Utada Hikaru

Name: Japan: Utada Hikaru, 宇多田光
Also known as: Hikki
Profession: Singer, songwriter and producer
Date of birth: 1983-January-19
Birthplace: New York City (Manhattan), New York, USA
Height: 158cm
Weight: 45kg
Star sign: Capricorn
Blood type: A
Talent Agency: Toshiba EMI (Japan), Island Def Jam (USA), Mercury (UK)

Utada Hikaru First Love Era
Utada Hikaru during First LoveOn December 9 of 1998, Utada debuted in Japan as 'Utada Hikaru', with the single, Automatic / time will tell. She, in the words of a classmate, 'became famous overnight'. This is most likely because of her R&B/Pop style, which had never been seen in Japan before. The two versions of the single, the 8cm and the 12cm, sold an amazing total of approximately 2,063,000 copies (Because they were different products, she only reached #4 and #2 on the charts). Two months later, her follow-up single Movin' on without you also broke the '1,000,000 copies sold' mark and reached #1 on Oricon charts.

A month later, Utada's much anticipated debut album was released, debuting at #1, (staying atop the Oricon weekly charts for a consecutive four) and eventually selling an amazing 10.056 million copies as of 2007, making it the most sold album in Japanese music history. Currently this sales record has not been broken, and due to the declining Japanese music market does not look as if the record will be broken anytime soon. Soon after this, two 'Luv Live' concerts were staged; one at Umeda Heat Beat, Osaka on April 1, 1999 and the other at Zepp Tokyo, Tokyo on April 2, 1999.

A post album single for the song First Love was released a month after the album, due to its popularity. Sales totaled over 800,000 units sold on the single, which is impressive for a post-album single. This song is still a karaoke bar hit today. It should be noted that First Love is the only album with three singles from it; all subsequent releases have four.

For this years Music Talks concert (October 7, 1999), Utada famously sang a duet with fellow star Shiina Ringo; a cover of The Carpenters' well-known hit I Won't Last a Day Without You. This was subsequently recorded in 2002 for Shiina's Utaite Myoli ~Vol. I~ album. Utada also held a concert entitled "Sokenbicha" Natural Breeze Concert on August 24, 1999 at the Nippon Budokan that was later broadcast on TV.

Utada Hikaru Early life
Utada Hikaru was born in New York to Japanese parents with roots in the Japanese music industry. Her father, Teruzane Utada, was a record producer. Her mother, Junko Utada, was an enka singer, performing under the stage name "Keiko Fuji." Junko Utada’s mother, and Hikaru’s grandmother, was a blind shamisen player (ごぜ, or goze). Utada Hikaru made her first professional recording at the age of twelve. She did her recordings with her mother, releasing songs under a band named “U3” (also known as Utada 3) until 1996 when she started her first solo project, "I’ll be Stronger." The "Cookin’ With Moses Vocal" from this project was called the "Cookin’ With Gas Vocal" on the promotional release. "I’ll Be Stronger" was the first song Utada Hikaru wrote. It was released under the artist name "Cubic U," a mathematical reference to her being the third Utada 'power,' which was Hikaru’s pseudonym before becoming a superstar in Japan. The song failed to release in the United States, and in 1997, she started her next project.