Utada Hikaru, known as “Utada” 宇多田ヒカル

“Utada Hikaru live at UTADA UNITED 2006” by Pikachusoup is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fast Facts

• Utada Hikaru was born in New York City in 1983. 
• Utada Hikaru grew up spending their time between Tokyo and New York City. 
• They are both Japanese and American.
• Utada Hikaru is mainly known by their first name: Utada. 
• Their debut English language album, Precious, was in 1998 under their former stage name Cubic U.
• Their first major success was their debut Japanese language album, First Love, which was released in 1999.
• They are best known internationally for their music contributions to the video game series collaboration between Disney and Square Enix – Kingdom Hearts. 
• In 2009, they were named “most influential artist of the decade” by The Japan Times.
• Their father is a music producer in Japan and the United States, and their mother was a renowned enka singer in the 60s and 70s.

But, I’m not the change. I’ve always been this way. It’s just that I didn’t have the vocabulary to do anything except drop hints. I didn’t know there was a word that I could identify with. So when I came across the word nonbinary, it was a bit of a “Eureka” moment. It was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, like, “Oh!” I’ve been an outsider in so many different ways — culturally, or being a different age from the kids in my class. I just thought my gender identity was also one of those things that I just don’t fit in with. (NPR, 2022)