Well I don't think her Voice sounds wierd..I personally think it doesn't sounds very special and in some songs she sounds a bit strange.

But I really like her songs Colours and Easy Breezy^^

Maybe I only think so because I am used to listen to highter Voices as Ayu and Kuu^^

OO so its was Ayu that was better prepared than the rest of the singers for interviews?

If we are only talking about Hikki's voice, i think its unique... makes reaching insanely high pitch constantly possible:)

Thanks for the CNN video. I don't know what I think of her voice. Doesn't really sound weird but I think I may have thought so the first time I heard it - (radio appearance and interview in California). It doesn't strike me as odd however... Then again, I always used to think Ayu's talking voice was weird when I first heard it but I got used to it alot now and don't see what I thought was so weird about it - it's just AYU!

Anyways - I am still extremely dissapointed about how her US debut was handled. I never heard the song on the radio or on MTV. Come on - her label sucked at promoting. She could have done well I think because Easy Breezy is a catchy song that I grew to LOVE!

True, she doesn't have a accent when she speaks in English. I .. think it's weird when the lady compared her to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera...

^^i also didn't think she had an acccent when she spoke English...i was rather surprised.

Isn't she with Def Jam records? Why didn't they promote her? I never heard even of her English album until well after it was released. Doesn't Def Jam represent some of the biggest stars? They probably didn't promote her because they didn't think she'd sell well.

I've noticed with Japanese artists that can speak fluent English you can usually hear this lilt in their japanese singing, Yuna Ito has that lilt for example and the first time I heard her it was apparent. Whether she can speak English or not I honestly don't know but it's that same quality that I can hear in Utada Hikaru. It's very subtle and fleeting however, aside from that I don't know of any other major J-Pop star that sings in Utada Hikaru's style. There's Kuraki Mai but she's too bubbly and cutesy to be very similar.

I don't like her voice, actually. I think that she composes songs that are too ambitious for her voice and then in the end it makes her voice sound weak. She really strains herself sometimes, and in her lives, her voice quality really dies by the middle of the concert. Her songs, however, are good. That's why I listen to her.

singing: no
speaking: no

i dont see anything weird about her voice.

Yeah, weird. That's what makes her good. That's the reason I love her, ayumi, KEIKO, Yaida Hitomi and so on. In terms of japanese music, I really like when artists are able to make something more out of their voice which is not following the "latest trend". By that I mean, while I really listen to several japanese artists and vocals aren't everything about a song, artists who have the typical, plain cutesy anime vocals aren't exactly the ones who draw most of my attention.