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Utada Hikaru (Japanese:
宇多田ヒカル) (born January 19,
1983), or "Hikki" as she is known to fans, is a Japanese pop music star. She was born in New York City,
New York to Japanese parents who both had roots in the Japanese music industry. She
made her first professional recording at the age of 12, and recorded her first album, Precious, in 1996 under the pseudonym "Cubic
U."
She moved to Tokyo later that year and attended the American School there while
continuing to record on a new contract with Toshiba/EMI. She soon made her mark on Japanese music with her successful single Automatic, soon followed by the album
First Love, which sold over five
million copies in a month in March and April of
1999 and placed Utada among the 100 wealthiest people in Japan.
Utada returned to New York in 2000 to attend Columbia University as a freshman, but took leave from it within the year. She continued to record,
however, and her two subsequent albums, Distance (2001) and DEEP RIVER (2002), also went multi-platinum. Shortly after the release of the latter, she announced her marriage to a photographer
15 years older than her named Kiriya Kazuaki in September 2002. She is set to make her American debut as an Island
Def Jam Music Group artist "UTADA" in Fall 2004.
So far she is best known in the West for singing "Simple and Clean," the theme to the video game "Kingdom Hearts," which is an English
translation of her popular song "Hikari." She also performed a well-received duet with Foxy Brown, "Blow My Whistle", which was featured on the Rush
Hour 2 soundtrack. Other hit Utada songs include "First Love," "Automatic,"
"Wait and See," "FINAL DISTANCE," "Distance," "Time Limit," "For You," "traveling," "COLORS," and "SAKURA Drops."
Discography
- Precious (1998)
- First Love (1999)
- Distance (2001)
- DEEP RIVER (2002)
- Utada Hikaru SINGLE COLLECTION VOL.1 (2004)
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