Utada Hikaru
, also known as
Utada, is an
American-born
Japanese
J-pop star. She is one of the most popular and successful Japanese artists today, owing to her personality, singing, songwriting and producing abilities, lifestyle, and upbringing. Also known by her fan-nickname of Hikki, she is now generally honored as being among the greatest Japanese singers of all time, having sold nearly 42,000,000 copies of her 7 studio albums (4 Japanese, 2 English, and 1 Compiliation), 21 singles (15 Japanese and 6 English), and her 15 Concert/PV video cassettes and DVDs, since her ill-fated english debut record "Precious" under the pseudonym "Cubic U," that was intended but never released in the U.S.
Thanks to her thoroughly fluent bilingual skills in English and Japanese, and her heavy Western style R'n'B influence in her early musical releases, Utada became an unprecedented icon in J-pop and Japan as a whole after her proper debut, "
First Love," shattered all records imaginable to become the fastest and best-selling album in Japanese music history in 1999, marking a new surge of popularity for the late 90's/early 2000's Japanese music industry. This was mainly due in part because such a style of music had never been heard in Japan, making her one of the most influential artists of this era and still today. Her English skills have also garnered her music a very strong fan base worldwide, unlike her some of her female J-pop rivals
Ayumi Hamasaki,
Mai Kuraki,
Ami Suzuki, and
Namie Amuro or any Asian-born artists thus far, so much so, Island/Def Jam Records inquired her to record her proper English-U.S. debut "Exodus," that was released there in October of 2004. She is still most known internationally as the singer of the Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 theme songs, "Simple and Clean/Hikari" and "Sanctuary/Passion."
Utada Hikaru was born in
New York City,
New York to
Japanese parents who both had roots in the Japanese music industry: her father,
Teruzane Utada, was a producer, while her mother, Junko Utada, was an
enka singer (she performed under the
stage name "
Keiko Fuji"). "Hikaru" literally translated means "light" in English. She made her first professional recording at the age of twelve, and recorded her first album,
Precious, in
1996 under the pseudonym Cubic U. The album led to her career overseas. In an MTV interview (MTV's
You Hear It First, October 2004), Utada said: "Someone in Japan heard it, at a Japanese record company, and he said, 'Oh, can't you write in Japanese? You speak Japanese.' And I didn't want to say no, so I had to try it."
She is currently married to
Kazuaki Kiriya, a photographer and movie director. He has directed several of her music videos, including "Final Distance", "Traveling", "Hikari", "Sakura Drops", "Deep River", "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro", "You Make Me Want to Be a Man", "Be My Last", "Passion", and "Keep Tryin'". Also, "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" was played during the credits of Kiriya's directorial debut,
Casshern.
Utada's name variations have been a source of some minor confusions in the past. Her legal Japanese name is currently , born . The current status of her legal US name is unclear. She is an American citizen. She debuted as
Cubic U in the States, but went mostly unknown during this era in her career. When she moved from the US to Japan, she made big under her
homonymic stage name , which she is still popularly known as in Japan even after her marriage. In Japan, it was known to her fans that her nickname growing up in the US was . However, due to her immense popularity in Japan, she became better known under this nickname in Japan than in the States. Unlike most Japanese artists, she became well known in the English speaking world under the surname-first name ordering ("
Utada Hikaru"), since her name has been romanized only in that order for the Japanese domestic market. After her successes in Japan, she re-entered the US market simply as
Utada. On a few rare occasions, she has been credited in full on US domestic albums as either "Hikaru Utada" or "Utada Hikaru".
Precious era
|
Cover of Cubic U's English debut album: Precious |
Cubic U (Utada Hikaru's pseudonym before becoming a superstar in Japan) released her debut single "
Close to You". She then released her debut album "
Precious", but it failed to be released in the
United States. She released "
Precious" in
Japan on
January 28,
1998 and then later re-released it on
March 31,
1999. It has sold 698,000 copies to date.
First Love era
She moved to
Tokyo later that year and attended
The American School in Japan, while continuing to record on a new contract with
Toshiba/
EMI. She soon made her mark on Japanese music with her successful single "
Automatic / time will tell" and "
Movin' on without you", soon followed by the album
First Love, which sold over five million copies in a month during March and April of
1999, and placed Utada among the 100 wealthiest people in Japan. Since the "
Automatic / time will tell" single were actually two seperate products (8cm and 12 cm versions), she only managed to reach #4 and #2 on the Oricon. Her next single "
Movin' on without you" would acheive the #1 ranking on Oricon, and would become her second platinum single. A month after "First Love" was released, "
First Love" was recut as a single due to popular demand, and sold well 800,000 units, which is very impressive for a post-album single. She also broke the record of units sold on a single album in Japan; she still holds the record (in 2006).
The album has sold more than ten million copies in Asia.
Distance era
Eight months after
First Love was released, Utada then released a single, "
Addicted To You". It hit #1 on the
Oricon and sold 1,784,000 copies. On
April 19,
2000, Utada released her 1st single in
2000, "
Wait & See ~Risk~". It reached #1 on the Oricon and sold 1,662,000 copies. A month later, she released a half single "
REMIX: Fly Me To The Moon" in
English and
Toshiba/
EMI released an animated music video for the single version of Fly Me To The Moon. The single would become her first commercial flop for a single, selling a mere 20,000 units. The follow-up "
For You / Time Limit", a double A-side single, was released in late June, and proved much more successful, becoming her 4th #1 hit, selling 909,000 copies. It was her last single in
2000. Utada returned to New York in 2000 after "For You / Time Limit" to attend
Columbia University as a
freshman, but took leave from it within the year to continue her activities within the Japanese music industry, as she thought that it was "easier than she expected".
In
2001, Utada released another single, "
Can You Keep a Secret?", on
February 16,
2001. It brought her #1 hit count up to 5, and became her 5th platinum single. A month later she released her highly-anticipated sophomore album, "
Distance", on
March 28,
2001, after an almost 2 year hiatus. It was crowned with the largest first-week sales for any album in J-music history, clearing a mind-boggling 2.6 million units. At the end of 2001, it became the most sold album for anyone worldwide with 5.44 milion copies sold in Japan alone. She had the #1 single and album of the year as well in Japan, for "Distance" and its last released single,"Can You Keep A Secret?."
The video for Utada's
2001 song "
Can You Keep a Secret?" received some attention as part of
International Week, which coincided with the 2001 EMAs, on the American channel
MTV2. That video's airplay was likely Utada's first chance at exposure in the United States.
DEEP RIVER era
After "
Distance", Utada released the singles
FINAL DISTANCE,
traveling,
Hikari, and
SAKURA Drops / Letters for her next album, "
DEEP RIVER".
In May of 2002, she became sick right before the release of "
DEEP RIVER". She was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor, and then underwent surgery. During this period, she had to put on hold her TV appearances and other promotional activities. In June of 2002, the album was released. While there were no TV appearances, she promoted her album in magazine and radio interviews. The
Oricon count of the album was 2.35 million sold for the first week, or 1.89 million by Planet's count. Oricon reports that sales eventually surpassed 3.60 million. Shortly afterwards, in September
2002, she announced her marriage to
Kazuaki Kiriya, a photographer and
film director fifteen years her senior.
As previously stated, she is still so far best known in the western hemisphere for singing "
Simple and Clean", the theme to the
video game Kingdom Hearts and its sequel "
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories", which is an
English version of her popular song "
Hikari", combined with elements from another of her songs, "Uso Mitai na I Love You". She also performed a well-received duet with
Foxy Brown, "Blow My Whistle", which was featured on the
Rush Hour 2 soundtrack.
Pre-EXODUS era
Hikki released "
COLORS", a single, on
January 29,
2003 and her only single in
2003. She then released a singles
compilation album "
Utada Hikaru SINGLE COLLECTION VOL.1" on
March 31,
2004. It set a whole new array of records for Utada's already legendary discography: Best-selling Album In Japan of 2004, first 'best of' album to reach #1 in 6 years on the yearly charts, and the first 'best of' album to reach #1 in 26 years. It sold 3.4 million units, which was a particularly impressive achievement since it received very little promotion and contained no new material or photos. A month later, on
April 21, she released her only Japanese single in
2004, "
Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" and had a power ballad-like sound to it, marking a noticeable departure from the R'n'B/Alternative Rock style of previous releases. It translates to "When Someone's Wish Comes True", and is also the main theme song to "
Casshern", her husband's,
Kazuaki Kiriya's, directorial debut.
Both "
COLORS" and "
Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" are available in Utada's fourth studio album,
ULTRA BLUE.
EXODUS era
|
Cover of Utada's 1st USA English debut album: EXODUS |
On
October 5,
2004, Utada Hikaru released her North American English-language debut album, "
EXODUS", under the name "Utada". It was released nearly a month earlier, on
September 9 in
Japan, with a special booklet and housed in a cardboard slipcase. In an MTV interview, Utada said: "There really aren't any completely Asian people singing right now. For me, it's an experiment to see what people are gonna think of it". The album featured much more overtly sexual lyrics which shocked some audiences. It became Utada's 4th consecutive release to debut #1, and have 500,000+ first-week sales, and had a chart run of 20 weeks on the Oricon. It sold considerably less than her three previous Japanese releases, due to its heavy experimentaion in dance,techno,acoustic,rock,funk, r'n'b grooves and other music genres, but still sold 1.35 million copies, and is considered a success by all means.
In spite of enlisting the help of
Timbaland to co-write some songs, her American debut as an
Island Def Jam Music Group artist was met with indifference by the American market, perhaps due in part to poor promotion on her record label's part, selling a minimal 30,000 units. Despite the failure in the international markets, this album topped the charts in Japan, though it sold less than her releases as Utada Hikaru. Also, "
Devil Inside" became a club hit in the U.S. and topped the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Airplay charts.
"
Easy Breezy" was released as the lead single in early August
2004, followed up by the dance blockbuster "
Devil Inside" a month and two weeks later. "
Exodus '04" was released at the end of June
2005. The fourth single from her "EXODUS" album was released in October 2005: "
You Make Me Want to Be a Man". "Devil Inside" reached the number one spot on Billboards US Dance charts. "Exodus '04" also charted. Maxi singles featuring remixes from The Scum Frog, Richard Vission, JJ Flores, and Peter Bailey were also released.
ULTRA BLUE era
|
Cover of Utada's 4th album: ULTRA BLUE |
A year after the release of
EXODUS, Utada jumped back into the Japanese music scene with the single, "
Be My Last". Although it became her 11th and final #1 single to date as of August 2006, it sold considerabley less than previous singles (150,000 units), probaly due to its heavy acoustic ballad sound, a departure from many of her previous releases. Three months later, she released another single, "
Passion", the theme for the Japanese version of
Kingdom Hearts II. It had a mediocre peak position of #4 on the Oricon Top 200 singles charts, selling only 112,000 units due to its little promotion, but did reach #1 on the OnGen Weekly Downloaded Singles chart. This would also her last single released in 2005. "Passion" is a song with a markedly different theme than the English song "
Sanctuary", even though both songs seem to have uplifting background music. Utada wrote "Sanctuary" before the Japanese "Passion", and the song appears in the English release of
Kingdom Hearts II.
On February 22, 2006, Utada released another single, "
Keep Tryin'". I addition to a stronger performance on the Oricon weekly single charts than 'Passion', the single reached #2, "Keep Tryin'" also garnered strongest digital sales of any Utada release single to date, reaching #1 on the OnGen top 20 weekly online download singles for a number of weeks. In May, Utada's record label, Toshiba/EMI, announced another single, "
This Is Love" which would not be available in physical format. It aired on the radio on Sunday, May 7, 2006. It was released as a digital single through
iTunes Japan on May 31 and other online and mobile phone music stores. Utada has also completed recording of her 4th Japanese album, titled
ULTRA BLUE. The whole album aired on Japanese radio on May 29, 2006. Unlike many of her previous albums, this album contained no song that matched the title of the album. Instead, a song, "BLUE" was recorded, using Utada's new experimental pop/dance tone found in "Keep Tryin'" and other 'ULRA BLUE' tracks like 'This Is Love', 'Making Love', and 'One Night Magic' a collaboration with Yamada Masashi. The album was finally released on June 14, 2006 for physical CDs and was released on June 28, 2006 for digital download on iTunes and other online Japanese music stores. With physical copies alone,
ULTRA BLUE cleared 500,317 copies in the first week out, easily topping the Oricon daily and weekly charts and surpassing
Angela Aki with her album,
Home and its 125,000 units sold. This gave Utada her sixth consecutive chart-topping album to sell in excess of 500,000 units, setting a new record. Despite strong first week sales,
ULTRA BLUE swiftly dropped to 150,000 copies sold in the second week, suggesting that this album will be one of the poorer performing albums of Utada's career to date besides the lackluster album,
EXODUS and will not be able to reach number one on the year's Oricon albums chart. Recently, in its 8th week charting on the Oricon (August 6-12, 2006), Ultra Blue has managaged to push 844,734 units, putting it a mere 31,961 units behind rival Ayumi Hamasaki's recent 2006 release "(miss)understood," indicating that it can can still give Utada another title as year's bestselling original studio album by a Japanese female singer, since sales of Hamasaki's "(miss)understood" have almost completely stalled at 876,695, and the album has dropped off of the Oricon chart top 100.
While many pop stars are satisfied with remaining complacent, Utada has started on a path of self-exploration that is rarely seen in the Japanese pop world. With each new self-assured step, Utada's musical experimentation reminds us why she has remained relevant as an artist for the past seven years. While this type of experimentation may alienate some listeners, her desire to test uncharted waters is what continues to make Utada a key player in the ever-changing landscape of Japanese pop music.
UTADA UNITED and beyond
"UTADA UNITED 2006" is currently underway in Japan. Aside from her Japanese work, the tour's setlist features songs from
EXODUS. The dates have all been announced, and ticket sales started on May 28, 2006 with the majority of venues selling out in less than two hours; the tour will run from July to September. On
September 20,
2006 EXODUS will be re-released in Japan, at the price of ¥ 1,470.
According to NHK Japan [
1], Utada will be releasing an anticipated new single called "" in either October or November, instead of releasing any more physical or digital singles from 'ULTRA BLUE'. Further speculation has arisen that this will in fact be a
B-side or a double
A-side single for HERO, according to recently released details from the copycat forum. Oricon Style has recently confirmed that "I'm a Bear" will be a track on this new single, which might come to be known as
HERO/Boku wa Kuma.
[http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/music/30942/]Also, Utada Hikaru is commonly considered to be the direct rival of (also J-Pop star)
Ayumi Hamasaki, which caused intense debate between fans of both artists.
On
March 28,
2001, Utada Hikaru and
Ayumi Hamasaki came in direct competition. Utada's album
Distance and Hamasaki's album
A BEST were released on the same day.
Distance topped the charts for the first week while
A BEST was #2. The following week
A BEST hit #1 and
Distance dropped to #3. At the end of the year,
Distance and
A BEST were the top 2 highest selling albums of the year.
However, on Utada's most recent TV-appearance on MUSIC STATION in December 2005, both Hamasaki and Utada appeared together and got along very well. Utada even commented that she sang some of Hamasaki's songs when she went to
karaoke. On the
June 16,
2006 episode of MUSIC STATION, Utada Hikaru and Ayumi Hamasaki were both scheduled to appear, marking their second public appearance together.
The Hamasaki-Utada rivalry has been regarded as one of the biggest rivalries in the Japanese music industry.
Odd recordings
*
COLORS (Godson Mix) - Used for a Toyota Wish commercial in 2004
Others â€" various artists
*
Japanese**Beautiful Drivin' Classic â€" Wish (
November 6 2003)
*
English**
By Your Side from Unity: Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games (
July 27 2004)
**
Blow my Whistle from Def Jam's Rush Hour 2 Soundtrack (
July 31 2001)
| Years | Awards | | 1999 |
*-Yusen Awards- Top Award "Special Prize"
*-Yusen Awards- Top Award "Best New Artist"
*-Record Awards- Best Album (First Love)
*-Record Awards- Best Song (Automatic) |
|---|
| 2000 |
*-Golden Disc- Artist of The Year
*-Golden Disc- Song of The Year (Automatic, Movin' on without you, Addicted To You)
*-Golden Disc- Pop Album of The Year (First Love)
*-Golden Disc- Music Video of The Year (SINGLE CLIP COLLECTION VOL.1)
*-World Music Awards- Best-Selling Japanese Artist
*-JASRAC- Gold Award (Automatic)
*-JASRAC- Silver Award (time will tell) |
|---|
| 2001 |
*-Golden Disc- Song of The Year (Wait & See ~Risk~, For You / Time Limit)
*-MTV JAPAN Viewer´s Choice Video (Can You Keep A Secret?) [2] |
|---|
| 2002 |
*SSTV Best Art Direction Video (traveling)
*SSTV Best Female Video (traveling)
*SSTV Best Video of The Year (traveling)
*-Golden Disc- Song of The Year (Can You Keep A Secret?)
*-Golden Disc- Song of The Year (traveling)
*-Golden Disc- Pop Album of The Year (Distance)
*JASRAC Silver Award (Can You Keep A Secret?) |
|---|
| 2003 |
*-World Music Awards- Best-Selling Japanese Artist
*J-WAVE Best Female Artist
*SSTV Best Female Video (SAKURA Drops)
*MTV JAPAN Best Female Video (SAKURA Drops)
*-Golden Disc- Artist of The Year
*-Golden Disc- Song of The Year (Hikari)
*-Golden Disc- Song of The Year (SAKURA Drops)
*-Golden Disc- Song of The Year (COLORS)
*-Golden Disc- Rock & Pop Album of The Year (DEEP RIVER)
*-Golden Disc- Music Video of The Year (traveling)
*JASRAC Silver Award (traveling)
*JASRAC Silver Award -Foreign Production- (Hikari) |
|---|
| 2004 |
*AMD Award for Best Music Composer (UH LIVE STREAMING 20 Dai wa Ikeike!)
* World Music Awards - WORLD'S BEST SELLING JAPANESE ARTIST |
|---|
| 2005 |
*-Golden Disc- Song of The Year (Dareka no negai ga Kanau Koro)
*-Golden Disc- Rock & Pop Album of The Year (Utada Hikaru SINGLE COLLECTION VOL. 1)
*-Golden Disc- Music Video of The Year (Utada Hikaru in Budokan 2004 'Hikaru no 5') |
|---|
| 2006 |
* Rank 10th HMV's Best Japanese Singer of All Time
*-Golden Disc- Song of the Year (Be My Last)
* Rank 1st - 5 Straight Albums to debut with sales in excess of 500,000 copies
* Rank 3rd - Total Female Artist Album Sales
* Oricon 40th Special Anniversary "WE LOVE MUSIC AWARDS" From Jan 4, 1968 ~ April 24, 2006:* Rank 1st - (First Love):* Rank 4th - (Distance):* Rank 8th - (DEEP RIVER) |
|---|
* Utada Hikaru is the youngest artist to appear on
MTV Unplugged so far. There, she sang her version of
U2's "
With or Without You".
[http://www.emimusic.com.tw/pop/utada/history.htm]* According to
Oricon, Utada is now on a record for having 5 straight #1 albums since debut in Japan.
[http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/ranking/25390/ Oricon 5 straight #1 albums since debut] She also reached #3 on Total Female Artist Album Sales.
[http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/ranking/23188/ Oricon Total Female Artist Album Sales]* Utada's English Debut EXODUS failed to make success in the Europe and United States territories. However, in Japan, it managed to sell over a million units, and set a record for an English-language album by selling 550,000 copies within its first 4 days of release.
* Utada went to the same highschool in Japan as LISA from
m-flo. LISA invited Utada to the last airing of her live radio show in June 2001. They were working together on her then new song "
FINAL DISTANCE" at the time.
* Utada owns a stuffed bear named Kuma-chan; "kuma" is "bear" in Japanese, and "-chan" is an affectionate term added to names. She often posts photos of him on her U3 blog. After discovering the "
made in China" tag on Kuma-chan's bottom, he was given the full name of "Kuma Chang" (which is technically pronounced identically to "Kuma-chan" in Japanese anyway). A staff pass was issued for the "UTADA UNITED 2006" tour.
[http://www.u3music.com/message/backnumber/ja/20060620j.html]* In June 2006, Utada confessed on her blog that she has "pillow dependence".
[[http://www.u3music.com/message/backnumber/ja/20060622j.html] She calls pillow "makura-san"(Mr. Pillow). She enjoys the comfort of feeling the pillow against her face, and would even hold the pillow all day long when she's stressed out. She was later surprised to find out there are many "pillow-addicts" out there, and joke about setting up a "pillow club".
[http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006081002134j.xml]* Utada's U3 blog contains an area for her to post entries in English as well as Japanese. She rarely writes in English, and when she does, it's a lot more diplomatic than Japanese blog entries. As of July 2006, her last post in English was on May 4, 2006. In it, she states she knows her Japanese entries are unofficially translated.
[http://www.u3music.com/message/backnumber/en/20060504e.html May greetings]Tetris
Utada Hikaru is an avid player of the video game
Tetris. She is currently involved with Nintendo of Japan promoting a contest, in which the winner will be able to challenge her to a match.
[http://club.nintendo.jp/tetris_campaign/index.html?C] She has previously appeared on TV playing Tetris against a TV-host and comedian
Hitoshi Matsumoto of the Japanese television program,
HEY! HEY! HEY! MUSIC CHAMP.
Starting from
June 23,
2006, she made several posts on her blog detailing her exploits playing
Tetris DS.
[http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062803093j.xmlhttp://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062215584j.xmlhttp://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062217444j.xmlhttp://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062217484j.xmlhttp://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062221124j.xmlhttp://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062221164j.xmlhttp://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062803093j.xmlhttp://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006070318521j.xml]She has reported that her current high score on Endless Mode is 99,999,999.
[http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&l=JP&d=2006070318521j.xml]
*
List of best-selling music artists*
List of number-one dance hits (United States)*
List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart*
Hikki's Website â€" official Japanese Toshiba EMI site
*
Hikki's Website â€" official Chinese EMI site
*
UTADA â€" official U.S. Island Records/Universal Music Group site
*
UTADA â€" official Japanese Island Records/Universal Music Group site
*
U3MUSIC INC â€" official Utada Hikaru/Utada Message/Blog site
Listening
*
Utada Hikaru audio (click headphones to listen to individual tracks)
Videos
*
Utada Hikaru videoszh-yue:宇多ç"°å…‰
