In 1999, Maki Goto was selected as the only member for the 3rd generation of Morning Musume. Their first single after Goto joined, "Love Machine" sold over a million copies, over nine times the amount of copies they had sold for their previous single. During her time in Morning Musume she was one of the founding members of Pucchi Moni and she started a solo singing career in 2001 with the single "Ai no Bakayarō". Until her graduation from Morning Musume she was one of the leading vocalists in most of the songs released. Post-graduation she has mostly concentrated on her solo career and occasionally on limited time Hello! Project units such as Gomattou, Nochiura Natsumi, and DEF.DIVA. As time has passed, she has increasingly concentrated on acting in addition to singing. She has also performed at the Asia song festival 2005 in Pusan, Korea to represent Japan.
On October 28, 2007, during the last concert of her G-EmotionII ~How to Use Sexy~ tour, Goto suddenly announced to fans that she would be graduating from Hello! Project,[3][4] though she was also leaving UpFront Agency completely. Her graduation was said to be that she was overworked and overly stressed, causing her health problems. She also had different ideas of the direction of her career than what her agency had planned.[5] Because of her graduation, she would not be able to participate in the Hello! Project 2008 Winter concert tour, previously said to be because of "scheduling conflicts".
Goto's official blog reopened on March 25, 2008. Over the course of several entries, she revealed that she was in Los Angeles, California, taking singing and dancing lessons. In mid-June, rumours were confirmed that Goto signed under the label Rhythm Zone, an Avex Trax sublabel.
