Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル, Utada Hikaru?, born January 19, 1983), also known by her fans as Hikki (ヒッキー, Hikkī?), is a third culture singer-songwriter, arranger and record producer in Japan. She is well-known internationally for her two theme song contributions to Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts video game series.

Utada's first official Japanese album First Love became the best-selling album of all time in Japan with over 7.65 million copies sold to date in Japan alone (10.056 million worldwide to date),[2][3] cementing her status in the music industry in Japan. The release of her later works only help her reign as one of Japan's top artist, with three of her Japanese studio albums being rank in the Top 10 all-time best-selling albums in Japan ranking (#1, #4, #8)[4]. She has had 12 #1 hits to date on the Oricon Singles chart, with a record five of them being million-sellers and four placing in the Top 100 List of Japan's All-Time Best-selling Singles (the former record for a female solo or group artist she has tied with Namie Amuro, Pink Lady, and Ayumi Hamasaki ).

In addition, Utada has won the Nihon Golden Disk "Song of the Year" award for fourteen of her singles since 2000 and has won the Golden Disc "Pop/Rock Album of the Year" award for all four of her Japanese studio albums.[7] In 2003, Utada was ranked the #24 Japanese pop artist in its survey of "Top 100 Japanese Pop Artists of All Time" by HMV,[8] and #10 in HMV's "Top 30 Best Japanese Singers of All Time" in 2006.

In 2007, her single "Flavor of Life" reached #2 in worldwide digital download yearly single chart with over 7.2 million downloads[10] (the only non-American artist to hold such a distinction), and she sold a total of 12 million digital ringtones and songs in that same year, making her the first artist ever to have this many digital sales in a year's time.