Utada Hikaru

Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル), also known by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American pop singer, songwriter and producer.

Utada is one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan.

Utada was born in the United States to Japanese parents, record producer Teruzane Utada and enka singer Keiko Fuji.

She began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo as a result of her father's job.

She made recordings with Keiko, releasing songs under a band named "U3" until 1996, when she started a solo project as Cubic U.

The first Cubic U single, "I'll Be Stronger", was released as a limited pressing in Japan in 1996.

The next year, Utada started another project, releasing "Close to You", a cover of the Carpenters' song.

She included it on her debut album Precious the following year.

Both the album and single failed to chart on Oricon in Japan.

After signing to Toshiba-EMI, she released her debut English-language debut album Precious as Cubic U in 1998, which was a commercial failure.

In the following year, heavily influenced by R&B and dance-pop, Utada released her Japanese-language debut, First Love, which was an immediate success.

Utada moved to Tokyo in the summer of 1998 and attended Seisen International School, and later the American School in Japan, while continuing to record on a contract with Toshiba-EMI.

Early success came from Japanese FM radio.

She was at the forefront of a new wave of singer-songwriters in Japan, branching out from the previously dominant idol singers.

Leading up to the release of her Japanese debut album First Love, at the age of 15, she released two successful million-selling singles: "Automatic/Time Will Tell" and "Movin' On Without You".

"Automatic/Time Will Tell" sold over two million copies.

Backed by these singles, First Love went on to sell over 7 million units in Japan alone (with an additional 3 million overseas, bringing it to a sum of at least 10 million units ), becoming the highest selling album in Japan's recent history.

The album yielded the single "First Love", which peaked at the number 2 spot.

Backed by the success of singles "Automatic", "Time Will Tell", and "Movin' On Without You", the album sold two million copies in its first week in Japan, topped the Oricon charts for six non-consecutive weeks and went on to sell six million more throughout the rest of 1999.

First Love eventually became Japan's best-selling album of all time.

also were later ranked at number 6 and number 10 respectively on Oricon's list of 10 Best-Selling Singles from January 1, 1999, to April 24, 2006.

By the end of the 2000s, Utada was deemed "the most influential artist of the decade" in the Japanese music landscape by The Japan Times.

She is one of Japan's top-selling recording artists of all time with over 40 million records sold.

Twelve of her singles have reached number one on the Oricon Singles Chart, while ten albums have become chart-toppers.

Six of her full-length releases are among Japan's highest-selling albums, including First Love, Distance and Deep River, which are among the top ten best-selling records of Japan's music history.

She is best known by international audiences for writing and producing four theme-song contributions to Square Enix and Disney's collaborative video game series Kingdom Hearts: "Simple and Clean", "Sanctuary", "Don't Think Twice", and "Face My Fears".

In 2021, Utada became one of the first Japanese figures to identify as non-binary.

Hikaru Utada was born in New York City as the only child of Teruzane Utada, a Japanese record producer, and his wife Junko, an enka singer performing under the stage name Keiko Fuji.

At the age of 10, Utada began to write music and lyrics.

Utada's album Distance was released in early 2001 and spawned her biggest singles—"Addicted to You", "Wait & See (Risk)" and "Can You Keep a Secret?"—which became million-sellers.

The album broke several sales records after three million copies were sold in its first week, instantly becoming Japan's fastest-selling album.

In 2002, backed by chart-topping singles such as Traveling, Hikari and Sakura Drops, Deep River, which incorporates elements of pop folk, was released and became become one of Japan's top-selling records of all time.

The albums Exodus, Ultra Blue and Heart Station also sold millions of copies.

By the end of the year, Utada was ranked 5th on Japanese radio station Tokio Hot 100 Airplay's Top 100 Artists of the 20th Century by the station and its listeners.

After a two-year break, Utada released the follow-up album Distance, garnering first-week sales of 3 million units.

On the strength of its singles — "Addicted to You", "Wait & See (Risk)", "For You", "Time Limit", and "Can You Keep a Secret?" — Distance became the best-selling album of the year, with 4.47 million copies sold in Japan alone.

Additionally, "Addicted to You" became her best-selling single, moving a million copies in its first week, the highest first week sales for a female solo artist, and staying on top of the chart for two consecutive weeks.

"Wait & See: Risk" and "Can You Keep a Secret?"

After a prolonged hiatus, Utada released the acoustic-driven albums Fantôme (2016) and Hatsukoi (2018), which reached number one on the Oricon albums chart.

She topped the charts again with 2022's Bad Mode, her first Japanese/English album.