Utada Hikaru's Bio
--------------------------------
Name: Utada Hikaru
Nickname: Hikki
Born: January 19, 1983
Age: 24
Genres: J-Pop, R&B, Ethereal
Instruments: Guitars, Piano
Label: Toshiba-EMI, Universal, Island
Website: http://www.toshiba-emi.co.jp/hikki/
--------------------------------

Born in New York City, Hikaru's parents are popular J-pop singer Keiko Fuji and music producer Teruzane Utada.

She is one of the most successful, influential and acclaimed pop singers in Japanese music history. With the release of her seven studio albums, including one compilation and two all-English, 23 solo singles and several VHS/DVD releases, she has sold a combined estimated total in Japan of some 32,000,000 records in Japan as of the end of 2006, making her the 9th most successful musical act ever in Japan.

She is currently married to Kazuaki Kiriya, a photographer and film director. He has directed several of her music videos, including "Final Distance", "Traveling", "Hikari", "Sakura Drops", "Deep River", "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro", "Be My Last", "Passion", and "Keep Tryin'". Also, "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" is the theme song of Kiriya's directorial debut, Casshern.

Utada Hikaru is an avid player of the video game Tetris. She has previously appeared on TV playing Tetris against a TV-host and comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto of the Japanese television program, Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ.

In the summer of 2006, Utada was involved with Nintendo of Japan promoting a contest, in which the winners would be able to challenge her to a Tetris match. On August 12, 2006, Utada attended the Nintendo Japan Tetris Contest. She battled 30 finalists from all over the country. The result was 26 wins and 4 losses. She was also able to defeat one (out of two) of the Nintendo assassins (Tetris-DS experts from Nintendo).

Utada has also provided the theme songs to both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2. Hikari/Simple and Clean was the main theme for KH, while Passion/Sanctuary was set for KH2.