35 Facts About Hikaru Utada

1.

Hikaru Utada, who is known by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American pop singer, songwriter and producer.

2.

In 2021, Hikaru Utada announced her non-binary gender identity, becoming one of the first public figures in Japan to self-identify in this way.

3.

Hikaru Utada was born in New York City as the only child of Teruzane Utada, a Japanese record producer, and his wife Junko, an singer performing under the stage name Keiko Fuji.

4.

At the age of 10, Hikaru Utada began to write music and lyrics.

5.

The next year, Hikaru Utada started another project, releasing "Close to You", a cover of the Carpenters' song.

6.

Hikaru Utada included it on her debut album Precious the following year.

7.

Hikaru Utada moved to Tokyo in the summer of 1998 and attended Seisen International School, and later the American School in Japan, while continuing to record on a contract with Toshiba-EMI.

8.

Hikaru Utada was at the forefront of a new wave of singer-songwriters in Japan, branching out from the previously dominant idol singers.

9.

Hikaru Utada went on to release a single, titled "Final Distance", which was dedicated to the female victim of a murder case in Ikeda, Osaka.

10.

In 2001, Hikaru Utada recorded the song "Blow My Whistle" for the action-comedy film Rush Hour 2.

11.

Hikaru Utada attended Columbia University in New York City starting in 2001.

12.

In mid-2004, Hikaru Utada moved back to New York, and began work on a recording contract with Island Def Jam Music Group.

13.

Hikaru Utada appeared on the cover of Interview magazine's June 2005 issue.

14.

Two weeks after the release of Ultra Blue, she went on a nationwide tour titled Hikaru Utada United 2006, from June 30 through September 12.

15.

The year 2007 ended with the single "Flavor of Life" becoming the best seller of 2007 and with Hikaru Utada again voted "Number 1 Favorite Artist of 2007" by Oricon's annual readers poll, after a two-year absence from the top spot.

16.

On March 30,2009, Hikaru Utada appeared on New York City radio station Z-100, the largest pop radio program in the US, and granted a live on-air interview on the station's Elvis Duran Morning Show, a breakthrough that would lead to a promotional schedule through the album's international physical release on May 12.

17.

Hikaru Utada sang the theme song for the second Evangelion film, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can Advance.

18.

On September 27,2010, Hikaru Utada revealed a single, entitled "Hymne a l'amour ", which became a commercial tie-in for Pepsi NEX.

19.

Hikaru Utada performed a concert series titled Wild Life at Yokohama Arena to promote the album, her first Japanese concert since 2006's Utada United.

20.

Hikaru Utada later announced a single, "Goodbye Happiness", with its accompanying PV appearing publicly on November 9,2010.

21.

Hikaru Utada said she would continue writing music during the hiatus.

22.

On December 26,2014, Universal Music Japan revealed through media outlet Weekly Bunshun that Hikaru Utada only has one album left before the contract with the label ends, and that a comeback in the music industry was under discussion.

23.

On July 3,2015, Hikaru Utada revealed the birth of a son on her blog, and mentioned work on an album primarily written during pregnancy.

24.

Hikaru Utada asked for patience leading up to the release during the transition into parenthood.

25.

In 2018, Hikaru Utada released a seventh Japanese album, the first under Epic, and embarked on a domestic tour, her first since 2006.

26.

The first single off the album, "Lonely One", has Hikaru Utada credited as a featured artist and was released on January 17,2018, through streaming services.

27.

On February 10,2018, it was announced that Hikaru Utada would provide the theme song for the video game Kingdom Hearts III, called "Chikai", along the English version, called "Don't Think Twice", for international audiences.

28.

Hikaru Utada co-produced the song with American musicians Skrillex and Poo Bear.

29.

On November 27,2019, Hikaru Utada released the first single in over a year with "Shonen Jidai".

30.

On May 8,2020, Hikaru Utada released "Time", the theme song for the NTV drama Bishoku Tantei Akechi Goro.

31.

Hikaru Utada sang the theme "Pink Blood" for the 2021 anime To Your Eternity which was released in April.

32.

On February 3,2014, Hikaru Utada announced plans to be wedded to an Italian man, asking for fans and the media to view their personal lives from a "respectable distance" as he was not in the entertainment industry.

33.

On February 10,2014, Hikaru Utada and fiance Francesco Calianno left a message on her official website explaining how they met each other while Calianno was a bartender in a London hotel, and asking for privacy.

34.

Hikaru Utada has supported same-sex marriage; on June 26,2021, she came out as non-binary in an Instagram livestream.

35.

Hikaru Utada said in regards to the English language honorifics Ms.