Hikaru Utada....

Early life and musical career beginnings
Hikaru Utada was born in New York City to Japanese parents with roots in the Japanese music industry. Her father, Teruzane Utada, was a record producer while her mother, Junko Utada, was an enka singer, performing under the stage name "Keiko Fuji." Junko Utada’s mother, and Hikaru’s grandmother, was a blind shamisen player (ごぜ, or goze). Utada made her first professional recording at the age of twelve. She did her recordings with her mother, releasing songs under a band named “U3” (also known as Utada 3) until 1996 when she started her first solo project, "I'll be Stronger." The "Cookin' With Moses Vocal" from this project was called the "Cookin' With Gas Vocal" on the promotional release. "I’ll Be Stronger" was the first song Utada wrote. It was released under the artist name "Cubic U," a mathematical reference to her being the third Utada 'power,' which was Hikaru’s pseudonym before becoming a superstar in Japan. The song failed to release in the United States, and in 1997, she started her next project, though at first she was hesitant.

"Watching my parents, doing crazy things to continue working on music, um, I always thought 'I never want to be musician', it's crazy, and it's unstable... Just, it looked like a very hectic life, and I didn't really understand the passion for music that they had back then. But I ended up following my parents' footsteps and carry on the family business and I am a musician now as well and, now I understand the driving passion behind it, and that's okay," she said in an interview.[citation needed]

Cubic U released her debut single "Close to You," which was a cover of The Carpenters' song. She then released her debut album Precious, but it failed to be released in the United States due to restructuring issues at her then record label Capitol Records. In an MTV interview (on MTV's You Hear It First, October 2004), Utada explained: "Someone in Japan heard it—at a Japanese record company—and he said, 'Oh, can't you write in Japanese? You speak Japanese… And I said ok, why not? I'll try. Then I gave it a shot, and the Japanese album just really blew up in Japan." She released Precious in Japan on January 28, 1998, and then later re-released it on March 31, 1999 to much better success. It has sold 702,060 copies to date in Japan, making it a significant hit for an all-English album in that market
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Utada