20 years after his debut, why has Utada Hikaru been able to catch fire until now?

From his first Japanese album, First Love, in 1999 to the release of his seventh original Japanese album, First Love, in 2018, Hikaru Utada seems to have gone through a cycle.

On December 9, 1998, at the age of 15, Hikaru Utada made his debut in Japan and released his first single, starting his singing career. And today, Otamitsu (because he often writes songs at home, so he has this name) officially ushered in the 20th anniversary of his debut, the author first congratulates Otamitsu: Happy 20th anniversary of his debut!

In the past 20 years, the Japanese music scene and even the entire Asian music scene have continued to develop, and the old people have come to the new, but Utada Hikaru has always stood at the top, and no one can shake her status, which can be said to be the most bug-like existence in the Japanese music scene and even the Asian music scene.

In 1999, Otako released his first Japanese album "First Love", the public trust chart has been on the chart for 85 consecutive weeks, the year sold 7.65 million copies in Asia, the global sales of more than 10 million copies, not only the highest selling album in the history of the Japanese music scene, but also the highest selling album in the Asian music scene, in the past 20 years, no album or artist has been able to break this record.

Although some people always refer to Hikaru Utada as the three major singers of the Heisei era, whether it is sales, global influence, and contribution and innovation to the Japanese music scene, Utada Hikaru is the only existence of the Heisei era, and no Japanese singer can compare with it. In particular, Utada Hikaru's unique musical style, innovation in singing methods, and continuous exploration of musical forms are important reasons why Utada Hikaru has been popular for 20 consecutive years and has not diminished its influence so far.

Due to his birth in the United States, Hikaru Utada is deeply influenced by European and American singing styles, and his standard English pronunciation is also different from the existence of other Japanese singers. Taking advantage of this unique advantage, Hikaru Utada achieved a breakthrough and innovation in the singing method of Japanese songs when he debuted. To put it simply, during his early debut, Utada Shigeru split the Roman tone of Japanese into English and combined this singing style with R&B to successfully localize this musical form. From this point alone, it can establish Utada Hikaru's position in the entire Japanese music scene (but similar to jay Chou's singing Chinese R&B, many Japanese people could not understand what she was singing).

At the same time, Utada Hikaru's music is also very bold in its use of melody, and traditional Japanese music such as traditional Japanese arrangements and even songs will be used in the arrangement, which is also a very special presence in the Japanese music scene in the 1990s.

With the increase of age and experience, Utada Hikaru has also made breakthroughs in musical form and singing methods, and has more thinking about both lyrics and composition. Due to her obvious shortcomings in singing (lack of breath), Hikaru Utada has been exploring more suitable singing methods for herself, and innovating the singing methods of the existing pop music scene, rather than blindly pursuing mainstream music aesthetics, from this point of view, she is smarter than singers such as Hamasaki Bu, and can also show her pursuit as a musician in art.

In 2011, Hikaru Utada announced a break and suspended his artist activities. However, in 2012, hikaru Utada, who was resting, composed and sang a theme song "EVA New Theater Edition: Q" for the theater animation "EVA New Theater Edition: Q", and this song also allowed us to see a completely different Utada Hikaru, whether it is lyrics, composition, singing, or its unique beauty, it is difficult to use traditional music theory knowledge to understand and evaluate, which is also a complete subversion of her past music creation style.

In 2016, Hikaru Utada, who had been resting for five years, officially announced his comeback and released his new album Fantôme in the same year, which won the Best Album Award at the 58th Japan Record Awards, and the single "Hanaboku Tsuyoshi" won the Best Song Award. In 2018, he released his seventh original Japanese album "First Love", which topped the Japanese public trust chart with 200,000 physical album sales in the first week.

Hikaru Utada, who has been debuting for 20 years, is still writing legends with her own unique music, whether it is past, present, or future, she is one of the most important singer-songwriters and musicians in the entire Asian music scene.

□ Yuan Lei (Music Critic)

Beijing News Editor Wu Longzhen Proofreader Guo Liqin