MOMOKA

Before the auditions became her biography

MOMOKA has said the idea of becoming an artist took hold in her third year of junior high school. She attended a concert, went home curious about what an artist actually did, and became attached to the possibility that music could make people happier. That origin is worth keeping because it explains the stubbornness that followed. This was never only a desire to be famous. In a 2026 non-no interview, she said music had repeatedly supported her during difficult periods, and she wanted to become the person whose work could do that for somebody else.

Her public path was not tidy. There was no single trainee reveal followed by an uncomplicated debut. Viewers watched her be evaluated, improve, get close, miss the lineup, and then return to another audition carrying both useful experience and some habits she later admitted were getting in her way. That makes the HANA version of MOMOKA much easier to understand. The confidence was always visible. The discipline underneath it had to catch up.

Produce 101 Japan The Girls: close enough to hurt

In 2023, competing under her full name Takabatake Momoka, she entered Produce 101 Japan The Girls, the season that formed ME:I. She reached the live finale and finished 20th. That is not a background cameo. She survived an enormous field, built a voting base, and came within one final lineup of debuting. Her position-battle stages also showed why audiences remembered her: she had a naturally noticeable frame and a tone that did not melt into the ensemble.

Finishing 20th still meant going home without the group. Audition programs are very good at converting months of labor into one number on a screen. For MOMOKA, that number stayed attached to her story when she appeared again. It created recognition, but also pressure. People already had an opinion about what she could do, how much she had improved, and whether a finalist from one system could survive a second system built around a very different philosophy.

No No Girls did not ask her to pretend the first rejection had never happened. It made her examine what she had carried out of it.

No No Girls: confidence had to become preparation

BMSG and CHANMINA launched No No Girls around a direct rejection of the usual industry “no”: the wrong body, the wrong age, the wrong voice, the wrong history. More than 7,000 people applied. MOMOKA entered with more television experience than many contestants, but experience did not protect her from scrutiny. CHANMINA pushed her on sincerity, eye contact, work ethic, and the gap between appearing confident and being ready.

MOMOKA later described optimism as both her strength and a weakness. She could keep believing things would work out, which helped her survive disappointment. She also realized that “it will be fine” could become an excuse to skip the order, preparation, and repetition that make a performance reliable. In anan, she admitted she had carried fixed ideas, unnecessary pride, and a strange ease even when she did not yet have results. CHANMINA did not flatter those habits out of her. She corrected her bluntly.

The crucial moment came during rehearsal for No No Girls THE FINAL. CHANMINA told her to stop protecting something and put her life into the stage. MOMOKA realized she was still protecting her past and, in doing so, remaining trapped inside it. Her final performance became less about proving an old ranking wrong and more about showing the life that ranking had failed to finish. When the seven-member group was announced on January 12, 2025, MOMOKA said the clock that had stopped inside her was finally moving again.

No No Girls THE FINAL filled K-Arena Yokohama with roughly 20,000 people, and the program had become much larger than a standard web audition by the time HANA was revealed. MOMOKA arrived at debut with a public archive of her mistakes, corrections, and breakthroughs. HANA wisely did not sand that archive away.

HANA: the voice that changes the air

HANA pre-debuted with “Drop” and made its major debut with “ROSE” in April 2025. MOMOKA’s role was immediately legible. anan described the effect of her low, husky voice as one that changes the atmosphere when she sings. Her rap sits lower than the bright center of most girl-group arrangements, giving the producers somewhere to place tension, attitude, or a sudden emotional drop without manufacturing toughness.

“ROSE” also connected directly to her history. MOMOKA interpreted the song as the sound of people who had been hurt, dirtied, and disappointed, but had not completely lost the desire to be grateful or to stand back up. She did not have to borrow that meaning. She had already lived the part where effort did not produce the expected result and hope became embarrassing to admit.

As HANA moved through “Blue Jeans,” “BAD LOVE,” “My Body,” touring, major television stages, and its first full album, MOMOKA’s usefulness expanded beyond being “the deep-voiced rapper.” HANA’s catalog moves between hip-hop, R&B, rock textures, pop hooks, and emotional ballad writing. She can provide the floor of a harmony, carry a clipped rap phrase, or make a sung line feel more severe without changing her identity every time the genre moves.

The group quickly collected commercial and institutional milestones, including streaming totals above 100 million for several early songs, the Best New Artist honor at the 67th Japan Record Awards, an appearance at the 76th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, and the 2026 Born to Bloom tour. Those are HANA achievements, but they matter to an individual profile because they show the scale of the stage MOMOKA finally reached after missing the first lineup.

She is not only delivering somebody else’s attitude

“BAD LOVE” is the clearest evidence that MOMOKA’s development includes writing. She and JISOO each drafted a complete lyric, then worked with CHANMINA to combine the strongest parts with the chorus. MOMOKA wrote from a memory she had deliberately kept closed. She described the subject as a larger form of love rather than a simple romance, and said reopening it long enough to write made her sink emotionally before the song gave the memory somewhere else to live.

Her technical explanation is even better than the dramatic summary. For her rap, she considered how vowels could connect one phrase to the next, where accents should land, and how to manage breaths when the gaps were short. She used the ending sound of “honestly” to move into the Japanese word itai. That is a working rapper talking about construction, not a profile writer assigning her the title because she once received a credit.

On “BAD LOVE,” MAHINA found MOMOKA’s low passage difficult to reproduce because of how far down it sat. MOMOKA wrote the lyrics she performed and built the line to slide through changing pitches while packing in words. The result has more bite because the technique and the memory are working together.

In 2026 she and JISOO also joined ILLIT’s “I Got Your Back” as featured performers and lyric contributors. The collaboration placed HANA’s heavier vocal color inside ILLIT’s bright pop-rock world. Read the full RaeRae song and music-video review here.

What to listen and watch for

The register

MOMOKA’s low tone is the obvious identifier, but “low” is not the complete skill. She keeps enough texture in the sound for it to cut through dense production. The huskiness gives the line friction. In a group full of very different voices, that makes her useful as a structural contrast rather than a novelty cameo.

The flow

Her strongest raps do not rely on speed as proof of ability. Listen for vowel links, breath placement, and how she sits just behind or directly on top of the beat depending on the emotion. “BAD LOVE” is especially useful because she has explained some of those decisions herself.

The camera

She has a long silhouette and understands how little movement she sometimes needs. Early MOMOKA could look confident because her body naturally carried a pose. Current MOMOKA is more deliberate about where the eyes go, when the face relaxes, and which lyric needs a harder edge. That is the difference between looking good in a frame and controlling it.

The range she is still building

She has been candid that dancing, rap, and vocals all require continued work. “Drop” was a performance she identified as evidence of her dancing growth. The useful thing about HANA is that members are not frozen inside a debut label. MOMOKA can keep the low rap identity while improving the sung register and movement around it.

Watch MOMOKA in context

MOMOKA has not released an official solo track, so she belongs on the Members shelf, not the Solo Artists shelf. These official videos show her role inside HANA and the credited collaboration where her low tone and writing contribution are easiest to trace.

Inside the group: guardian, film watcher, secret softie

The cool exterior is incomplete. MOMOKA describes herself as someone who wants to support and wrap around the other members. In non-no, she called her group position something like a guardian: if a member were hurt, she would stand in front of them. She recovers from low periods by sleeping, seeing friends, and returning to stories she likes. Her stated goal is not simply to appear strong. She wants strength with warmth.

She and MAHINA share an easy, physically affectionate dynamic and a similar optimism, even if both tease each other about who is clingier. MOMOKA also likes anime and films enough to use them as preparation. Before the “Blue Jeans” video she watched romantic comedies to tune her mood. Before the acting-heavy “BAD LOVE” video, which had no dance sequence to hide behind, she watched kidnapping and crime films to study the atmosphere. Her regular viewing includes romance, battle series, horror, ONE PIECE, Tokyo Revengers, and the kind of HUNTER x HUNTER marathon that ends when daylight has already arrived.

That mix makes more sense than the easy “girl crush rapper” label. She is forceful onstage, emotionally direct in interviews, openly sentimental about music, and serious about becoming useful to other people. The best profile is not the one that chooses one of those versions. It is the one that admits they are the same woman.

2026: HANA album, Born to Bloom, and I Got Your Back

HANA released its first full album digitally on February 23, 2026 and physically on February 25, then began the Born to Bloom tour in March. The tour introduced “Bad Girl,” a new song used for Apple’s Japanese iPhone 17 Pro group-selfie campaign.

In July, MOMOKA and JISOO featured on ILLIT’s Japanese track “I Got Your Back” and participated in the lyrics. They joined ILLIT at the Toyota Arena Tokyo finale, giving MOMOKA a credited collaboration that belongs in both her individual artist file and HANA’s group connections.

The official HANA site continues to list MOMOKA in the seven-member lineup and carries current 2026 music and live notices. Her status remains active.

Current sources: HANA official site · Sony Music first-album announcement · Born to Bloom and “Bad Girl” notice

Official links and CVM Sekai paths

HANA official profile · MOMOKA Instagram · HANA YouTube · HANA group profile · All HANA posts · Tea with receipts

Sources and further reading