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Solo Official Utada Hikaru Thread (1 Viewer)

nekolecrimson

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Utada Hikaru (宇多田 ヒカル), who is also known as Hikaru Utada and the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer. Born in the United States to Japanese parents, record producer Utada Teruzane and enka singer Keiko Fuji, Utada began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo as a result of their father's job. Eventually, a recording contract with Toshiba-EMI was signed and, under the stage name Cubic U, Utada released their English-language debut album Precious in early 1998, but it was a commercial failure. In the following year, heavily influenced by R&B and dance-pop, their Japanese-language debut First Love was released and became an instant success. Backed by the massive success of singles "Automatic", "Time Will Tell", and "Movin' On Without You", the album sold two million copies in its first week in Japan, topped the Oricon charts for six non-consecutive weeks and went on to sell six million more throughout the rest of 1999. First Love eventually became the country's best-selling album of all time.



Their following album Distance was released in early 2001 and spawned Utada's biggest hit singles—"Addicted to You", "Wait & See (Risk)" and "Can You Keep a Secret?"—which became million-sellers. The album was commercially successful and broke several sales records after three million copies were sold in its first week of availability in Japan, instantly becoming the country's fastest-selling album. In 2002, backed by chart-topping singles such as "Traveling", "Hikari" and "Sakura Drops", Deep River, which incorporates elements of pop folk, was released and went on to become one of Japan's top-selling records of all-time. Subsequent full-length releases—Exodus, Ultra Blue and Heart Station—achieved million-selling status certified by the Recording Industry Association of Japan. After a prolonged hiatus, Utada released acoustic-driven Fantôme and Hatsukoi, which reached number-one on the Oricon album charts.



By the end of the 2000s, Utada was deemed "the most influential artist of the decade" in the Japanese music landscape by The Japan Times. Utada's commercial success has made them one of Japan's top-selling recording artists of all time with over 37 million records sold since launching her career in the late 1990s. Twelve of their singles have reached number-one on the Oricon Singles Chart, while ten of their albums have become chart-toppers. Six of their full-length releases are among the country's highest-selling albums of all time, including First Love, Distance and Deep River, which are among the top ten best-selling records of Japan's music history. Additionally, Utada is best known by international audiences for writing and producing four theme-song contributions to Square Enix and Disney's collaborative video game series Kingdom Hearts: "Simple and Clean", "Sanctuary", "Don't Think Twice" and "Face My Fears".



On November 1, 2019, it was released a Utada collaboration with singer-songwriter Sheena Ringo, called "Roman to Soroban LDN ver." ("The Sun and the Moon", in English). It was featured in Sheena's best of album Apple of Universal Gravity. An alternative version of the song, called "Roman to Soroban TYO ver.", was available on November 25. On November 27, 2019, Utada released their first single in over a year with "Shonen Jidai". It appears as track #5 on the Inoue Yosue Tribute album. Utada also did a live rendition of the song on her 2003 live DVD UH Live Streaming 20 Dai wa Ikeike!



On 3 December 2020 was announced that Takeru Sato & Hikari Mitsushima will star a Netflix drama based on Hikaru Utada’s songs “First Love” & “Hatsukoi”, “First Love Hatsukoi” is scheduled to be released sometime in 2022.



Important Personal Information (Sensitive Topics)

On August 22, 2013, Utada's mother, Keiko Fuji, died by apparent suicide by jumping from the thirteenth floor of a 28-floor condominium building in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Hikaru has been open about their mother's struggles with mental health and encourages the education on the topic, as well as for people to seek assistance for their illnesses. They have been most notably quoted as stating “She is finally freed from her agony,” They also said that they are “beyond sad” because of their mother’s death. “I am suffering from a sense of remorse.” Despite their mother’s condition, Utada said that they are only left with memories of her mother laughing. They also described their late mother as someone who is “impulsive like a child but with an innocent charm that attracted everyone’s attention.”



On June 11th, 2021 Utada confirmed rumors that they are interested/attracted to women during a Dazed interview, being quoted as saying their current female celebrity crush is Megan thee Stallion.


On June 26, 2021, Utada came out as non-binary in an Instagram livestream. Utada has supported same-sex marriage and, in discussing discomfort with how titles like Ms. or Mrs. closely identify someone by sex and marital status, supported widespread use of the gender-neutral title Mx.


utada_feat_0.jpg?itok=yYeB8Bq0&mtime=1512692928




This thread is to discuss any news regarding their music career.


Please be respectful in the thread.
 

nekolecrimson

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Utada Hikaru announces new album, streaming concert

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Utada Hikaru has pretty much reached the ideal situation in terms of creative freedom for a musician, with so much star power that no one can pressure the singer into writing new songs, but if and when the mood does strike, recording companies, sponsors, and other creative partners are always patiently waiting to be a part of the latest project.

And now Utada is ready to release a whole new album.

It’s been more than three years since Utada’s album, Hatsukoi, came out in the summer of 2018. The singer doesn’t seem to have had much trouble finding the musical muse during the pandemic, though, having written and recorded a number of new numbers since the start of the COVID crisis, even filming videos for them entirely at home or with the help of a young family member.

A partial track list for the album confirms that it will contain “One Last Kiss” (theme song for Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time), “Pink Blood” (theme song for To Your Eternity), “Time,” “Face my Fears,” “Find Love,” and “Kimi ni Muchu,” in addition to other new songs. Utada will also be performing a “streaming concert” to commemorate the album’s release, with filming for video to be incorporated into the event already taking place in London, where the singer currently resides. The album’s title is yet to be revealed, and its release window is still nothing more specific than “spring of 2022.” It is available for digital pre-purchase through the iTunes Store and Spotify as of November 12, though, and more details are coming on December 9.
 

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Utada Updates Her Blog

https://www.utadahikaru.jp/en/news/detail.html?id=534990

She has made a small edit to the formatting of the blog and now all links work properly. Links to pre order merch were broken for a bit


Lead Single “Kimini Muchuu” (Main Theme for TBS Drama Series Saiai) to be Released November 26. iTunes Pre-order and Spotify Pre-save Campaigns Launch, Airplay starts November 12!
Hikaru Utada's new song “Kimini Muchuu” has had everyone excited soon after appearing in the first episode of the drama series Saiai. It's now been revealed that it will be released as the lead track from the upcoming album, and the single is scheduled to be available for digital download and streaming on November 26. You can pre-order the single on iTunes and pre-save it on Spotify starting Friday, November 12, as well as hear it over the radio and USEN channels.



Also, please be sure to check out the new campaign where 200 lucky people out of those who pre-ordered or pre-saved the single will win an original "Kimini Muchuu" T-shirt! Please enter from the campaign website below.



Campaign Website:https://cp.digle.tokyo/kiminimuchuu/en





<New Release>

[Digital Single]


"Kimini Muchuu"

Release date: Friday November 26, 2021

https://erj.lnk.to/4knmEP



[Imported Vinyl]

One Last Kiss <EU Version>

Release date: Friday, November 26, 2021

Selection#: 1943986621-1

Vinyl color: Blue

https://utadahikaru.lnk.to/JAU9lr



[New Album]

8th Studio Album Coming 2022
 

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