Utada Hikaru

From Hkadb

[edit] Biography

Name: Utada Hikaru
Birthplace: new york city
Nickname: Hikki
DOB: 1: 19 : 1983
height: around 158 cm
Record Label: Toshiba-EMI

Young singer/songwriter Utada Hikaru is the biggest new name in Japanese music. Born in New York, her mother is the famous enka singer Fuji Keiko. "Hikki" spent a lot of her childhood in recording studios and started writing song lyrics in English when she was only 10. At that time, she liked rock bands such as Bon Jovi and Queen but she later became a fan of R&B music. By the time she was 12 she had already released 3 singles in the US, where she uses the name 'Cubic U'. She released her first English album in Japan, Precious, under this name in January 1998. The record was reasonably well received but by way of a re-entry into the Japanese pop music market, it was decided that she would use her real name.

The first single 'Automatic' was a No.1 hit, as was the second 'Movin' On Without You', which was also used in a Nissan TV commercial. As expected, her debut Japanese album 'First Love' went straight to No.1 in the charts. But more than that, it became the most popular debut album ever in Japan, selling more than 8 million copies.

This success was quickly followed up when her next single was used as the theme song for a popular TV drama series and she made a TV commercial for Sony. She said: "I want to continue to make my own music. And I want to continue to surprise people with my music." Utada's obvious talent, equal to that of similar artists in the US, sets her apart from her peers in Japan, whose main assets are not the ability to sing or dance but manipulability, nice looks and a squeaky-clean image. She looks set to build her own kind of career that could change the face of Japanese music.

In the summer of 2002, she surprised the media with the announcement of her marriage to a little-known photographer 15 years her elder. Kiritani Kazuaki is the son of a wealthy Kumamoto family, who ran away to the US in his teens. Based in New York, he was commisioned to take photos and direct videos for Utada's early work. She had the media in a frenzy again shortly afterwards, with the announcement that she was fighting cancer. Helped perhaps by her youth -- this was before she even turned 20 -- she made a quick recovery. Not only that but she won the Gold Disc award for album and single sales for the year, racking up well over 6 million copies sold.

It remains to be seen if her attempt to break into the US market will be as successful. She's certainly putting a lot of time and effort into it since signing with the Def Jam label early in 2002.