The Hottest Album
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Utada
can do more than belt a tune.
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Though
Japan's Utada Hikaru is only 158 cm tall, she stands head and
shoulders above her Asian pop-music contemporaries. Her 1999 debut
album, First Love, set a record in Japan. At 9 million CDs and
counting, Love was responsible for more than 5% of all albums
sold in the country. In Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan
and Thailand, it was a surprise hit, bolstering Japanese pop dominance
and fortifying its campaign for a more international fan base.
Yet this 17-year-old Tokyo music queen is certainly no assembly-line
talento. "First Love," the melodic title track resonates with
Utada's youthful promise which has made her 1999's biggest-selling
solo artist for EMI. The international label is likely to promote
and release her work in the U.S. after she begins attending Columbia
University later this year, even though her songs have so far
been in Japanese with only a smattering of English.
Born in New York to parents in entertainment, Hikki, as she is
known to fans, wrote her first tune at age 10. On Love, nearly
all the upbeat compositions are her own. Though she is currently
at the rhythm-and-blues stage of her musical evolution, she wants
to create her own sound "as Utada Hikaru, without [constraints
of] musical genres." How will she fare in markets with no Japanese-language
skills? "Many people love Italian and Chinese opera, whether they
know what the singers are going on about [or not]," Singapore's
The Straits Times paper pointed out in a review of an Utada concert.
Certainly, First Love has easily translated into a pop classic.
By Alexandro A. Seno
"FIRST
LOVE "
(English Translation)
Last Kiss
With cigarette taste
Sense of bitterness and sadness
This time tomorrow you might be
Somewhere and miss somebody
You are always gonna be my love
Even if one day I fell in love
I'll remember to love, you taught me how
You are always gonna be the one, the other
Till now, it is still a sad love song
Until I learn how to sing a new song
Stopped Time
It seems to run again
It's just because I can't forget
Tomorrow I will be crying and missing you
You will always be inside my heart
No matter when, I will keep a space for you
I hope that I have a place in your heart, too
Now and forever you are still the one
Till now, it is still a sad love song
Until I learn how to sing a new song
You are always gonna be my love
Even if one day I fell in love with another
I'll remember to love, you taught me how
You are always gonna be the one
Till now, it is still a sad love song
Until I learn how to sing a new song
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The Southeast Asian finalists for this year's MTV Viewers'
Choice Award:
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Thailand "Pee Fa Party" by Bazoo
Indonesia "Kuldesak" by Ahmad Dhani and Andra R
Philippines "(Awit Para) Sa Kanya" by True Faith
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