Utada Hikaru
Utada Hikaru
Utada Hikaru, who also goes by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese American singer and songwriter. After releasing the commercially unsuccessful English-language album Precious under the stage name "Cubic U" in 1998, she rose to prominence in 1999 with the release of her second album, First Love, which sold over eight million copies in Japan and became the best selling Japanese-language album of all time...
NationalityJapanese
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth19 January 1983
CountryJapan
When people ask me exactly how much time I spend in each country, I always tell them I have no idea.
For me, it's an experiment to see what people are gonna think of it.
In Japan, people don't really sing about sexual content.
People do ask me if I think I can make it in the States.
I don't like going to the gym because I don't like being with people I don't know in that intense environment.
The Japanese version comes with a translation, but that's different from the lyrics, so people could look things up and find a translation of their own if they're interested.
Americans are somehow obsessed with her, and something about me hit a spot with people in Japan.
There really aren't any completely Asian people singing right now.
I just want people to see that I do my own stuff, that I'm not stupid, and I can make fun of myself.
I'd been familiar with the recording process since I was little, but I felt that this is what it's like to actually do it myself.
For cubic U I didn't know how it all got started at all.
But in Japanese, there's actually not much of a relationship between the music and the words.
And also, I think Japan places great value on the lyrics.
It's just that, when I'm in Japan I could foretell to a certain degree what would be accepted, so I certainly don't come up with any crazy arrangements.