American-Japanese singer Utada Hikaru is returning to US for 8-city cross country tour in support of her latest album, This Is The One.
The tour will open in Honolulu on January 15, continue with shows in Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, work its way east through Chicago and Boston, and wrap up at Irving Plaza in New York City.
[Official site for ticketing details][Image credits to Y.Kikuma]
Singer Koda Kumi is the highest earning Japanese female artist for the past 12 months; she made an estimated USD20 million over the period.
2nd on the list is Ayumi Hamasaki, 3rd is Hikaru Utada.
Yukie Nakama tops the actress list with estimated USD3 million (far behind Koda Kumi). 2nd on the list is Kou Shibasaki, while Korean actress Choi Ji-woo is 3rd.
US born Japanese pop star Hikaru Utada divorces with her husband Kazuaki Kiriya after 4 years of marriage.
Hikaru Utada and Kazuaki Kiriya met in 2000 when Kazuaki was photographing Hikki’s album cover. They got married in 2002.
Hikki mentioned on her website that they separated in mutual understanding because of different opinions with their future and family values; but the press believe that Hikki’s busy career overseas has been one of the major factors as well.
It’s said that Japanese pop divas Hamasaki Ayumi and Hikaru Utada met each other on November 25 at a gay bar and sang karaoke together.
Ayumi and Utada were seen as fierce rivals in Japan music arena since the late 90s, with both them highly successful in both sales and awards winning.
Ayumi had once said that the rivalry was built by the recording companies to boost the album sales; the artists themselves don’t have any bad feelings against each other.
It could be the first time that both of the diva duet together, too bad no people at the gay bar managed to catch any photos or videos.