[Utada Hikaru] We're Intoxicated, Emancipated, Unapologetic in Hikki's 35th Thread~!

[Polyrhythm]

Utada broke up with her painter boyfriend

[ohsixthirty]

Originally Posted by DEEP RIVER

Utada broke up with her painter boyfriend

says who?

[emi♡]

wth?

when?

[Polyrhythm]

http://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/100...0509000-n1.htm (Japanese)
http://www.tokyograph.com/news/id-5738 (English)

Pop star Hikaru Utada (27) has reportedly broken up with her boyfriend. She was dating an artist eight years older than her, but sources say they drifted apart due to a lack of time together.

The media in Japan first reported on Utada's relationship last September, though the singer said that she had already revealed the romance in earlier interviews in the U.S. However, Utada started preparing for her current overseas tour, resulting in less time for the couple. They ultimately broke up, and now Utada is focused on her music career.

Her tour started on January 15 in Honolulu and visits a total of eight cities in the U.S. After that, she will perform in London on February 12.

Utada has been one of the top artists in Japan since her 1999 debut album "First Love," which currently holds the record as the best-selling Japanese album of all time. She unexpectedly married director Kazuaki Kiriya (41) in 2002, but they divorced in 2007.

The last two sentences are really arbitrary comments...IMO

[ohsixthirty]

and now Utada is focused on her music career.

is it mean of me to be excited by that line?

[Polyrhythm]

No. Same reaction here. Maybe this means she's not quitting at 28 as she's said before.

[ohsixthirty]

Originally Posted by DEEP RIVER

No. Same reaction here. Maybe this means she's not quitting at 28 as she's said before.

she's said that? i can't imagine her quitting. i think she enjoys making music and performing too much.

and i'd cry if she quit!

[Polyrhythm]

^Well....she said that in a really early article for TIME.

Diva On Campus
Freshman Utada Hikaru hasn't picked a major, but she's launched a career—she's Japan's biggest pop star
BY CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY
Utada Hikaru has a hidden life. she appears to be an ordinary American college student. Last fall she attended classes by day, hung out with friends by night, and like most of her fellow Columbia University freshmen, she hasn't settled on a major yet. But there were rumors about her among the students during orientation week—stories that were hard to believe.

"Most of my friends know the truth," says Hikaru. "Even before the first day of school, I was talking to this friend who was going to Columbia also, and he told me, 'People all know you're coming.' And I go, 'What do you mean?' And he said, 'Well, all the Asian kids know, but even the non-Asian students have heard something about the Japanese Britney Spears coming to their school.'"

She's virtually unknown in the U.S., but Hikaru, 18, is Japan's biggest pop star. The Japanese media sing her praises: BILINGUAL STRAIGHT-A STUDENT! AND THE DIVA OF THE HEISEI PERIOD! The Japanese public devours her music: her debut CD, First Love (1999), sold more than 9.5 million copies, making it the best-selling album in Japanese history. Her new CD, Distance, is selling just as fast. While other Japanese pop divas are content to sing throwaway tunes in baby-girl tones, Hikaru, who says that growing up she used to go to sleep to Metallica and wake up to Pearl Jam, performs songs that draw from R. and B., rap and even rock. During a recent MTV Unplugged concert, she surprised fans with a rendition of the Irish rock band U2's song With or Without You. Except for such occasional covers, Hikaru writes almost all her own material, combining light melodies and strong grooves. Her lyrics, though mostly about adolescent angst, can be intriguingly off center. "Our last kiss/Tasted like cigarettes," she sings on First Love.

Although the press has compared Hikaru to Spears, the two are sharply different. First, there's the issue of clothes. Unlike Britney, Hikaru keeps hers on. "I'm not like a gorgeous bombshell or anything like that," she says modestly. "It was just always my music at the front." Mobbed in Japan, she relishes anonymity in America. "I can never really enjoy being famous," she says. "So when I can just take a walk and go grocery shopping in New York, it takes a huge load off my back and I feel great. I feel human again, almost."

Hikaru was born in New York City but raised part-time in Tokyo. "When people ask me exactly how much time I spend in each country, I always tell them I have no idea," she says. "Because my parents have taken me back and forth ever since I was a baby." Her father Teruzane Utada is a producer and musician who now runs her management company. Her mother Keiko Fuji was a popular enka (Japanese ballad singer) in the 1970s who broke her fans' hearts by giving up her career and moving to the U.S. to find a little peace. ("I don't sing anymore," is all Fuji says now, smiling.) Hikaru says she got her start when she followed her parents into the studio and began to make recordings around age seven. ("No, younger!" shouts her father from nearby.) Like her mother, Hikaru plans to retire young—as early as 28—and perhaps pursue neuroscience. "I kind of see myself in a white coat in a lab, working till late evening in front of test tubes," she says. It's hard to imagine that Spears has a similar vision of her future.

For now, though, Hikaru has taken leave from school (she plans to return soon) to focus on her music and establish her career in the U.S. She recently performed a song called Blow My Whistle, which was included on the sound track of the movie Rush Hour 2. Produced by the Neptunes, one of the hottest American hip-hop production duos around, the song features a cameo from gangsta rapper Foxy Brown. Hikaru said her producers were worried at first that she and Brown might fight, given their different temperaments and backgrounds. They got along just fine. The idea of having her on the song came from Pharrell (Williams, one-half of the Neptunes), says Hikaru. "He said Foxy and I would make a very strong combination, the two of us being such contrasting characters: the crazy, revealing, in-your-face Ill Na Na [Foxy's nickname] and the more settled and slightly mysterious Asian girl."

The music industry is ruled by stereotypes: whites rock, blacks rap and croon soul, and few dare to cross the color line. There are hardly any Asian pop acts of prominence in the U.S. (no wonder some see Hikaru as mysterious). Hikaru is mounting a challenge to the status quo. On Blow My Whistle, her voice is more resonant than on her Japanese-language songs, and the track boasts beats that are more forceful. She leaves no doubt: she's got Mary J. Blige, 125th Street-type soul. There's another twist. The credits bill her as "Hikaru Utada"—using the Western custom of listing the surname last. Says Hikaru: "I just figured it's a good way to separate my English and Japanese personas." After the interview, she sends a follow-up e-mail that begins, "This is Hikaru Utada. (Or is it Utada Hikaru...oh, whichever!)" She's still a freshman. She'll work things out.

WITH REPORTING BY TOKO SEKIGUCHI/TOKYO

Yeah....but this was before she dropped out of Columbia to become only the biggest Jpop star ever...

[haikudasai]

Going tonight... I want to bring my camera but I'm not sure if I should... hmmm.

[ohsixthirty]

We're about 2 hours outside of Chicago. I want to bring my camera too, but I don't want to run the risk of it being confiscated or of being escorted out.

[haikudasai]

What's the likelihood of her signing stuff for people? or pics with fans?

[ohsixthirty]

She signed stuff at the last one I think.

[haikudasai]

She was EFFING amazing!

What a voice live! And gorgeous!

[ohsixthirty]

^agreed 100%.

I posted in the other thread.

[stardusties]

toucccched xOOOO IT WAS SO AMAZING!!! We stood outside for 3hours...i had ballet flats on >[

Too bad I didn't know what you looked like to I could find you and *SQUEEEE* together.


Shes very good live nowadays....I was so shocked @___@ and the energy in there was great . Or at least in the area I was in. We were all dancing....even through the terribad dj.

[Keiichi_JPU]

SECOND LONDON DATE ANNOUNCED!!!
11TH FEBRUARY 2010, TICKETS GO ON SALE FEBRUARY 5TH!!

So all of the London fans who were unlucky, this is your chance!!
For Ticketweb clients who had their tickets canceled (like me, but I bought a new one second-hand) there's an exclusive pre-sale from Thursday the 4th!!

*copying this to the other In The Flesh thread*


------
*ahem* okay now here comes my request
Is anyone willing to sell 1 ticket for Friday (for a NORMAL price lol) cause now everyone can just go on Thursday?
Cause it'd be so awesome if I got to take my boyfriend, instead of going alone.. but I have to fly all the way from Amsterdam and my flight will arrive Thursday night.. so I'm only available Friday

[emi♡]

fantastic news

[hpg23]

Great news for those who couldn't get tickets for the original date!!

Originally Posted by Keiichi_JPU

[COLOR="Red"][SIZE="6"]
------
*ahem* okay now here comes my request
Is anyone willing to sell 1 ticket for Friday (for a NORMAL price lol) cause now everyone can just go on Thursday?
Cause it'd be so awesome if I got to take my boyfriend, instead of going alone.. but I have to fly all the way from Amsterdam and my flight will arrive Thursday night.. so I'm only available Friday

I may be able to seel you one ticket for 40 euros (we can negotiate a bit xD) but I'm not sure 100%. Add me on msn if you want and we can talk there about it, but I will not be able to tell you for sure until a couple of days. In case I can sell it to you, there's no problem for me to meet at the venue on Friday, and we will make the transaction in situ

Anyway, in case you don't find tickets and I'm not able to sell you mine (since I have three but only 2 confirmed people), you can join me!! Probably we'll meet up with some other AHS'ers, so don't worry, no need for anyone to go emo on the concert

[Keiichi_JPU]

Originally Posted by hpg23

Great news for those who couldn't get tickets for the original date!!



I may be able to seel you one ticket for 40 euros (we can negotiate a bit xD) but I'm not sure 100%. Add me on msn if you want and we can talk there about it, but I will not be able to tell you for sure until a couple of days. In case I can sell it to you, there's no problem for me to meet at the venue on Friday, and we will make the transaction in situ

Anyway, in case you don't find tickets and I'm not able to sell you mine (since I have three but only 2 confirmed people), you can join me!! Probably we'll meet up with some other AHS'ers, so don't worry, no need for anyone to go emo on the concert

Ooh okay!

But still, please PM me your msn, so we can talk about the ticket! I would love for my boyfriend to join me 40 euros / pounds (whatever) is not a problem. I'll be waiting for your PM

[AyUta]

That's great news for those who didn't get tickets for the original date, I'm so happy! As for Hikki's painter boyfriend(lol much? lol) Maybe he was a jerk