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Utada Information
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'Utada Hikaru' , born January 19 1983), also known as "Hikki" to her Japanese fans, is a J-Pop music star. She has gone by Hikaru Utada (where surname comes last) once, in credits for a joint song with Foxy Brown, Blow My Whistle on the Rush Hour 2 movie soundtrack. In a , she explains: "I just figured it's a good way to separate my English and Japanese personas." However, ever since Exodus (2004), her first album in the States after her Cubic U era, and on singles from that album, she has gone by simply as "Utada," while the press mostly refers to her as Utada Hikaru. Utada Hikaru is one of the most popular and successful Asian artists today, given her personality, singing, songwriting, and producing ability, looks, lifestyle, and upbringing.
Biography
She 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"). 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 a recent 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 , a photographer and movie director. He 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", and "Passion". Also, "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" was played during the credits of Kiriya's best-known film, Casshern.
"Time Will Tell"
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", 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. She also broke the record of units sold on a single album in Japan; she still holds the record (in 2005).
The album has sold more than ten million copies in Asia.
Music into the 2000s
Utada returned to New York in 2000 to attend Columbia University as a freshman, but took leave from it within the year. She continued to record, however, and her two subsequent albums, Distance (2001) and Deep River (2002), also went multi-platinum. In September 2002, shortly after the release of the latter, she announced her marriage to Kazuaki Kiriya, a photographer and director fifteen years her senior who directed her videos "Final Distance", "Traveling", "Hikari", and "Sakura Drops".
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.
So far she is 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. Her most successful singles include "Can You Keep a Secret?", "Addicted to You", and "First Love".
Breaking into the English market
On October 5 2004, Utada Hikaru released her North American debut album, Exodus, under the name "Utada" (for fear of fans mutilating her Japanese nickname, Hikki). 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".
But 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. 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.
Utada Hikaru calls Exodus her "experiment", and failing to establish as huge a fanbase as the one she has in Japan probably won't bother the young superstar as much as it has her diehard American fans. Her ability to traverse both the English and Japanese languages with ease, along with her songwriting abilities and unique voice place Utada firmly in the hierarchy of Japanese superstars.
"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".
Future plans
Her forthcoming single, "Passion", is the theme song for the video game Kingdom Hearts II. Much like Hikari/Simple and Clean, Passion was written in collaboration with the game's developer Square Enix, however the developers have chosen to use the song's lyrics as a framework upon which to structure the plot and, consequently, the song will summarize the theme of the game's story. It is set to be released on December 14 2005. As with Hikari, an English version is likely to follow with the international release of the game.
Discography
Albums
*'Japanese'
**Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol.1 (March 31 2004) ” '#1' 2,544,000
**Deep River (June 19 2002) ” '#1' 3,605,000 copies sold
**Distance (March 28 2001) ” '#1' 4,467,000 copies sold
**First Love (March 10 1999) ” '#1' 7,648,000 copies sold (worldwide: 10,000,000 copies sold) (Holds record for most copies of an album sold in Japanese history)
*'English'
**Exodus (September 8 2004 [Japan]; October 5 2004 [USA]; October 24 2005 [UK]) ” '#1 JP' , #160 Billboard Hot 200 Albums Chart ~10,000 copies sold (note: sales were so low in the US that no official number is available, only estimates) (1,074,000 copies sold in Japan)
**Precious (1998)
Singles
*'Japanese'
**"Passion" (December 14 2005)
**"Be My Last" (September 28 2005) ” '#1' over 145,000 copies sold
**"Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" (April 21 2004) ” '#1' 365,000 copies sold
**"Colors" (January 29 2003) ” '#1' 894,000 copies sold
**"Sakura Drops/Letters" (May 9 2002) ” '#1' 687,000 copies sold
**"Hikari" (March 20 2002) ” '#1' 598,000 copies sold
**"Traveling" (November 28 2001) ” '#1' 856,000 copies sold
**"Final Distance" (July 25 2001) #2 582,000 copies sold
**"Can You Keep a Secret?" (February 16 2001) ” '#1' 1,485,000 copies sold
**"For You/Time Limit" (June 30 2000) ” '#1' 909,000 copies sold
**"Wait & See -Risk-" (April 19 2000) '#1' 1,662,000 copies sold
**"Addicted to You" (November 10 1999) ” '#1' 1,784,000 copies sold
**"First Love" (April 28 1999) (12cm) ” #2 501,000 copies sold
**"First Love" (April 28 1999) (8cm) ” #6 303,000 copies sold
**"Movin' on Without You" (February 17 1999) (12cm) ” '#1' 880,000 copies sold
**"Movin' on Without You" (February 17 1999) (8cm) ” #5 347,000 copies sold
**"Automatic/Time Will Tell" (December 9 1998) (12cm) ” #2 1,291,000 copies sold
**"Automatic/Time Will Tell" (December 9 1998) (8cm) ” #4 772,000 copes sold
*'English'
**"You Make Me Want to Be a Man" (October 17 2005)- #26 on MSN Videos
**"Exodus '04" (June 21 2005) ” #24 Billboard Hot Dance/Club Airplay
**"Devil Inside" (September 14 2004) ” '#1' Billboard Hot Dance/Club Airplay
**"Easy Breezy" (August 3 2004) (Internet release only)
Videos/DVDs
*Passion (December 14 2005)
*Be My Last (September 28 2005)
*Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro (July 28 2004)
*Utada Hikaru in Budokan 2004; Hikaru no 5 (July 28 2004)
*UH Live Streaming: 20Dai wa Ike Ike! (March 29 2003)
*Colors (March 12 2003)
*UH Single Clip Collection Vol. 3 (September 30 2002)
*Traveling (January 30 2002)
*Utada Hikaru Unplugged (November 28 2001)
*UH Single Clip Collection Vol. 2 (September 27 2001)
*Wait & See ~Risk~ (June 30 2001)
*Bohemian Summer 2000 (December 19 2000)
*UH Single Clip Collection Vol. 1 (December 16 2000)
Others ” various artists
*'Japanese'
**Beautiful Drivin' Classic ” Wish (November 6th 2003)
*'English'
**Unity: Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games (July 27 2004)
**Def Jam's Rush Hour 2 Soundtrack (July 31 2001)
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