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Utada Hikaru "Wild Life" will be on Ustream - YokosoNews

Tue, 07 May 2013 08:29:31 +0000

Utada Hikaru "Wild Life" will be on Ustream
YokosoNews
At 7pm on this Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 (Japan Standard Time), Utada Hikaru, the most influential Japanese singer, will broadcast one of her last concerts on Ustream due to the high demands from oversea fans. * For your local time listings and ...

Hikki starting a monthly radio show, KUMA POWER HOUR!

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 03:11:00 +0000

Starting April 16th, on the third Tuesday of every month, we can hear Hikki on radio, she will be DJing her very own program on InterFM!

Quote:

http://www.emimusic.jp/hikki/news/news_e.php

[2013/03/22] Regular radio program starts from April on InterFM!
KUMA POWER HOUR with Utada Hikaru
The Third Tue.22:00 - 23:00

Utada Hikaru, who actually started DJ before debuting as an artist will be starting a new radio program on InterFM from April.
On-air on the third Tuesday every month. Utada Hikaru now in her human-activity period will be bringing you music she met in her everyday life.
First show starts from April 16th, don't miss it!

Similar to her old TRES BIEN BOHEMIAN radio programs that she hosted when she was a teenager, early on in her career, we can surmise that she will play a variety of her favorite music and possibly have interviews with a variety of people. On her TRES BIEN BOHEMIAN program she got to interview the like of celebreties such as Aaliyah.
She started with programs called "HIKKI SWEET&SOUR" and "WARNING HIKKI ATTACK" that ran October 1998 to March 1999. TRES BIEN BOHEMIAN ran October 1999 to September 2000. There were also other special radio programs that she did:
-TRES BIEN BOHEMIAN Special from NY, 2001-March-20
-Tres Bien! Bohemian Summer Special from Tokyo, 2001-July-20
-TRES BIEN BOHEMIAN Special Utada Debut 10th Anniversary, 2009-March

Hikki Living Life in London?

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:06:36 +0000

Ann posted on her tumblr about her run-in with Hikki on March 12th, 2013 on the Victoria Line of the London Underground (in of course London, UK).

The picture looks real, read more about her encounter after the jump.
Credit to gardenhose

[UPDATE:]

A Big Happy 30th Birthday to Hikki! And heres a gift!

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 10:01:00 +0000

A big Happy Birthday to Hikki! Who today celebrates three decades, the big 30th birthday!

It seems like only yesterday we were watching her "20DAIWA IKEIKE! Live Streaming" broadcast for her 20th birthday.

As a gift to Hikki and to the members of UtadaNet, here is the long awaited fan tribute, a video cover of "Goodbye Happiness":

Hikki celebrates Christmas in Germany

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 12:34:02 +0000

She is in Germany again, this time for Christmas festivities.
In her recent tweets, she lets us know she is amidst Germans, dancing and enjoying fleischsalat and pumpernickel.

SHES BACK! New Song "桜流し" (Sakura Nagashi) for Evangelion 3.0 movie

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:42:42 +0000

With little warning, Hikki is back with a new song!
Her new song is called "桜流し" (Sakura Nagashi). At the recent premiere of the Evangelion 3.0 movie, it was used as the end theme.

However, she might not be fully back just yet. The movie's producers were able to persuade Hikki to contribute a song just for the movie. "Although Utada is currently focusing her energies on her ?human activities,? she agreed to create this song, thanks to the fervent requests made by the movie production staff and the deep appreciation for Evangelion held by Utada herself, who also created the movie theme songs for the two prior Evangelion movies." (emimusic.jp/hikki).

The cover art is by Evangelion Character Designer, Sadamoto Yoshiyuki.

Have a look at the music video, it was created with the theme ?motherhood? by movie director Naomi Kawase.

~~It is reported that~~ this video will only be available on Youtube until November 19th. UPDATE: according to Hikki's tweet, the video will only be available for three days.

UPDATE2: The music video is now no longer available. Instead, there is a shorter 80 second version here

Check out the official website for the Sakura Nagashi single here: http://www.sakuranagashi.jp/top_e.php
You can find the official lyrics here: http://sakuranagashi.jp/lyrics.html
Official lyrics translation here: http://sakuranagashi.jp/lyrics_e.html

The song is available on iTunes, and is currently number one in the Japan iTunes store.
The video will be available as a download on November 28th.
It will also be released as a DVD single on December 26th.

The film, "Evangelion Shin Gekijouban: Q" (Evangelion:3.0 You Can (Not) Redo), opens in Japan theaters on November 17th, 2012.

Hikki has been tweeting up a storm! Visted Germany

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 07:17:20 +0000

Hikki has been tweeting up a storm over the past few days. Over forty tweets in the past three days from her official twitter account @utadahikaru.

She had mentioned that she was in Germany recently for the Rock im Park music festival in N?rnberg. The festival took place June 1st-3rd. She mentioned that she of course did not perform, but specifically went to see Metallica perform. She is now back in Asia [1].

Thanks to a tweet from Skrillex: "@utadahikaru follow people!!", Hikki has begun following others on twitter (other than her father and her staff). There are only a handful at the moment, but Skrillex, Junko the guitarist from her WILD LIFE concerts, Mika, and Conan O'Brien are among those that she is now following.

It is possible that Hikki and Skrillex recently met in Germany, as Skrillex was also at the Rock im Park festival as a performer.

Utada possibly in the UK.

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:20:37 +0000

The following is a fan account of an encounter with Hikki, apparently during a train ride in London.

Quote:

So today I met Japanese SUPERSTAR Utada Hikaru!

I was on my way to Belsize Park riding the Northern line when at either Angel or Kings Cross a small Japanese lady got on the tube a few feet away from me.

I looked at her and I thought to myself ?LOL she looks like Utada? and was laughing to myself-some Taiwanese dudes to the left of me started laughing at ME because they obviously thought I was crazy or something.

Anyway as the train becomes emptier (after Camden Town) I get a better view of the woman sitting down and thats when I?m like, ?Wait that could be Utada!? But then I was like nah, ?Why would she be in London?? plus she looks almost EXACTLY like she did on the ?Ultra Blue? cover with the same bob cut?

So I decided to gas myself up and played ?Sakura Drops? and imagined what I?d say to her if I met her.

Curiosity really got the better of me so I stood up when the tube was near Belsize (so I could get a better look) and when I looked directly at the woman I was damn near sure it was her.

So I went up to her and said ?Excuse me are you Utada Hikaru?? and she had her earphones on so she asked me to repeat what I said and when I did a bashful grin spread across her face and she said, ?Yes I am?.

Luckily there was an empty seat next to her so I sat down and shook her hand and started chatting with her. I showed her that I was listening to ?Sakura Drops? and she was very shocked at that.

I asked her why she was here and she said she was just visiting a friend and was a bit disappointed with how the weather changed-she?s been here for over a week so far and staying around the Camden area (I won?t say where exactly).

I told her how she was the first Japanese artist I ever heard (apart from Ryu Sakamoto) and she was like ?Wow Really??

She asked ME how I even found out about her and I explained that from loving Chinese music and being on forums (like JPM which I told her about a bit) that people talked about the ?First Love? cd and her song for Kingdom Hearts-LOL that part of the conversation made me laugh because there I was, listing Hikki?s discography to her as if she didn?t know her own music-I?m so lame.

I told her that I went to the show in Islington (if you never went you missed a great show!) and she thanked me for that and I asked her if she?s ever going to do another one. She said it?s all up in the air and that she was on a break (I told her how pressed everyone got when she did that and she laughed!). But she said that she?s currently working on a few projects that she couldn?t really talk about but new stuff is coming soon!

I did ask for a photo but she said she?s not really taking photos right now-and I could see that she felt bad for having to say that, but I was like ?No that?s fine, it?s just great to finally meet you!?

After her stop came up (YES I missed my stop just to keep talking to her LOL) we got off together and walked and talked till I realised I was going to be late for my meeting so I thanked her for the music and she said it was nice to meet me and shook my hand again and went off on her way!

She is TINY under 5 foot and she was wearing pink converse and animal print skinny jeans and she still rocks the short bowl cut from way back when!
She looks EXACTLY like the photos and she hasn?t aged at all.
All in all was a GREAT night! If you?re in London and you see a woman that looks like Hikki, don?t chance it, go up to her and say hi!

Amazing Rock Covers of Hikki by Animadness

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:47:00 +0000

Usually, fan covers aren't the type of thing we post on our Noteworthy News. But, in a Hiatus era, news is slow.

Recently, we were contacted by Paulo, the bassist from a Brazilian J-Music band called Animadness, telling us about their recently released rock covers of Hikki's "Simple & Clean" and "Hikari". We were blown away by these Rock versions of Hikki classics. Have a listen!:

"Goodbye Happiness" Music Video Wins Best Conceptual Video & Special Award!

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:12:00 +0000

Hikki's first self-directed music video "Goodbye Happiness" has won Best Conceptual Video and Special Award at the Space Shower Music Awards!

@hikki_staff has explained that the
Special Award is awarded to the artist who has made a big contribution to the music scene throughout their career.

Congratulations!

March 11, 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:10:00 +0000

As all of you know, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake shook the Tohoku region of Japan and triggered a destructive tsunami on
March 11, 2011.

Hikki has updated her blog in both Japanese and English concerning this disaster. She states that she has made a donation to the Japanese Red Cross and donated 400ml of her blood to the blood bank. According to officials, it is said that she has donated 80 million Japanese yen which is equivalent to $983,888 USD.

Through her official twitter account, Hikki has been occasionally updating about the situation in Japan and calling out to fans on how they can help.

Due to the earthquake damages to the pressing factories, WILD LIFE DVD and Blu-Ray has been postponed. The DVD will be released on April 20 and Blu-Ray will be released on May 18. The WILD LIFE poster presents will be distributed as planned but 30,000 posters will be released with the DVD and 20,000 with the Blu-ray.