Hikaru Utada was born on January 19, 1983 in New York City, New York.
Although born in the US, she is one of the biggest singer-songwriter, arranger and record producers in Japan.
Known by her friends as Hikki, she is internationally known for her two theme song contributions to the Kingdom Hearts video game series, "Simple and Clean" and "Sanctuary",
Utada's first album, First Love, became Japan's biggest selling album of all time with over 7.65 million copies sold in Japan alone.
Utada has won the Nihon Golden Disk "Song of the Year" award for 14 of her singles since 2000 and has won the Golden Disc "Pop/Rock Album of the Year" award for all her 4 Japanese studio albums.
In 2007, her single "Flavor of Life" reached number two in worldwide digital download yearly single chart with over 7.2 million downloads, and she has sold a total of 12 million digital ringtones and songs, making her the first artist ever to have that many digital sales in a year's time.
