaberry alongside Riho Sayashi.
On 17 December 2014, S/mileage changed their group name to Angerme with Wada remaining as the leader. On 1 January 2017, Wada succeeded Maimi Yajima as the leader of Hello! Project.
On 5 April 2018, it was announced that Wada would graduate from Angerme and Hello! Project at the end of the group's spring tour in 2019. Her graduation was held on 18 June 2019 at Nippon Budokan. As a member of Hello! Project for almost 15 years, she had the second longest tenure after Momoko Tsugunaga, who beat her by one day.
On 1 August 2019, the day of her 25th birthday, Wada started her solo activities and opened an official website as well as social media accounts and a YouTube channel.
