Hikaru Utada
Hikaru Utada ( Japanese 宇多田 ヒ カ ル , Utada Hikaru ; born January 19, 1983 in New York City ) is a Japanese - American singer who became famous with Japanese pop music . Her debut album, First Love, is the best-selling album, and her single, Automatic, is the second-highest-selling debut single and single by a singer in Japan. In addition, Flavor of life is the second most successful download single worldwide with over 7.5 million download sales. To date, Utada Hikaru has sold over 52 million records. In 2009 the Japan Times called her "Most Influential Artist of the Decade".
In addition, Utada is known in western latitudes for the production of three theme songs for video games from Square Enix 'and Disney's video game series Kingdom Hearts : "Simple and Clean" (the localized for the English-speaking area of the title of the English-language recorded version of their song Hikari (光, dt. Light )) for Kingdom Hearts, "Sanctuary" for Kingdom Hearts II (in the Japanese version "Passion") and "Don't Think Twice" for Kingdom Hearts III. In 2007 her single "Flavor of Life" reached number 2 in the worldwide download singles chart with over 7.2 million downloads and contributed to 12 million download sales in the same year.
Career
Hikki , as she is also called by fans, was born in New York. Her father was a music producer and her mother a singer. At the age of twelve she made her first vocal recordings with her mother and published her first songs with the band U3 (Utada 3). In 1996 she started her first solo singing projects.
1998
Her first album Precious was released under the pseudonym "Cubic U". In the same year she moved to Tokyo and attended an American school there while she was making new recordings.
1999 to 2003: solo debut and heyday
The single Automatic , followed by their album First Love , was released. This album sold five million copies within a month. With more than 10 million units sold worldwide, First Love is the most successful album by an Asian artist to date. Automatic was the most successful debut single in Japan with over 2 million sales.
Hikaru Utada returned to New York in 2000, where she attended Columbia University . At the same time, she continued recording and released two more albums: Distance (2001) and Deep River (2002). Both albums were able to build on their old successes and were each the best-selling albums of the respective year in Japan. Deep River had to do without any TV promotion because cysts had formed on her ovaries in 2002 and she immediately sought treatment. Shortly after Deep River was released , she announced her engagement to photographer Kiriya Kazuaki. He shot all of her videos from Final Distance until the divorce (February 2007) (the only exception: Colors from 2003).
2004-2006
Her first compilation, Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol.1 , was released on March 31st . As a result, Utada managed to secure number 1 in the album annual charts for three years in a row.
In autumn 2004 she released her first English-language album Exodus under the name Utada in the USA and Europe (here only on request) . The songs Easy Breezy , Devil Inside , Exodus '04 and You Make Me Want to Be a Man were released as singles. However, Easy Breezy was only released as a download single in Japan and You Make Me Want to Be a Man was only released in England.
In addition, she signed an advertising contract with Nintendo in 2004 and from then on was the advertising medium for Nintendo's new handheld console, the Nintendo DS, in Japan along with her song Easy Breezy . At more than 1.2 billion yen (around € 7.5 million), this is the largest advertising deal ever by a Japanese artist.
In 2005, Hikaru Utada released a new single, Be My Last , which reached the top of the charts and set a new record with more than 2 million downloads on the Japanese iTunes portal.
The follow-up single Passion (title song to the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts II) was only able to take third place in the weekly charts despite good reviews. However, the song was purchased for a fee more than 1.5 million times on the Japanese iTunes portal, making it a great financial success. The accompanying PV (Promotion Video) is the most expensive video in Japan in 2005 and impresses with its novel computer effects. In total, more than 30 people worked on the video for almost 3 months. Like many of her videos, this one was created almost entirely on the computer. It was named Best Video of the Year by the Japanese Academy of Video Art and Design. Passion was also recorded in English for the American market and the associated English-language version of Kingdom Hearts II. The English version is called Sanctuary and can be heard in the American and European versions as the theme song.
With Keep Tryin ' she released the most successful download single of the year in Japan. With Wings, there is a B-side on one of their singles for the first time in years. In June, Ultra Blue was their first regular Japanese studio album in 4 years. Ultra Blue immediately secured number 1 on the album charts and sold more than 500,000 times in the first week. Including the download sales, the album went 10 times platinum for more than 5 million units sold. With more than 4 million downloads, Ultra Blue is the most successful studio album by a Japanese artist in 2006. Ultra Blue has been described by many critics as groundbreaking in terms of pop and melody. Listen To Music Magazine, feared for its reviews and only available to Japanese specialist retailers , gave the album 99 out of 100 possible percentage points . According to this magazine , Ultra Blue is one of the 10 best (2nd place) albums published to date in Japan.
In the summer of 2006 Utada Hikaru was on the Utada United Tour 2006 in Japan. This was their first major tour of Japan since 2000. The tickets were initially distributed by lottery, but due to the great demand - more than 7 million tickets could have been sold within the first 3 days - 4 additional concerts were announced for the Tickets could only be ordered via a specially activated hotline. However, these cards were also sold out within 2 minutes. A further 12,500 cards were donated to charitable projects.
The two shows in Saitama (August 17/18, 2006) were recorded for the Utada United DVD. Oricon Magazine calculated in the July issue that the Utada United Tour was the most successful tour to date in Japan with revenues of more than 8.25 billion yen (about 55 million €) and that she herself was more than 3.5 billion yen as an artist (about € 23.5 million) from it. With this she breaks her own record from the year 2000, where she played in front of more than a million fans with the Bohemian Summer Tour 2000, which has since been considered the most successful tour in Japan.
2007-2010
On February 28, 2007, Hikki's new number 1 single Flavor of Life was released, which sold half a million times in the first three weeks alone. With 7.2 million downloads she was in 2007 after Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend with 7.3 million downloads, the second most successful download / ringtone single worldwide. At the end of January 2008, the units sold increased to 7.5 million.
On February 3, 2007, Utada Hikaru announced the divorce from her husband, Kazuaki Kiriya. Their marriage lasted 4½ years. The stressful life of both was given as the reason for divorce.
Her new song Kiss & Cry premiered on Japanese radio on May 21, 2007 and was largely received positively by critics and fans. Kiss & Cry captivates with a new and rather "Hikki-untypical" sound. Since May 31, 2007, Kiss & Cry can be purchased and downloaded from all Japanese music platforms for a fee. Immediately after the song was released, Kiss & Cry shot to number 1 of all download platforms in Japan and sold more than 300,000 copies on the first day alone. Just like This Is Love they advertise Kiss & Cry for Nissin Cup Noodle FREEDOM . According to Tokyo News, Hikki will receive the equivalent of € 1.3 million for the rights to use her new song alone, with which she continues to consolidate her position as the most expensive advertising figure in Japan without even being seen in the NISSIN TV spot.
Under the motto The Return of the Queen , all major Japanese magazines were quoted on June 1, 2007, when it became known that they would publish a Double A single (single with two songs of equal value and possibly two promo videos) in Japan in the summer . On June 4, 2007, Hikki's official website confirmed that a new single would be released on August 29, 2007. A total of three songs were recorded for the single, one of which is Kiss & Cry. The photo shoot for the cover was shot early in the morning on July 7, 2007. In her online blog, Hikki made fun of the fact that she surprised the entire team with her punctual appearance before 7 a.m. The photos were taken just a few meters from her home.
On June 29, 2007, Hikki announced new information about their new single on their website. In addition to Kiss & Cry , the song Beautiful World and a new mix of their song Fly Me To The Moon , which was released in 2000, are on the new single.
Beautiful World is the theme song for the film Evangelion - You are (not) alone.
With more than 200,000 singles sold, Beautiful World is the second most successful single by an artist in 2007 in Japan.
On September 25th, she announced on her blog that another English-language album was planned. In addition, the Asience company was promoting its shampoos with the new Utada Hikaru song Stay Gold at this time .
After the single Heart Station / Stay Gold was released in February , their fifth Japanese album Heart Station was released in March . Prisoner of Love was sold as a single in May . This song also provided the theme song for the hit television series Last Friends .
In 2009 Utada Hikaru released her second English album under the stage name "Utada", which is called "This Is the One". The first single from it was released under the title "Come Back to Me" and mainly contains elements of R'n'Bs.
With the resolution to make a lot of music in 2010, Utada announced in August that she will withdraw from the music business indefinitely at the end of the year in order to devote herself to her “human life”. On November 24th she released two compilations, her second compilation "Single Collection Vol. 2" and her first compilation as "Utada the Best".
Since 2011
On May 23, 2014, she married the Italian bartender Francesco Calliano.
In the summer of 2015, Utada gave birth to a son.
In April 2018, she separates from Francesco Calliano.
More facts
She holds the following records in Japan:
- most successful debut album
- most successful album
- most successful debut single
- most successful debut tour
- most successful tour in Japan
- She is the most acclaimed musician in Japan. Among other things, she has received the Gold Disc Award in the “Song of the Year” category for 12 of her songs since 2000 and another Gold Disc Award for “Album of the Year” for each of her studio albums released in Japan .
- most expensive advertising figure in Japan (an average of more than one million euros per spot / Pepsi paid more than 400 million yen (approx. 3.25 million euros) in 2010 for two spots that advertised Pepsi-Nex )
- most successful video release in Japan (Bohemian Summer Tour 2000 - sold more than a million times)
- most successful download single in Japan (Flavor of Life - more than 7.8 million downloads)
- most successful Realtone download (Flavor of Life - more than 2.7 million downloads)
- only artist in Japan who was able to place more than one single at the top of the chart for three weeks.
- She was the first Japanese-speaking musician to record an MTV Unplugged.
- She owns one of the largest and most expensive private houses in Tokyo. It has a living space of more than 2000 m², and according to an interview from 2005 with the moderators of the "Hey! Hey! Hey!" Program (music show in Japan) there is also their recording studio, a swimming pool, a 100 m² Kitchen, bowling alley and a small cinema in the house. She bought it towards the end of 2004 because until then she had mostly only stayed in hotels.
- She is an excellent Tetris player. During a show in August 2006, she took part in a Tetris competition. She played against 30 finalists in Japanese qualifying competitions and achieved 26 wins and 4 losses.
Discography
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Japanese studio albums
Japanese compilations
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English studio albums
English compilations
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Individual evidence
- ↑ a b EMI press release on Flavor Of Life (English)
- ↑ Utada releases new single 'Come Back to Me'. In: Monsters and Critics.com. January 22, 2009, archived from the original on September 4, 2012 ; accessed on August 11, 2016 .
- ↑ http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fm20091218a1.html
- ↑ http://hot.goldsea.com/popstars.html
- ↑ https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000787,00.html
- ↑ - ( Memento from January 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ - ( Memento from March 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/interview/040723.html
- ^ Utada MySpace Blog. In: MySpace.com. February 5, 2009; archived from the original on February 8, 2009 ; accessed on August 11, 2016 .
- ^ Utada Hikaru Announces Activity Stop within this year . Musicjapanplus . August 10, 2010. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
- ^ Japanese singer Utada Hikaru shares wedding photos. In: ABS-CBNnews.com. May 28, 2014, accessed June 2, 2015 .
- ↑ J-pop star Utada gives birth to baby boy, hints at return to music. In: Japan Times . Kyodo News , July 3, 2015, accessed July 3, 2015 .
- ↑ Singer Hikaru Utada separated from her husband! In: Sumikai . April 9, 2018 ( sumikai.com [accessed May 20, 2018]).
- ↑ Touch-DS.jp - News! In: Nintendo. Archived from the original on December 27, 2008 ; Retrieved August 11, 2016 (Japanese).
Web links
- Official website
- Hikaru Utada in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Hikaru Utada at Allmusic (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Utada, Hikaru |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hikki; 宇多田 ヒ カ ル (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese-American singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 19, 1983 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City , New York, United States |