I first heard Utada through the "Simple and Clean" remix from Kingdom Hearts. I had never seen her, so I imagined her as your typical blonde one-hit-wonder pop starts that came out in the early 2000's. I guessed she was around 17 and wore tight jeans and one of those shirts that stop right above the belly button. Kind of Britney Spears looking.

When I discovered "Sanctuary", the airhead pop star image went away, but I still thought she was blonde XD. When I found out she was Asian I was like oooooh ooook. When I found out she was a huge pop star in Japan and I liked nearly every song of hers I was like :O

It's interesting how new Utada listeners never think she's Asian. Maybe it's because there aren't many (maybe any?) big Asian stars in the English-speaking music industry. I've heard people say they thought she was Swedish or a white American when they heard her KH songs, and others that could have swore she was a black woman when they listened to "Come Back to Me".