One of the most influential Asian artists, Utada Hikaru

Utada Hikaru

Birth name:    Hikaru Utada (宇多田ヒカル?)
Also known as:     Utada, Hikki, Cubic U (retired)
Born:     January 19, 1983 (age 30)
New York City, New York, United States
Origin:     Tokyo, Japan
Genres:     Pop, R&B, rock, alternative, dance, electronica, synthpop, ethereal wave, experimental
Occupations:     Singer, Songwriter, Producer, Composer, Arranger
Instruments:     Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active:     1996–2011 (on hiatus)
Labels:     EMI Music Japan (Virgin, Foozay, Eastworld) (1997-2013)
Universal Music (Island, Mercury, EMI (2004–2010; 2013-present)
Website:     EMI Music
U3 Music (Personal Blog)
Official Twitter account
Official YouTube account

Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル Utada Hikaru?, born January 19, 1983) is a Japanese-American singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer. She is known by her stage name Utada English /uːˈtɑːdə/ in America and Europe. Since the release of her Japanese debut album First Love, which went on to become the best-selling album in Oricon history, Utada has had three of her Japanese studio albums in the list of Top 10 best-selling albums ever in Japan (number 1, 4, 8) and six of her albums (including one English-language and one compilation) charting within the 275 Best-Selling Japanese albums list. 

Hikaru has had twelve number-one singles on the Oricon Singles chart, with two notable record achievements for a female solo or group artist: five million-sellers and four in the Top 100 All-Time Best-selling Singles.  Utada has sold an estimated more than 52 million records worldwide.  In 2009, she was considered "the most influential artist of the decade" in the Japanese landscape by The Japan Times.

Additionally, Utada is best known in the West for making two theme song contributions to Square Enix and Disney's collaborative video game series Kingdom Hearts: "Simple and Clean" (which is the re-written English-language version of her 10th Japanese single "Hikari") for Kingdom Hearts and "Sanctuary" for Kingdom Hearts II ("Passion" in the Japanese version of the game).  In 2007, her single "Flavor of Life" reached number 2 in worldwide digital download yearly single chart with over 7.2 million downloads, and contributed to 12 million digital sales for her over the same year.

Here is a sample of some of Utada Hikaru's songs:
1998: "Automatic"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_QVB4Qdh6o

2002: "Hikari"
http://www.jpopasia.com/celebrity/hikaruutada/videos/hikari::1909.html

2005: "Passion"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWoJLdXJt0E

2007: "Flavor of Life"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-tSPRcCiM0

2010: "Goodbye Happiness"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfpX8lkaSdk

2012: "Sakura Nagashi"
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=378991225515394

Utada Hikaru will also be performing the theme song for the upcoming video game, "Kingdom Hearts III".