Hikaru Utada
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Hikaru Utada |
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Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル, born January 19 1983), 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.
Utada's names
Utada's name variations have been a source of some minor confusions in the past. Her legal Japanese name is currently Hikaru Iwashita (岩下光る, Iwashita Hikaru), born Hikaru Utada (宇多田光る, Utada Hikaru). The current status of her legal US name as well as the status of her US citizenship is unclear. 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 Hikaru Utada (宇多田ヒカル, Utada Hikaru), 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 "Hikki" (ヒッキー, Hikkī). 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".
Biography
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"). 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.
Precious era
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.
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. A month after "First Love" was released, "First Love" was recut as a single due to popular demand. 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. "For You / Time Limit", a double A-side single, was released in late June. 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. A month later she released her 2nd album, "Distance", on March 28, 2001.
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.
Rivalry
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 are 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.
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.
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.
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. A month later, on April 21, she released her only Japanese single in 2004, "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro". 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
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.
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. 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
A year after the release of EXODUS, Utada was back into the Japanese music industry with the single, "Be My Last". Three months later, she released another single, "Passion", the theme for the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts II. "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'". Despite a lackluster performance on the Oricon weekly single charts, as the single only reached #2, "Keep Tryin'" was garnered strong digital sales, 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 made, using Utada's new experimental tone found in "Keep Tryin'". 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 sold approximately 500,000 copies in the first week, easily topping the Oricon charts and surpassing Angela Aki with her album, Home and its 125,000 units sold. Despite strong first week sales, ULTRA BLUE swiftly dropped to 150,000 copies sold in the second week, suggesting that this album will be on the poorest performing albums of Utada's to date besides the lackluster album, EXODUS and will not be able to reach number one on the year's Oricon albums chart.
Current Activities
"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 a new song called "ぼくはくま (Boku wa Kuma, lit. I'm a Bear)" in either October or November, although this isn't confirmed. 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.
Discography
Odd recordings
- COLORS (Godson Mix) - Used for a Toyota Wish commercial in 2004
Others — various artists
- Japanese
- Beautiful Drivin' Classic — Wish (November 6 2003)
- English
Awards
| Years | Awards |
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| 1999 |
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| 2000 |
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| 2001 |
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| 2002 |
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| 2003 |
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| 2004 |
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| 2005 |
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| 2006 |
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Trivia
- 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". [3]
- According to Oricon, Utada is now on a record for having 5 straight #1 albums since debut in Japan. [1] She also reached #3 on Total Female Artist Album Sales. [2]
- 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 sales.
- 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.[4]
- 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. [5]
Tetris
Utada Hikaru is an avid player of the video game Tetris. She is currently involved with Nintendo of Japan promoting a contest [6] in which the winner will be able to challenge her to a match. 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. [3] She has reported that her current high score on Endless Mode is 99,999,999. [4]
References
- ^ http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/ranking/25390/ Oricon 5 straight #1 albums since debut
- ^ http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/ranking/23188/ Oricon Total Female Artist Album Sales
- ^ http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062803093j.xml http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062215584j.xml http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062217444j.xml http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062217484j.xml http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062221124j.xml http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062221164j.xml http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006062803093j.xml http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006070318521j.xml
- ^ http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&l=JP&d=2006070318521j.xml
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 Japanese Toshiba EMI site
- Hikki's Website — official Chinese EMI site
- UTADA — official U.S. Island Records/Universal Music Group site
- UTADA — official Japanese Island Records/Universal Music Group site
- U3MUSIC INC — official Utada Hikaru/Utada Message/Blog site
Listening
- Utada Hikaru audio (click headphones to listen to individual tracks)