Maeda Atsuko (前田敦子), nickname "Acchan" (あっちゃん), born July 10, 1991 in Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan is a Japanese idol singer, model, and actress, as well as a former member of idol group AKB48. In 2011, she debuted as a solo artist with the single, "Flower". Maeda was one of these selected members for AKB48's first major single, 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 4630 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 17049 votes. Maeda released her second single, "Kimi wa Boku da" (君は僕だ), on June 20, 2012. On September 19, 2013, Maeda released her third single titled "Time Machine Nante Iranai" (タイムマシンなんていらない).