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 ???/Keiko Fuji). Utada has been recording since 1993, and made her first professional recording at the age of twelve. She released her first album comprised of all English songs, 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 once-married to famed director Kiriya Kazuaki, who directed the movie CASSHERN, where she sang the main theme song Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro .

After her first singles compilation album Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 was released in March 31st, 2004, Utada moved back to New York to work on her second english album Exodus, which was released in the US on Oct 5th, 2004. Due to lack of promotion by her record label Island Def Jam, however, the album was met with indifference in the US market, undoubtedly not ready to accept a new foreign artist. However, the second single from this album, "Devil Inside," managed became a club smash in the U.S. and topped the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Airplay charts.

Utada moved back to Tokyo after a year of promotion for Exodus, and returned to the Japanese music scene. Despite being criticized of poor oversea advance, she released three albums over the span of 2 years: Ultra Blue and HEART STATION, both certified of selling one million for shipments by the RIAJ, On October 20, 2008, her song "Eternally" from her 2001 album Distance was used as the theme for the drama Innocent Love. The song was later released as a digital single. By the end of the year, Utada was also voted the "#1 Favorite Artist of 2008" by Oricon's annual readers poll, making it her second consecutive year, and third time overall, to win the vote; her previous years being 2004 and 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.

Utada will be releasing her second English album, This is the One, on March 24th, 2009 in the United States electronically. A physical copy will be released later, on May 12th, 2009. The main single "Come Back to Me", which she dubbed her "breakout song" during an interview with KiwiBox, was released for airplay on February 9th, 2009. Despite her previous English album's lesser success, Utada is confident about this one. "I don't want to do experimental stuff. I just want to make a really good Pop album," she tells the interviewer. "This is the one, you know?"

Official sites:

www.utada.com

www.emimusic.jp/hikki

www.u3music.com

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Hikaru Utada (??? ??? Utada Hikaru, born January 19, 1983), known by her stage name Utada (/u??t??d?/) in America and Europe, is a Japanese-American singer, song writer, and producer.

Since the release of her debut album First Love, which went on to become the best-selling album in Oricon history, Utada has had three of her Japanese studio albums in the list of Top 10 best-selling albums ever in Japan (#1, #4, #8) and six of her albums (including two English-language and one compilation) charting within the 275 Best-Selling Japanese albums list. Utada has had fourteen number-one singles on the Oricon Singles chart, with two notable record achievements for a female solo or group artist: five million-sellers and four in the Top 100 All-Time Best-selling Singles. Utada Hikaru has an estimated 50 million albums sold worldwide.

She was described by Time Magazine as a "Diva On Campus," a reference to her having attended Columbia University for a brief, career-break semester in 2000. In 2009, she was considered ?the most influential artist of the decade,? in the Japanese landscape, by The Japan Times. In 2003, Utada was ranked #24 in the survey of Top 100 Japanese Pop Artists of All Time by HMV,, #10 in HMV's Top 30 Best Japanese Singers of All Time in 2006..

Additionally, Utada made two theme song contributions to Square Enix and Disney's collaborative video game series Kingdom Hearts: "Simple and Clean" for Kingdom Hearts and "Passion" for Kingdom Hearts II (later re-recorded with new English lyrics as "Sanctuary" for the North American and European releases of the game). In 2007, her single "Flavor of Life" reached #2 in worldwide digital download yearly single chart with over 7.2 million downloads, and contributes to 12 million digital sales for her over the same year. In the United States, the song Come Back to Me has peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play in 2009.