Utada

Utada is the English language project name of 宇多田ヒカル (Utada Hikaru). She is a third culture singer-songwriter, arranger, and record producer in Japan and United States. Utada maintains this name in the west as she intends to keep her English style separate from her Japanese music. She has sold an estimated 33 million albums worldwide. Utada is fluent in both English and Japanese as she was raised in both New York and Tokyo. She is most notable in the west for composing and singing the Kingdom Hearts themes 光 (Hikari) and Simple And Clean, as well as the theme songs for Kingdom Hearts II, Passion and Sanctuary.

Utada Hikaru was born on January 19, 1983 in New York City to Japanese parents who both had roots in the Japanese music industry; her father, Teruzane Utada, was a producer, while her mother, Junko Utada, was an enka singer (she performed under the stage name 藤圭子/Keiko Fuji). Utada made her first professional recording at the age of twelve, and recorded her first album, Precious, in 1996 under the pseudonym Cubic U. The album led to her career overseas. In a recent MTV interview (MTV's You Hear It First, October 2004), Utada said: "Someone in Japan heard it, at a Japanese record company, and he said, "Oh, can't you write in Japanese? You speak Japanese." And I didn't want to say no, so I had to try it."

Originally, Utada's music had an R&B style to it, but now her music has progressed to a more pop/experimental tone. Her R&B sound was what brought her so much attention with her first release in Japan, Automatic/time will tell, as there were no other artists with her distinct style.

Utada was married to famed director Kiriya Kazuaki, who directed the movie CASSHERN. However they divorced in March of 2007.

According to Utada's blog, on September 25th, 2007, Utada began speaking to Island Def Jam about her second English-language album. There is no set schedule, as Utada's tone suggests that she is in no rush. On October 23rd, 2007, Utada said that she had already made several demo tracks for not only the upcoming English album, but also her fifth Japanese album and was scheduled to record some of the songs on that afternoon.

On November 14th, 2007 it was announced that Utada would be featured on a download only version of Ne-Yo's song Do You. The song was released in Japan on November 21st.

Official sites:
www.utada.com
www.emimusic.jp/hikki
www.u3music.com