Hikaru Utada
| Utada Hikaru 宇多田ヒカル | ||
|---|---|---|
| Utada Hikaru | ||
| Utada Hikaru from the Passion photo shoot | ||
| Info | ||
| Origin | New York City, New York, USA | |
| Birthday | January 19, 1983 | |
| Genre(s) | J-pop & R&B | |
| Record label(s) | Toshiba-EMI, Universal & Island Records | |
| Years Active | 1997 - Present | |
Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル 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 Time interview, 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 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", 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.
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.
"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
An English-language version of her recently released single, "Passion", is likely to follow with the international release of the video game Kingdom Hearts II.
In addition to the forthcoming English-language version of "Passion", she has hinted at the possibility of another single by commenting that her next music video will be thematically related to the music video for "Passion".
She is currently working on recording her next Japanese-language album, set for release in 2006.
Discography
Albums
| Album # | Album cover | Album information | Copies Sold | Name Used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st (1st English) |
 |
Precious
|
— | Cubic U |
| 2nd (1st Japanese) |
First Love | 7,648,000 (Japan) Record: most copies album sold in Japan |
Utada Hikaru (Hikki) | |
| 3rd (2nd Japanese) |
Distance
|
4,467,000 (Japan) |
Utada Hikaru (Hikki) | |
| 4th (3rd Japanese) |
 |
Deep River
|
3,605,000 (Japan) |
Utada Hikaru (Hikki) |
| 5th (4th Japanese) |
Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 | 2,544,000 (Japan) |
Utada Hikaru (Hikki) | |
| 6th (2nd English) |
Exodus
|
1,074,000 (Japan) ~10,000 (US) N/A (UK) |
UTADA | |
| 7th (5th Japanese) |
(cover unconfirmed) | (title unconfirmed)
|
N/A | Utada Hikaru (Hikki) |
| — | — | — | ~19,321,000 (Album grand total) |
— |
| — | — | — | ~33,973,000 (Album+Single grand total) |
— |
Singles
| Single # | Date of release | Title of release | Album | Highest Oricon weekly top 200 position |
Language | Copies Sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st (1st English) |
January 28, 1997 | Close To You | Precious | N/A | English | - |
| 2nd (1st Japanese) |
December 9, 1998 | Automatic / time will tell (8cm) | First Love | #4 | Japanese | 772,000 |
| 2nd (1st Japanese) |
December 9, 1998 | Automatic / time will tell (12cm) | First Love | #2 | Japanese | 1,291,000 |
| - | - | Automatic / time will tell | - | - | - | total 2,063,000 |
| 3rd (2st Japanese) |
February 17, 1999 | Movin' on Without You (8cm) | First Love | #5 | Japanese | 347,000 |
| 3rd (2st Japanese) |
February 17, 1999 | Movin' on Without You (12cm) | First Love | #1 | Japanese | 880,000 |
| - | - | Movin' on Without You | - | - | - | total 1,227,000 |
| 4th (3rd Japanese) |
April 28, 1999 | First Love (8cm) | First Love | #6 | Japanese | 303,000 |
| 4th (3rd Japanese) |
April 28, 1999 | First Love (12cm) | First Love | #2 | Japanese | 501,000 |
| - | - | First Love | - | - | - | total 804,000 |
| 5th (4th Japanese) |
November 10, 1999 | Addicted To You | Distance | #1 | Japanese | 1,784,000 |
| 6th (5th Japanese) |
April 19, 2000 | Wait & See ~Risk~ (Wait & See ~リスク~) |
Distance | #1 | Japanese | 1,662,000 |
| 7th (6th Japanese) |
June 30, 2000 | For You / Time Limit (For You / タイム・リミット) |
Distance | #1 | Japanese | 909,000 |
| 8th (7th Japanese) |
February 16, 2001 | Can You Keep a Secret? | Distance | #1 | Japanese | 1,485,000 |
| 9th (8th Japanese) |
July 25, 2001 | FINAL DISTANCE | Deep River | #2 | Japanese | 582,000 |
| 10th (9th Japanese) |
November 28, 2001 | traveling | Deep River | #1 | Japanese | 856,000 |
| 11th (10th Japanese) |
March 20, 2002 | Hikari (光) | Deep River | #1 | Japanese | 598,000 |
| 12th (11th Japanese) |
May 9, 2002 | SAKURA Drops/Letters (SAKURAドロップス / Letters) |
Deep River | #1 | Japanese | 687,000 |
| 13th (12th Japanese) |
January 29, 2003 | COLORS | #1 | Japanese / English | 894,000 | |
| 14th (13th Japanese) |
April 21, 2004 | Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro (誰かの願いが叶うころ) |
#1 | Japanese | 356,000 | |
| 15th (2nd English) |
August 3, 2004 | Easy Breezy | Exodus | No Rank (Internet release) |
English | - |
| 16th (3rd English) |
September 14, 2004 | Devil Inside | Exodus | #1 (Billboard Dance Charts) |
English | - |
| 17th (4th English) |
June 21, 2005 | Exodus '04 | Exodus | #24 (Billboard Dance Charts) |
English | - |
| 18th (14th Japanese) |
September 28, 2005 | Be My Last | #1 | Japanese | 145,000 | |
| 19th (5th English) |
October 17, 2005 | You Make Me Want to Be a Man | Exodus | #227 (UK Singles Charts) |
English | - |
| 20th (15th Japanese) |
December 14, 2005 | Passion | #4 | Japanese | 68,110 | |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | Single grand total ~14,652,000 |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | Single+Album grand total ~33,973,000 |
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
Awards
| Years | Awards |
|---|---|
| 1999 |
|
| 2000 |
|
| 2001 |
|
| 2002 |
|
| 2003 |
|
| 2004 |
|
| 2005 |
|
See also
- 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
External links
- Hikki's Website — official Toshiba EMI site
- UTADA — official U.S. Island Records/Universal Music Group site
- UTADA — official Japanese Island Records/Universal Music Group site
- UtadaNet.com — Utada News & Fan Community
- article on Utada — from Time Asia
- Utada-Online.net — The Leading Utada Hikaru Fan Forum
- Hikaru Utada — Nippop profile*
Happy Place — Utada Hikaru Chinese Forum (1)
- Asia Fans House — Utada Hikaru Chinese Forum (2)
- History — detailed history, in English
- Hikaru Utada discography at MusicBrainz
- Cubic U discography at MusicBrainz
- Utada discography at MusicBrainz
- The PPN's Wiki — Wiki on Utada at THE PPN.