Hikki's in da house !

Hi, peeps ! I still feel guilty for not updating in so much time between Windaria & B'z, so here am I again willing to upload another greatest hits compilation, this time the first single collection released by my girl, J-R&B princess Hikaru Utada :-).

Hikaru ("Hikki") was born in 1983 in New York to Japanese parents that were connected to the music biz. Her mother is an enka singer and her father is a music producer. Though she made her first babysteps in music as a pre-teen in the US, success wouldn't hit until she released in 1999, at 16 years old, her debut CD "First Love" in Japan. At first sight, people who didn't know how talented she was and how much she was involved in her own music would have thought she was just another idol destined to disappear within 6 months. But then success hit Hikki, and it hit like a tsunami, convincing skeptics that this girl was here to stay...

"First love" became the biggest selling album in Japanese history, with over 10 million copies sold thanks to the popularity of her hits "First love", "Automatic", "Movin' on without you" and "Time will tell", all of which were # 1 songs and are included in this compilation. Her sudden megastardom was only strengthened with the release of her sophomore effort "Distance", and third album "Deep River". In those albums, Hikki continued growing as an artist, songwriter and producer, doing things her way, experimenting and getting a great response from the public to her lyrics and beats. Take a look at the "First Love" videoclip here, with subtitles, courtesy of rickazinhu @ YouTube:

In 2003 she attempted to cross-over to the American market with an English album called "Exodus", but that move suffered from the "Coco Lee syndrom" and was unsuccessful due to lack of promotion and to weird songs that, in my opinion, were not on a par with her Japanese material... Yeah, and I mean that even if Timbaland produced three tracks there for her ! In any case, her popularity in Japan has granted her the possibility of collaborating with big names in the American R&B scene, such as producers Rodney Jerkins ("Time Limit") and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis ("Addicted to You"). She also enlists reputed personalities in the dance music world to remix her songs for Japanese and overseas markets.

Right now, many Americans maybe know Hikki either as a dance artist under the name of just "Utada" (she had a #1 hit in the Billboard Dance Chart with "Devil Inside" off of "Exodus"), or as the voice performing the English tracks "Simple and Clean" and "Sanctuary" from the videogame Kingdom of Hearts I & II respectively. I think she definitely has the talent to crossover to the country where she was born (the fact of having English as mothertongue doesn't hurt, of course...), but she needs to deliver great material and claim for the promotion she deserves after being such a phenomenon in sales in Asia.

For the time being, at least, she stays focused in her career in Japan, and her next album (entitled "Ultra Blue") will be released next month. Here you have the cover, so check it out as soon as it comes out. Anticipation is increasing to see what this talented girl will deliver next...

For now, here you have a compilation of her past hits in the form of "Utada Hikaru Single Collection vol. I"... enjoy ! :-)