[2004] Utada's US radio interview
 

I listened to the mp3 of an Utada radio interview in america that i found on the net. during the 20 min interview, there was a phone in section where fans could ask her questions. there was this one guy, if you could call him fan, asked utada "which album is the song hikari on?" and i thought wtf??? you could have just get online and clicked onto any thousands of discographies online...asking utada that question is simply humiliating. it shows that he doesnt know about utada's music, and he doesnt even bother to find out. :no

Well.... that was definitely kind of a rude question to ask, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the woman who asked "Are you going to bring Ayumi Hamasaki to the US anytime soon?". Ayumi doesn't even really speak English that well, and I don't think she's ever shown interest into going outside of Asia for concerts and stuff. It just seemed like a rude thing to ask Utada, who was essentially there to promote Exodus. The announcers didn't even know the release date of it, or if she was releasing the Easy Breezy single or a whole album instead. Poor Utada had a pretty bad interview I thought... :(

No I thought the ayumi question was clever and definitely not rude. "Utada" the artist has a public image and like that she obviously has to have an opinion on other artists including obviously ayumi. Don't people ask opinions about other artists to an artist constantly? Utada has to be prepared for that in her interviews. That was really not rude at all. She was there to promote Exodus - behind her promoting Exodus hasa whole fact that she is a JPOP artist and as such she makes part of the JPOP scenario and making any question to her regarding JPOP was anything but rude. Utada was definitely not prepared for an interview. It was funny that her being a very huge artist in Japan almost don't make any concerts at all. When asked about that she was mute, she couldn't really give an excuse well.
The hikari question was stupid though, what a waste of a chance to ask Utada something interesting.

I can understand what you're saying, but if anything I wouldn't call the question clever. I understand she's a popular Jpop artist, and as a result she has to be prepared for questions like that, but that doesn't necessarily validate them. The radio show was about Utada - at the very least the person should've asked a question that pertained to her in one way or another. The Hikari question, as stupid as it was, was at least in someway focused on the person being interviewed. Instead of an Ayumi question someone could have asked her something about the album, or something interesting as well.
I definitely agree with you about the interview - she really didn't seem that prepared for it.

To me that question came across more like "I don't care about you, I'd rather have her.". I can't say what Hikki thought of it, I'd be pretty hurt if I were asked something like that during an interveiw myself, or say what the girl's intentions were, it just came off as rude.

The Ayumi question wasn't very thought out. Utada is not the voice of the Jpop industry and is definitely not the mouthpiece of it much less of her label Toshiba-Emi even less so of AVEX, she's influential yes but she's not 'the' authority to talk about that kind of thing. I doubt she knows about Ayumi's plans and doesn't really have any reason to care, that'd be Ayumi's business not hers. These kind of radio interviews are meant to interview [Artist] about [Artist's New Album] not about [Another Artist In The Same Genre But Has Absolutely No Relevancy To The Artist Being Interviewed Or Their Album]. If perhaps there was a well-known camaraderie between the two artists or if there were highly publicized 'music battles across seas' nonsense I could understand why the question was being asked but this is just really another one of those, "I'm getting airtime for the artist I like and taking away from your airtime," sort of things to me.

Edit: (Agreed Naja_Akara, just saw your post)

First of all, the girl who made the question didn't ask anything technical at all. I'm surprised people take everything so seriously. The question was obviously not like "yeah Utada whatever, bring ayumi here and leave", the question was more like a fun question, trying to see how was Utada opinions about another japanese artist. And no you don't need to be the voice of JPOP industry to actually have some culture. God, if I were to ever meet a celebrity I wouldn't be asking about technical stuff or to know things you will soon enough see stamped on magazine such as "Hi Utada how are your expectatives for your new album?" Such common questions were for the people presenting the radio programme to do. You can already get all the answers you want to know about why Utada decided to make an english album, what thoughts did she put in every song in any magazine, internet article out there. Utada herself seemed to get the question in a fun way too so I don't see why ppl are throwing stones like that. And no she didn't get embarassed because of that question because she in fact was getting embarassed with each and any question they diirected to her. If you think she was not prepared for such questions then the blame is surely to be put in Utada or her producers. She couldn't even say why she made EASY BREEZY :shrug

what exactly was the answer about her Ayumi question?

I think she said something like "Ohhh, that would be pretty cool". Then the hosts asked who Ayumi was, and Utada told them she's a popular singer in Japan, who she thinks is really cute. She then said something about how they do really different stuff though, and people think they're rivals, but she said that they're really not. The hosts then drew comparisons between Ayumi and Utada, like how they both write their own music, and things like that. It's been a while since I had that file, so let me know if I messed anything up. :)
She handled the question pretty well I thought, it didn't seem like she got offended or anything like that.

*ahem* That was me who made the call to the radio by the way. :D I heard Hikki would be on and I thought, WOW, I have to ask about Ayu, just to get her name on the radio!! Utada Hikaru is my third favorite J-Pop artist (next to Ayu and BoA) so I kind of freaked out a little when they put me on and I almost didn't ask about Ayu because I realized at the last second that it was pretty rude, but I did it anyway. Besides, it wans't as horrible as the guy asking about what the hardest song to write was. I'm kind of surprised it sparked so much here.
And by the way, it really was me. Seriously. My sister was there watching the whole time, she can prove it!

no it wasnt the host who did that. after utada saying ayu is cute and beautiful, then she said ayu wrote her on lyrics, then went on saying how people think they are rivals but utada thinks there isnt any rivalry cos thy do different stuff.

the hosts know nothing about ayu or even utada, remember? right from the beginning of the show one of the hosts asks if utada is dating someone and utada answered 'i am actually married' :)

does anyone have this mp3? i wish to hear

You're right, sorry about that - I haven't heard it in a while. :D

Yeah, I remember you. Not sure if I should tell you, but there's a topic somewhere at Utada.com's forums couple months ago discussing about your call. :(

Ah, I bet they hate me, huh? What did they say, basically?

You really want to know? Well...

I'll sum it up, they questioned with pissed off remarks on what kind of question is that that was asked to Hikki. I was angry, but hey, people are entitled to their own opinions I guess. :rolleyes

Don't feel too bad though. I would have been panicking to ask Hikki a question if I had been given the chance. Let alone say anything.

pooo hikki...she had to answer all these tough questions...the only question that she actually prepared the answer for was 'are you dating someone?' LOL

^ LOL and what album was hikari on :P :laugh

i heard that she is not doing very well in USA

It's true, she isn't doing too well, even if she is hitting the Billboard charts for Dance songs and whatever. I thought she would slowly gain popularity, especially when so many people started hearing of her at U.S. launch, but I don't see it gaining anymore.