(Image from EMI Music Japan)
Japanese pop star Utada Hikaru is trying her luck with the English music market again with her new album “Come Back to Me”.
The New York born artist has released two all-English album to date, “Precious” (using pseudonym Cubic-U) in 1998 and “Exodus” in 2004. Both the albums did pretty well in Japan, but rather disappointing in US.
Good to see that Hikki hasn’t given up on becoming a global star. The title track Come Back to Me is currently streamed at Island Records… and the full album is scheduled to release in March 2009.
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good luck to hikki. among asian singers, she has the best chance to succeed in america… she sings well, can write her own stuff, and speak excellent english. it will be really really annoying if those broken english korean stars can make it but not hikki.
i wish her all the best too.
although i feel that it’s still quite unlikely for asian stars to make it big in america, no matter how good or popular you are in your home country.
I also hope Utada Hikaru could achieve a good deal of popularity here in the US and beyond, she definitely talented and have what it takes. But it’s disappointing that the US media and general public doesn’t really pay attention to the Asian media as much as I think they should. I find it that Asia is somewhat open to American and International performers, having them performs at Asian venue, attend music shows all over Asia, buying their albums, etc. but Asian performers can’t really break into the American media, and that’s not really fair.
There are amazing talents and performers in Asia. In terms of performance and talents, quality in music, genre, Asia, or even Japan alone, does not lose out to US. In fact, I think Japan have way more diverse sound and music genre, great performers, funny, interesting, etc.
So Utada is not the only one, but many other performers in Asia also deserve international recognition in the general media.
btw, I dunno but isn’t Utada is the only one that trying to break into the West/US market? cuz I’m not hearing anyone else trying to release their music here as well.
In Korea, though, several korean performers, BoA, Rain, Se7en, Wonder Girls, have been or is trying at the moment… and also several of Korean actors/actresses have also been trying to break into the US market.
I think the western media has changed a lot in the past few years… Asian artists are getting more exposure than they used to have.
When Hikki released “Exodus” in 2004, there’s hardly any US mainstream media reporting on the album… even the Asian media is giving substandard reporting on her venture.
However, the US media has given some decent exposure for Asian artists in the past two or three years… the likes of Rain, BoA and WG are featured on news and magazines.
It’s just that the public aren’t showing that much enthusiasm… and to be frank none of the Asian artists have managed to give something amazing yet.
Hikki has a better chance to make it compared to a few years back… Come Back to Me is a bit ordinary, but a decent song. Good luck to her, hope she can make it this time.
Ganbatte Hikki! The first album failed in the US for many reasons one being that there was almost no marketing for it.
Hikaru speaks fluent english, has a good voice and writes her own music and I think would be a far better choice then Boa to succeed.
I just hope they would stop referring to Hikaru as Japans Britney Spears.
She won’t break through this time either.
Put it simply, she doesn’t fit into the 3 cookie cutter roles available to female pop stars in the USA.
1. Sexy with cleavage, booty-shaking, and model looks and some singing talent [Beyonce]
2. Sexy in total tramp/whore mode singing pre-packaged pop crap with lots of electronic help on the vocals. [Spears et al.]
3. Possible lesbian who plays acoustic guitar, wears wool sweaters and Birkenstocks and sings sad songs about life. [take your pick]
Utada has great talent, but is above the cookie cutter BS.
i don’t want to sound like i’m making a stereotype on americans…
but i personally think that typical americans see themselves as “better” than other races, especially asians.
so i don’t think much of them would bother paying attention to asian stars.
if people are like that, then no matter how good you are, it’s gonna be difficult to suceed in the US.
maybe a minority would notice her talent, but it wouldn’t last long in their hearts.
Hey! I’m American and I love Utada Hikaru and I can’t even understand half of her music! I’m Irish if you must know, and I would be simply thrilled if utada would strike it big here… English optional…. I like music for the emotion, regardless of whether I can understand the words or not.
I think the American music scene is hard for any one to break into, especially if you think, act, say or do anything outside the norm. The scene here does have a tendency to chew people up and spit them out, regardless of culture or heritage… look at Selena…. or Kylie Minogue… or Carni Wilson… it’s an unforgiving industry especially with the shallow, superficial tendencies of the media(that I hate personally).
Yeah, I believe this time she will be able to make it here in the US. She said it herself that on the last english album she was trying to hard and you can really hear the difference when listening to Come Back to Me, she has a much more mature sound to her and the lyrics. I’m like 85% positive that we americans (who supposidly think we’re better then other races) will really enjoy it. I am really excited to see what happens and to hear the other songs on the album. I hope all goes well because it would be really awesome to have her do a tour here
Yeeeeeeeeeeaaahhhh,, i’m indonesian, and i like her song and album,
Ummm I really love Utada’s music and I hope that she’ll make it big down in the US. I’m also American and I know that some people down here would rather see the typical singers (Beyonce) but its time for a change. Utada is that change, regardless of her race. It’d be better to have more asian singers here. I was quite happy to hear Utada’s song on the radio, in fact a bit surprised. I wonder if any other song like Dirty Desire will be played next, hopefully. Diversity is better, good luck Utada.