Hikaru Utada
Hikaru Utada is an international singing superstar. She has sold more than 41 millions records and scored a full dozen #1 hits on the Oricon chart ratings. She considers both New York and Tokyo to be her home and is commonly known as "Hikki" to her Japanese fans and "Utada" to her Western fans. Utada was born in Manhattan on January 19, 1983 to Japanese parents. As if her amazing musical abilities weren't enough, Utada had the good fortune of having a father who was a record producer and a mother who was a professional singer. She was able to record her first record at the spritely age of eleven and her first album at thirteen. After working on projects with her family Utada scored her first noteworthy success as a solo artist with the 1998 release of her first English-language album Precious. Later that year she released the single Automatic / Time Will Tell which would sell over 2 million copies and rocket Utada into the Japanese music scene. Utada would alternate her life between New York and Tokyo over the next few years as her music style developed and matured. She would release five more albums in Japan: First Love (1999), Distance (2001), Deep River (2002), Ultra Blue (2006) and Heart Station (2008) as well as the 2004 compilation album Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol.1. In 2004 she released another English album called Exodus. Utada has accumulated an impressive array of awards and sales records for both her albums and digital downloads over the years. She is consistently voted as one of the top artists in Japan. She is just that good. For more info checkout her Official English and Official Japanese (with English section) websites. Also checkout the unoffical Utadanet Forums. |