Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル, Utada Hikaru, born January 19, 1983), who also goes by the mononym Utada English /uːˈtɑːdə/, is a Japanese American singer and songwriter. Since the release of her Japanese debut album First Love, which went on to become the best-selling album in Oricon history, she has had three of her Japanese studio albums in the list of Top 10 best-selling albums ever in Japan (number 1, 4, 8) and six of her albums (including one English-language and one compilation) charting within the 275 Best-Selling Japanese albums list. Hikaru has had twelve number-one singles on the Oricon Singles chart, with two notable record achievements for a female solo or group artist: five million-sellers and four in the Top 100 All-Time Best-selling Singles. Utada has sold an estimated more than 52 million records worldwide.

She was described by Time Magazine as a "Diva On Campus", a reference to her having attended Columbia University for a brief, career-break semester in 2000. In 2009, she was considered "the most influential artist of the decade" in the Japanese landscape by The Japan Times.