http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/1756/hikki1ama6.jpg

Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル born January 19, 1983), also known by her fan-nickname of Hikki is a Japanese American pop singer-songwriter, arranger and record producer. She has been hailed as one of the most successful, influential, and acclaimed musicians in Japanese music history. With the release of her seven studio albums, including one compilation and two all-English, 25 solo singles (19 Japanese and 6 English) and several VHS/DVD releases, she has sold a combined estimated total of some 36,000,000 records in Japan as of 2007, making her the 9th most successful musical act ever in Japan. Her worldwide total sales of albums, singles and VHS/DVDs to date is well past 50,000,000 units.

In 2007 alone, she has achieved the biggest song of her career, the most downloaded ringtone ever, and the most downloaded song in world history. She is currently working on new English/Japanese albums, to be released next year.

Oh I like that! Has she released in Europe or anywhere in the West? :unsure:

She has actually! In 2004 she released a full english album called 'Exodus' - It sold about 1.5 million in Japan, but bombed everywhere else, it really isn't commercial at all, and lost her a lot of Japanese fans, which she's only just re-gained. if you want I could zip it and send it you? ^_^

 

Here are a selection of the FLUX animations used to promote the album, about 45 second clips of the songs

 

 

Also, she's used melodies from two of her Japanese songs & put different english lyrics in place of them, both of which were theme tunes to the video games kingdom hearts I and II [Passion/Sanctuary - Hikari/Simple & Clean] - and she's also covered Green Days Boulevard Of broken dreams :D

Edited August 17, 200717 yr by Exodus

OH PLZ add me on msn!

 

toxiclovur963@hotmail.com

I don't have msn at the moment, I forgot my password :lol:

 

Would you like it uploaded to somewhere like megaupload/sendspace etc?

Yeah! If you can do that I would REALLY appreciate it :D

it's uploading on sendspace now, i'll pm you the link when it's done - oh, I put in the Kiss&Cry/Beautiful World as well :D

I love Beautiful World, not a fan of Kiss & Cry, but omg. I just love BW. xD Utada is fantastic.

 

Yeah, Exodus wasn't all that great though I can listen to it on occasion. Her best song EVER imo is Travelling. I think if she ever released that in the UK (perhaps an English version), it would do really well.

I find them both kind of level, although I prefer BW.

 

Kremlin Dusk is my favourite Hikki song, it is amazing on Utada United :wub: I think for the amount of crappy songs on Exodus, there were some really good ones to balance it out. My top 5 hikki:

 

1| Kremlin Dusk

2| Hikari

3| FINAL DISTANCE

4| Wait & See ~Risk~

5| Passion

1. Travelling

2. Hikari

3. Passion

4. Be My Last

5. You Make Me Want To Be A Man

Ive never seen YMMWTBAM in anyones top 5 before :o

 

it's the first song of hers I ever heard :wub:

:o Really? It's my favorite song off Exodus. The first song I heard by her was Simple and Clean back in 2002. Guess where. xD

Edited August 18, 200717 yr by Medicatedsoap

It seems that some inital work is now starting on a follow-up to "Exodus".

 

http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m...7092523322e.xml

Yeah, I dropped my glass on the floor in shock when I read that the other day :lol:

 

I cannot wait for this, but for her sake I hope she releases a Japanese album before it, otherwise it'll be a repeat of Exodus, where two huge songs before the english album made no impact on sales by 2006. She really needs to ride this populaity wave.

 

but awesome news :wub:

The RIAJ download chart for September is out. "Kiss & Cry" has a gold certification for downloads to PC. "Beautiful World" has the No.2 position for the month.

Yay! She seems to have earned her reputation as Queen of Downloads.

 

And in other news: New song! It is titled Stay Gold and is being used for Asience shampoo commercials. there was some confusion over whether it was her at first as she always announces her songs months in advance. it is unclear yet if this will be a single [physical or download] or an album track, or simply just for the CM.

 

Here the song preview here:

 

Edited October 21, 200717 yr by Exodus

Flavor Of Life and Kiss&Cry :wub:

 

She's amazing! I love ULTRA BLUE & Exodus (shame it didn't really launch her here) :(

Edited October 22, 200717 yr by JammerD

Fan! :wub:

 

Exodus should have been huge, but I think they launched her with the wrong song. It's such a diverse album, they could have gone many routes with it. My personal favourites are Animato and Kremlin Dusk <3. I hope her new english album is immensely successful.

 

I really like ULTRA BLUE as well, she seems to have really distanced herself from her R&B music with this. You wouldn't think it was the same girl that sang Automatic all those years ago. The album seems to be hit & miss with a lot of people though, especially older fans.

Yeh I do think "Easy Breezy" was not the right track to release as the lead track... they must've seen potential for it to be a big hit since it is a really catchy tune! I think "Exodus" or "Devil Inside" could've been minor hits.

 

I love "Animato" and "Hotel Lobby" and "Kremlin Dusk" ^_^, but I reckon it just seems too 'experimental'/'heavy' sounding to have been in the charts at the time.

I used to hate "You Make Me Want to Be a Man" but now I :wub: it!

 

"Keep Tryin'", "Nichiyō no Asa", "COLORS", "BLUE" and (obviously) "Passion" are my faves from UB :D

 

To be honest I've only heard a couple of her tracks prior to ULTRA BLUE like "Sakura Drops" and "Hikari" which are some of my favourites from her!

 

Ooo I say... a new English album :o!!!!!

Edited October 22, 200717 yr by JammerD

Nichiyo no Asa used to be my least favourite UB song, but it really grew on me and now I love it, although my favourite has always been 'Passion' :wub:

 

You must listen to pre Exodus music! :o I don't know whether you'd like 'First Love,' 'Distance' still has a strong R&B feeling but starting to branch out, and 'Deep River' is just amazing <3 If you would like I could upload them for you?

 

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News; She has confirmed that she is working on the japanese and the English album at the same time! :wub: