Utada Hikaru (born January 19, 1983), who also goes by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese American singer and songwriter. After releasing the commercially unsuccessful English-language album Precious under the stage name "Cubic U" in 1998, she rose to prominence in 1999 with the release of her second album (and first Japanese-language release), First Love, which sold over eight million copies in Japan and became the best selling Japanese-language album of all time.
