Utada Hikaru

Hikaru Utada is one of Japan’s top singer-songwriters. She is also a talented music arranger and record producer. She is well-known among video game players for her songs on Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts games. In 2007, Utada was the best-selling artist in the world in terms of digital sales. She has three albums in Japan’s top ten all-time list.

Utada was born in New York in 1983 into a musical family. Her father was a record producer, her mother an enka singer, and her grandmother a shamisen player. Utada had music in her blood and so carried on in her parents’ footsteps. However, her first album in the States failed to be released, so she moved back to Japan.