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Hikaru Utada
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Hikaru Utada is a Japanese-American singer, songwriter and producer. Utada was born in New York in 1983 to Japanese parents: the producer Teruzane Utada and the enka singer Keiko Fuji. At the age of ten Utada wrote the first songs and at eleven the family moved to Tokyo. Under the name Cubic U, the English-language debut album Precious was released in 1998.
Music and breakthrough
The breakthrough came a year later with First Love (1999), the first Japanese-language album. It leaned on R&B and dance pop and became the best-selling album in Japanese history. The single Automatic, which had already come out in 1998, was one of the hits from that album. Distance (2001) and Deep River (2002) followed, with Hikari and Sakura Drops among others, and later Exodus (2004), Ultra Blue (2006) and Heart Station (2008). After a long break Utada returned with the acoustic albums Fantôme (2016) and Hatsukoi (2018), and in 2022 with Bad Mode. Internationally Utada is best known for the theme song Simple and Clean for the game series Kingdom Hearts.
Influence
The music combines American R&B with Japanese pop and styles such as folk. The Japan Times called Utada the most influential artist of the decade for Japan. Utada was one of the first well-known Japanese people to identify as non-binary. It is an example of how a Japanese artist could connect the pop music of their own country with international R&B.
Listening
Automatic · Hikaru Utada, 1998Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1998Precious
- 1999First Love
- 2001Distance
- 2002DEEP RIVER
- 2004Exodus
- 2006ULTRA BLUE
- 2008HEART STATION
- 2009This Is the One
- 2016Fantôme
- 2018?
- 2022Bad
Mentioned in other articles
- J-pop Genre
In the 1990s producers and female singers became stars, and with the album First Love (1999), with R&B influences, Hikaru Utada made the best-selling Japanese record ever.