Hikaru Utada

I'll be the first to admit that I absolutely hated her music when it first came out in 1999. The R&B style was something I hadn't heard before and I was quick to jump onto the "Hikaru-Utada's-music-sucks-because-it's-popular" bandwagon. However, after hearing "Moving on Without You," I started to change my mind and when I heard "Addicted to You" I knew that I had been wrong.

Simply put, Hikaru Utada is the most talented pop artist Japan has ever seen. Her debut album "First Love" sold over 8 million copies in Japan ALONE. Her later albums "Distance" and "Deep River" sold around 5 million each and rank as the top selling albums the year they came out. And her musical talent has progressed and evolved with each album. I don't think you can even classify her songs as really R&B anymore since she has many songs that just don't fit the category. We're talking real talent here. She writes all her own songs, writes all her lyrics, sings all the vocals, and she damn her songs are AWESOME. She has a great voice and is a great singer. Contrary to what many people think, "Automatic" and "First Love" are NOT her best songs...far from it in fact. She is easy my favorite pop artist. I can't say enough good things about her. Just listen to her songs and you'll understand.

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Update: Sept 5, 2005

Amazingly enough, she still has yet to release another Japanese album after Deep River. Her attempted debut in the US was noble, but a lost cause as I see it. The material she put on her US album seemed a lot weaker than her Japanese stuff, and had more of a teeny bopper kind of image I thought (especially when I heard "You're easy breezy and I'm Japanezy"). She is still a great artist no doubt, but she really needs to get crackin' and release more songs lol.

Top 10 Favorite Hikki Songs: 1) For You 2) Traveling 3) Letters 4) Deep River 5) Addicted to You 6) Shiawase ni Narou 7) Time Limit 8) In My Room 9) Another Chance 10) Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro  Favorite Albums: 1) Deep River 2) Distance 3) First Love 4) Exodus

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PROFILE - from her official site written by herself (yes, she's bilingual)

++Date of Birth
January 19, 1983
It's the same as that of writer/poet Edgar Allan Poe, whom I fell in love with in junior-high school; Ogai Mori, a writer of Japan's literary history; and cute Mr. Udo Suzuki, and even cuter Rika Ishikawa! Also, Yuming-sama, a senior in the same company, Cocco-san and Makoto Kawamoto. It's a day that produced many singer/songwriters!
++Height
158 cm
When girls ask me how tall I am, on hearing my height 80 to 90% of them say "Me, too!" Are there others out there?
++Blood Type
A
Well! True born A type! I heard it's a common type among Japanese, but there's almost no-one with that type among my friends.
++Hobbies
- Literature will remain my eternal passion! Books are property. I'm keeping all the books I read. My books take up more space than my clothes.
- Buying furniture, collecting interior goods
- Of course email is an indispensable tool for business and private life, but I cruise the Net too. I learned about several sites from Toshiba EMI's engineer. They are awesome -- quite interesting, Mesdames! I recommend first of all two of them, Modern Living and otogaiworld-------. Visit them late at night, then they'll be further to the point.
- Internet mail order
- Stimulant seasonings such as Tabasco, red chili pepper, sesame oil with chili peppers, vinegar and wasabi.
- Girls with blood type O, Boys with blood type B
++Specialties
- Quick typing on PC - Tetris - Patience - To evade saying "I suppose it's OK" - To puzzle others - Independent action of my left little finger - Basketball - Cleaning. Really, I have confidence at it. I get strangely obsessed about the cleanliness of my house. If I suddenly disappear from the music world, you might see Hikaru Utada working as a helper at some inn in Atami.
++Favorite Movies
Being John Malkovich, Brazil, Tasogare Seibei, Lost Highway,  (Pi), Shawshank Redemption, Godfather Part 2 (I like Robert De Niro), The Jerk, Unbreakable, Orlando, Amadeus, Sleepy Hollow, Works by Hayao Miyazaki
++Favorite Writers
Kenji Nakagami, "Izoku"; Ryunosuke Akutagawa, "Rashomon"; Yasunari Kawabata ,"Kanjo Soshoku," "Yukiguni"; Ogai Mori, "Takasebune"; Soseki Natsume "Kokoro," "Kusamakura"; Kenji Miyazawa (poetry); Yukio Mishima "Kinkakuji"; Taruho Inagaki; Junichiro Tanizaki when I want to pursue eros; Yutaka Haniya, "Shiryo" I read bit by bit;
Hermann Hesse. Read "Siddhartha" and "Happiness" and "Steppenwolf" as finale, then you'll be fully satisfied! (I recommend the translation by Kenji Takahashi); Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Letter from Basement" "Crime & Punishment"; Roald Dahl, "Tales of the Unexpected"; Shel Silverstein, "Where the Sidewalk Ends," "A Light in the Attic"; Edgar Allan Poe; Elie Wiesel, "Night"; John Berendt, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"; F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby." George Orwell "1984"
++Favorite Artists
Too many! I have listed those that will never change for ever.
Freddie Mercury (Queen), Yutaka Ozaki, Bjork, Incubus, Missy Elliot, U2, TLC, Mozart, Blue Man Group, Nine Inch Nails, Jimi Hendrix, Bela Bartok, Edith Piaf.
++Places I Want to Go
Mexico, Machu Picchu, Sahara Desert
I went to Yamaguchi Prefecture to pay a visit to my ancestral graves in Yamaguchi Pref. for the first time last year. I'd love to go more often!
++Dream
Debut as a writer (I've decided my penname for a long time). Open a bookstore and work there. My home.
++Things Hooked on Recently
"Project X", yogurt, cell-phone with camera
++My Favorite Words
kinomi kinomama (with only the clothes one happens to be wearing); shogyo mujo (All things are in flux and nothing is permanent); charappoko (no sweat); gakeppuchi (cliff edge); ikkaku senkinn (quick money, fortune at a stroke) (--laugh);
"Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be" -??;
"Instead of tug o' war, let's play hug o' war" - Shel Silverstein;
"Turn a negative into a positive picture" - Lauryn Hill