Utada Hikaru Biography
Utada Hikaru is an American-raised Japanese pop artist. She is among the most popular J-pop artists of this generation. Most well-known for her many talents, Utada is known for her wide voice range and original lyrics. Her married name is Hikaru Iwashita, but she is still widely known as Utada Hikaru. One of her nickname?s is "Hikki," a variation of the English word for love bite.
Utada Hikaru was born and raised in New York City, New York to Japanese parents that had roots in the Japanese music industry. Her first album was released in 1996 under the stage name, Cubic U. At fifteen years old, Utada released her first album in Japan,
Precious, an English album, however this album was never released in the United States. During this time, Utada was mostly unknown to the public.
When Utada released her album First Love, she became an incredible success. The album sold five million copies in the first month and ten million copies to date. First Love broke the record for amount of copies sold in Japan, and the album still holds the record.
In 2000, Utada moved to New York to attend Columbia University, but eventually left school to continue her music career overseas. Her album,
Distance, was released on March 28, 2001. Before releasing her third album,
Deep River, Utada Hikaru underwent surgery due to a tumor in her ovary. In September of the same year, Hikaru married Kazuaki Kiriya, a photographer and film director.
Her most recognized English songs are "Simple and Clean," the opening theme for Kingdom Hearts. Although Hikaru released an American album titled
Exodus, the album was not a big success. Some of her songs were briefly charted, but "Devil Inside" topped the Club/Dance charts.
Another Japanese album, entitled
Ultra Blue, was released on June 14, 2006. The album topped the charts for its first week in release, however, the album was not met with as much success as Utada's previous Japanese albums.
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