 AsiaFinest
Utada Hikaru
 Date
of Birth: Born in New York on January 19, 1983
The same birth date as Yuming, a colleague in the same company; writer/poet
Edgar Allan Poe whom I fell in love with in junior-high school; Ogai Mori,
a writer of Japan's literary history; and dear Mr. Udo Suzuki, another
person Japan is proud of. Please let me know if anyone you know is born
on the same date.
Height: 158 cm It's my height, honest. It hasn't changed since
my debut. I wonder if that means my growth is totally over?
Blood Type: A Well! True born type!, 'cause both of my parents
are A. It's a common type among Japanese, isn't it?
Hobbies: Literature remains my eternal passion! I've been missing
Japanese literature so much of late. I rushed into a bookstore which sells
books in Japanese, and bought about 15 books in one swoop... I stay at
home and have been grappling with the books like a hungry beast. Buying
furniture, collecting furniture and interior goods Though I said I've
been growing my hair long, I've had it cut. Ou, la, la. (Girls who had
their hair short once would know this feeling?) Of course email is a tool
indispensable for business and private life, but cruise the Net too. I
learned about several sites from Toshiba EMI's engineer the other day.
They are awesome -- quite interesting, Mesdames! I recommend first of
all two of them, Modern Living and otogaiworld-------. Visit them late
at night, then they'll be further to the point.
Specialties: To evade saying "I suppose it's OK"*To puzzle
others*Independent action of my left little finger*Basketball*Cleaning.
Really, I have confidence at it. I get strangely obsessed about the cleanliness
of my house. If I suddenly disappear from the music world, you might see
Hikaru Utada working as a helper at some inn in Atami.
Favorite Movies: Shawshank Redemption, Meet Joe Black, Godfather
Part 2 (I like Robert De Niro), Good Will Hunting, Baghdad Cafe, The Jerk,
Unbreakable, Orlando, Amadeus, Sleepy Hollow
Favorite Writers: Kenji Nakagami, "Izoku," "Kishuben";
Ryunosuke Akutagawa, "Rashomon," "Kappa"; Yasunari
Kawabata ,"Kanjo Soshoku," "Yukiguni"; Ogai Mori,
"Takasebune"; Soseki Natsume "Kokoro"; Kenji Miyazawa
(poetry); Yukio Mishima"Kinkakuji"; Ryotaro Shiba "Sekigahara";
Hermann Hesse. Read "Siddhartha" and "Happiness" and
"Steppenwolf" as finale, then you'll be fully satisfied! (I
recommend the translation by Kenji Takahashi)
Roald Dahl, "Tales of the Unexpected"; Shel Silverstein, "Where
the Sidewalk Ends," "A Light in the Attic";Edgar Allan
Poe; Elie Wiesel, "Night"; John Berendt, "Midnight in the
Garden of Good and Evil"; F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby.
Favorite Artists: I have many many more favorite artists than listed
below. I have too many, in fact, and they are constantly increasing. Anyhow,
here are some...
Freddie Mercury (Queen), Yutaka Ozaki, Bjork, Janet Jackson, Minnie Riperton,
Slash (Guns 'n' Roses), Joe, Lauryn Hill, Maxwell, Craig David, Garbage,
No Doubt, GLAY, Guru, Enigma, Blink182, Miles Davis, Mozart, Blue Man
Group, At the Drive-in, Erykah Badu, Jimi Hendrix, Bela Bartok, Edith
Piaf.
Places I Want to Go: Italy, Mexico, Machu Picchu, Sahara Desert,
my ancestral home in Yamaguchi Pref. (I've never visited before, and would
like to visit as soon as I can.)
Things Hooked on Recently:
*Hoop-shaped pierced earrings (again) and accessories with silver and
gold mixed, though I used to focus on silver only before (does that mean
that I've grown a bit?)
*Stimulant seasonings such as tabasco, sesame oil with chili peppers,
vinegar and wasabi.
*I'm into long baths lately. Throughout the world, whether at home in
New York, in Japan or in a hotel in Europe, I'm indebted to Japan's famous
hot spring bath powder from Tsumura. My father said he likes it, too.
Don't you think I have fairly composed daily schedule, though my looks
may be quite far out....
*It's a fairly recent thing but I've become very fond of making drinks
myself. I bought an espresso maker and coffee maker and make them myself
every day. I also discovered a cute teacup set at DKNY and I make Japanese
tea often and drink it. I squeeze oranges every morning to make juice...
Are these things so common that everybody does them? For me who doesn't
cook, it's great progress!
My Favorite Words:
kinomi kinomama (with only the clothes one happens to be wearing); shogyo
mujo (All things are in flux and nothing is permanent); kechon kechon
(completely); charappoko (no sweat); gakeppuchi (cliff edge); ikkaku senkinn
(quick money, fortune at a stroke) (--laugh);
February; maybe; love;
"Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be"
- Abraham Lincoln;
"Instead of tug o'war, let's play hug o' war" - Shel Silverstein;
"Turn a negative into a positive picture" - Lauryn Hill
Utada Hikaru, born in New York in 1983, grew up immersed in music. Recently
she's earned much praise for her musical sense and for her talent as singer-songwriter.
Everything started with the single "time will tell," which registered
on numerous FM charts more than a month before her official debut "Automatic."
That release also did well on the charts, and since then, she's followed
it up with more and more songs, many of them entering the charts at the
same time! Utada won the "PowerPlay" on dozens of nationwide
FM stations. It is still freshly remembered that on the week of its release,
her single set the record of ranking No.1 in frequency of airplay on FM
and AM stations in both the Kanto and Kansai regions (203 times per week
a 1998 record). And it's a well-known fact that "Automatic/time will
tell" (released Dec. 9, 1998 as both 12cm and 8cm discs) amazed everybody,
achieving the extraordinary distinction of being ranked highly on various
sales charts for both 12cm disc and 8cm discs, including the Original
Confidence (Ori-Con) chart. Her following second single "Movin' on
without you" (released February 17, 1999 ), a commercial song for
Nissan Terrano, earned the top position as it appeared in the Original
Confidence chart. And her debut album, "First Love" (March 10,
1999 release), sold out at record stores prior to its official release
date. In addition to instantly ranking No.1 on the Ori-Con chart, it also
set new records for "Highest Initial Points for a Debut Album,"
and "Highest Initial Points for an Original Album." In the May
10 issue of Ori-Con, it became No.1 on the All Albums Chart. In the space
of a mere five months after her debut, Utada climbed to the top of the
Japanese pop music scene. After the title track of "First Love"
(released April 28, 1999) became the main theme for TBS network's weekly
drama "Majo no Joken" (To Be a Witch), it was released as a
single. Together with the drama the song continues to give heart-throbbing
excitement to all viewers. The first live performances as "Utada
Hikaru" were held on April 1 (at Umeda Heat Beat, Osaka) and April
2 (at Zepp Tokyo, Tokyo) with a full invitation system. Each host radio
station was swarmed by applications from fans. Each stage was one consolidated
groove when everybody and everything in the hall became as one amid the
highest excitement, as Utada voiced, "Live is great and fun...!"
Utada Hikaru was born in the United States to a famous enka singer and
a songwriter, who not only made sure that Hikaru inherited their talents,
but also that she learned English before returning to Japan. As a child,
Hikaru, spent time in recording studios soaking in the music and, at age
10, she began writing her own song lyrics in English. During that time,
she was rocking out to bands like Queen and Bon Jovi, but later on got
into R&B. By age 12, she had released three singles in the U.S. under
the pseudonym, Cubic U.
When she released her first album, "First Love," in Japan, it
immediately went to No. 1 on the charts and became the most popular debut
album ever released in Japan, selling eight million copies. Utada is currently
living in New York City, and is an undergraduate student at Columbia University.
Part of the above bio is from Time, Hikki's website and jpopmusic.
Utada Hikaru has a hidden life. she appears to be an ordinary American
college student. Last fall she attended classes by day, hung out with
friends by night, and like most of her fellow Columbia University freshmen,
she hasn't settled on a major yet. But there were rumors about her among
the students during orientation week—stories that were hard to believe.
"Most of my friends know the truth," says Hikaru. "Even
before the first day of school, I was talking to this friend who was going
to Columbia also, and he told me, 'People all know you're coming.' And
I go, 'What do you mean?' And he said, 'Well, all the Asian kids know,
but even the non-Asian students have heard something about the Japanese
Britney Spears coming to their school.'"
She's virtually unknown in the U.S., but Hikaru, 18, is Japan's biggest
pop star. The Japanese media sing her praises: BILINGUAL STRAIGHT-A STUDENT!
AND THE DIVA OF THE HEISEI PERIOD! The Japanese public devours her music:
her debut CD, First Love (1999), sold more than 9.5 million copies, making
it the best-selling album in Japanese history. Her new CD, Distance, is
selling just as fast. While other Japanese pop divas are content to sing
throwaway tunes in baby-girl tones, Hikaru, who says that growing up she
used to go to sleep to Metallica and wake up to Pearl Jam, performs songs
that draw from R. and B., rap and even rock. During a recent MTV Unplugged
concert, she surprised fans with a rendition of the Irish rock band U2's
song With or Without You. Except for such occasional covers, Hikaru writes
almost all her own material, combining light melodies and strong grooves.
Her lyrics, though mostly about adolescent angst, can be intriguingly
off center. "Our last kiss/Tasted like cigarettes," she sings
on First Love.
Although the press has compared Hikaru to Spears, the two are sharply
different. First, there's the issue of clothes. Unlike Britney, Hikaru
keeps hers on. "I'm not like a gorgeous bombshell or anything like
that," she says modestly. "It was just always my music at the
front." Mobbed in Japan, she relishes anonymity in America. "I
can never really enjoy being famous," she says. "So when I can
just take a walk and go grocery shopping in New York, it takes a huge
load off my back and I feel great. I feel human again, almost."
Hikaru was born in New York City but raised part-time in Tokyo. "When
people ask me exactly how much time I spend in each country, I always
tell them I have no idea," she says. "Because my parents have
taken me back and forth ever since I was a baby." Her father Teruzane
Utada is a producer and musician who now runs her management company.
Her mother Keiko Fuji was a popular enka (Japanese ballad singer) in the
1970s who broke her fans' hearts by giving up her career and moving to
the U.S. to find a little peace. ("I don't sing anymore," is
all Fuji says now, smiling.) Hikaru says she got her start when she followed
her parents into the studio and began to make recordings around age seven.
("No, younger!" shouts her father from nearby.) Like her mother,
Hikaru plans to retire young—as early as 28—and perhaps pursue
neuroscience. "I kind of see myself in a white coat in a lab, working
till late evening in front of test tubes," she says. It's hard to
imagine that Spears has a similar vision of her future.
For now, though, Hikaru has taken leave from school (she plans to return
soon) to focus on her music and establish her career in the U.S. She recently
performed a song called Blow My Whistle, which was included on the sound
track of the movie Rush Hour 2. Produced by the Neptunes, one of the hottest
American hip-hop production duos around, the song features a cameo from
gangsta rapper Foxy Brown. Hikaru said her producers were worried at first
that she and Brown might fight, given their different temperaments and
backgrounds. They got along just fine. The idea of having her on the song
came from Pharrell (Williams, one-half of the Neptunes), says Hikaru.
"He said Foxy and I would make a very strong combination, the two
of us being such contrasting characters: the crazy, revealing, in-your-face
Ill Na Na [Foxy's nickname] and the more settled and slightly mysterious
Asian girl."
The music industry is ruled by stereotypes: whites rock, blacks rap and
croon soul, and few dare to cross the color line. There are hardly any
Asian pop acts of prominence in the U.S. (no wonder some see Hikaru as
mysterious). Hikaru is mounting a challenge to the status quo. On Blow
My Whistle, her voice is more resonant than on her Japanese-language songs,
and the track boasts beats that are more forceful. She leaves no doubt:
she's got Mary J. Blige, 125th Street-type soul. There's another twist.
The credits bill her as "Hikaru Utada"—using the Western
custom of listing the surname last. Says Hikaru: "I just figured
it's a good way to separate my English and Japanese personas." After
the interview, she sends a follow-up e-mail that begins, "This is
Hikaru Utada. (Or is it Utada Hikaru...oh, whichever!)" She's still
a freshman. She'll work things out. This is from a Time's article Oct
2001 BY CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY WITH REPORTING BY TOKO SEKIGUCHI/TOKYO
Update 9/06/2002 - Utada Hikaru announced her marriage to 34 year old
photographer Kiriya Taniwa. They met in winter 2 years ago and have continued
a relationship ever since. She too plans to have a child in the near future
and is puting her singing career on hold for a short period of time to
settle into her new life.
On October 5, 2004, Utada Hikaru released her North American debut album,
Exodus, under the name "Utada" (for fear of fans mutilating
her Japanese nickname, Hikki). It was released nearly a month earlier,
on September 9 in Japan, with a special booklet and housed in a cardboard
slipcase. In an MTV interview, Utada said: "There really aren't any
completely Asian people singing right now. For me, it's an experiment
to see what people are gonna think of it". But her American debut
as an Island Def Jam Music Group artist was met with indifference by the
American market, perhaps due in part to poor promotion on her record label's
part. Despite the failure in the international markets, this album topped
the charts in Japan, though it sold less than her releases as Utada Hikaru.
Also, "Devil Inside" became a club hit in the U.S. and topped
the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Airplay charts.
"Easy Breezy" was released as the lead single in early August
2004, followed up by the dance blockbuster "Devil Inside" a
month and two weeks later. "Exodus '04" was released at the
end of June 2005. The fourth single from her "Exodus" album
was released in October 2005: "You Make Me Want To Be A Man"
| We highly recommend you get Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol.1.
Get ready for Hikaru 's lethal musical dose! Her beautiful new release
offers you the ultimate musical library of her beloved hits promising
you extended hours of top J-pop all around the clock! The star 's
cream of the crop tunes like "For You", "Automatic"
& "Can You Keep A Secret", "COLORS", plus
many other essential smashs are all lined up for you on this dream
collection! Listen to "SINGLE COLLECTION VOL.1" to enjoy
Hikaru at her best! This compilation is great for people who is
new to Utada Hikaru. |
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