Hikaru Utada

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Birth Name: 宇多田ヒカル

Age: 42, born 19 January 1983

Country of origin: United States

Currently Residing In: Japan

Height: 5' 2"

Relationship Status: Single

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Asian female vocalists (24 items)
list by Princess Lolita

Published 15 years ago

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Hikaru Utada Videos

宇多田ヒカル『One Last Kiss』

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Added 4 years ago

宇多田ヒカル『PINK BLOOD』

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宇多田ヒカル - 二時間だけのバカンス featuring 椎名林檎

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Description: Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer. Born in the United States to Japanese parents, record producer Utada Teruzane and enka singer Keiko Fuji, Utada began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo as a result of her father's job. Eventually, a recording contract with Toshiba-EMI was signed and, under the stage name Cubic U, Utada released her English-language debut album Precious in early 1998, but it was a commercial failure. In the following year, heavily influenced by R&B and dance-pop, her Japanese-language debut First Love was released and became an instant success. Backed by the Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer. Born in the United States to Japanese parents, record producer Utada Teruzane and enka singer Keiko Fuji, Utada began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo as a result of her father's job. Eventually, a recording contract with Toshiba-EMI was signed and, under the stage name Cubic U, Utada released her English-language debut album Precious in early 1998, but it was a commercial failure. In the following year, heavily influenced by R&B and dance-pop, her Japanese-language debut First Love was released and became an instant success. Backed by the massive success of singles "Automatic", "Time Will Tell", and "Movin' On Without You", the album sold two million copies in its first week in Japan, topped the Oricon charts for six non-consecutive weeks and went on to sell six million more throughout the rest of 1999. First Love eventually became the country's best-selling album of all time.

Her following album Distance was released in early 2001 and spawned Utada's biggest hit singles—"Addicted to You", "Wait & See (Risk)" and "Can You Keep a Secret?"—which became million-sellers. The album was commercially successful and broke several sales records after three million copies were sold in its first week of availability in Japan, instantly becoming the country's fastest-selling album. In 2002, backed by chart-topping singles such as "Traveling", "Hikari" and "Sakura Drops", Deep River, which incorporates elements of pop folk, was released and went on to become one of Japan's top-selling records of all-time. Subsequent full-length releases—Exodus, Ultra Blue and Heart Station—achieved million-selling status certified by the Recording Industry Association of Japan. After a prolonged hiatus, Utada released acoustic-driven Fantôme and Hatsukoi, which reached number-one on the Oricon album charts.

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. Utada's commercial success has made her one of Japan's top-selling recording artists of all time with over 37 million records sold since launching her career in the late 1990s. Twelve of her singles have reached number-one on the Oricon Singles Chart, while ten of her albums have become chart-toppers. Six of her full-length releases are among the country's highest-selling albums of all time, including First Love, Distance and Deep River, which are among the top ten best-selling records of Japan's music history. Additionally, Utada is best known by international audiences for writing and producing four theme-song contributions to Square Enix and Disney's collaborative video game series Kingdom Hearts: "Simple and Clean", "Sanctuary", "Don't Think Twice" and "Face My Fears".

Utada is bilingual and speaks English and Japanese fluently. On September 7, 2002, Utada married Kazuaki Kiriya, a photographer and film director who had directed several of her music videos. He was fifteen years her senior. On March 2, 2007, the couple announced their divorce, citing personal changes and lack of communication due to the nature of their jobs.

On August 22, 2013, Utada's mother, Keiko Fuji, died by apparent suicide by jumping from the thirteenth floor of a 28-floor condominium building in Shinjuku, Tokyo. On February 3, 2014, through an announcement on her personal site, Utada said that she was engaged to be wed to an unknown Italian man, asking for her fans and the media to view her personal life from a "respectable distance" as he is not in the entertainment industry. On the same day, her ex-husband Kazuaki Kiriya congratulated her on the new marriage. On February 10, 2014, Utada and her fiancé Francesco Calianno left a message on the official site of Utada explaining how they met each other, his being a bartender in a London hotel, and asking for privacy. They were wed on May 23, 2014. On July 3, 2015, Utada announced that she had given birth to a son. On April 6, 2018, it was announced that they had divorced. ... (more)