Hikaru Utada

Biography

Hikaru Utada is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer, born to Japanese parents in the United States. She began writing music at an early age and signed her first recording contract with Toshiba-EMI. Under the stage name Cubic U, she released her English-language debut album, Precious, in 1998, but it did not achieve commercial success. In 1999, her Japanese-language debut, First Love, became a landmark success, selling six million copies and becoming Japan's best-selling album of all time. Utada continued to release successful albums, including Distance and Deep River, which also broke sales records. Known for her contributions to the Kingdom Hearts video game series, Utada has sold over 37 million records and is recognized as one of Japan's top-selling artists. She is bilingual, speaking English and Japanese fluently. Utada has been married twice and has one son.