2004-Fall - "UTADA - pop star" - America Magazine
"UTADA - pop star"
By: Karu F. Daniels
America Magazine - Fall 2004 issue
"Being a foreigner is kind of like being a permanent outsider when you go to a new place," explains Utada, the 21 year-old singer-songwriter on the verge of breaking down musical barriers in the United States. The Japanese singing sensation has sold more than 10 million records in her native land, and now the Columbia University drop-out (“I’m only on a leave right now,” she assures) is ready to take America by storm with the stateside release of Exodus. The album pairs her with hip-hop uber-producer Timbaland and Jon Theodore of Mars Volta. With a sound reminiscent of Madonna’s incursion into trip-hop and a name that means “to give off light,” Utada and her Japanesey lingo provide a vibrant, hip new sound to the musical landscape. “I can’t find a genre to really fit my music into. I figure that means it’s pop. But it’s not quite like Hillary Duff pop,” she quips. “I usually say it’s intense. Like it’s intense pop.”
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