Hikaru Utada

Hikaru Utada (宇多田ヒカル, Utada Hikaru; born January 19, 1983), also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese-American singer, songwriter, and record producer. They are considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. They are perhaps best known by international audiences for writing and performing four theme-songs to Square Enix and Disney's Kingdom Hearts video game series: "Simple and Clean", "Sanctuary", "Don't Think Twice", and "Face My Fears" (with Skrillex).

Utada was born in New York City to Japanese parents, record producer Teruzane Utada and enka singer Keiko Fuji. They began to write songs at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo as a result of their father's job. Adopting the stage name Cubic U, they signed with Toshiba-EMI to release their English-language debut album, Precious (1998). Released the following year, their second album and Japanese-language debut, First Love (1999), leaned further into R&B and dance-pop influences; it was a commercial success, becoming Japan's best-selling album of all time. Its singles "Automatic", "Time Will Tell", and "Movin' On Without You" were commercially successful, while the album sold two million units in its first week in Japan, topped the Oricon chart for six non-consecutive weeks, and sold six million more units throughout the rest of 1999.

Utada's third album Distance was released in early 2001 and spawned their biggest singles—"Addicted to You", "Wait & See (Risk)" and "Can You Keep a Secret?" — each of which received multi-platinum certifications in Japan and other countries; it broke several sales records after three million copies were sold in its first week, instantly becoming Japan's fastest-selling album. Their fourth album, Deep River (2002)—backed by chart-topping singles such as "Traveling", "Hikari" and "Sakura Drops"—incorporated elements of pop folk, and became one of Japan's top-selling records of all time. Their subsequent albums, Exodus (2004), Ultra Blue (2006) and Heart Station (2008), also sold millions of copies. After a prolonged hiatus, Utada released the acoustic-driven albums Fantôme (2016) and Hatsukoi (2018), which reached number one on the Oricon albums chart. They topped the charts again with 2022's Bad Mode, their first Japanese/English album.

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. They are one of Japan's top-selling recording artists of all time with over 40 million records sold. Twelve of their singles have reached number one on the Oricon Singles Chart, while ten albums have become chart-toppers. Six of their 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. In 2021, Utada became one of the first Japanese figures to publicly identify as non-binary.

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