Utada Hikaru (Yu Duo Tian  hikaru, born January 19, 1983), who also goes by the mononym Utada (English: ), is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer. Born in New York City to Japanese parents, record producer Utada Teruzane and enka singer Abe Junko, Utada began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo, as a result of her father's job. Eventually, a recording contract with Toshiba-EMI was signed and, under the stage name "Cubic U", Utada released her English-language debut album Precious in early 1998, but was a commercial failure. In the following year, heavily influenced by R&B and dance-pop, her Japanese-language debut First Love was released and became an instant success.

Her first singles compilation album Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 was released on March 31, 2004. It became the best-selling album of 2004 in Japan, making her the only solo or group artist to reach number 1 four times on the yearly charts. It was the first compilation album to reach number 1 in six years on the yearly charts, and the first compilation album to reach number 1 in twenty-six years by a female artist. Despite its success, the album received little promotion and no new material; moreover, it charted longer on the Oricon Albums chart longer than any other Utada release to date (over 2 years). The album sold over 2.575 million units in Japan, making it the 34th best-selling album ever in the country. A month later, on April 21, she released her only Japanese single in 2004, "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro," which topped the singles chart for two consecutive weeks and sold 365,000 units by the year's end and was also the main theme song for Casshern, directed by her then husband Kazuaki Kiriya.  In mid-2004, Utada moved back to New York, and began work on a new recording contract with Island Def Jam Music Group. On October 5, 2004, she released her North American English-language debut album, Exodus, under the name "Utada," which was her new American-given artist title at the Universal Convention. It was released on September 9 in Japan, with a special booklet and housed in a cardboard slipcase. In an MTV interview, Utada said: "I don't think it's the music that I'm concerned about. It's obviously that I look really different and there really aren't any completely Asian people [who are popular singers in the U.S.] right now." Exodus became Utada's fourth consecutive release to debut at number 1 and boast 500,000 copies in its first-week sales in Japan. American sales were not as successful, it reached number 160 in the US Billboard 200 chart; it however peaked at number 5 in the Heatseekers chart. "Easy Breezy" was released as the lead single in early August 2004, followed up by "Devil Inside" a month and two weeks later. And Utada became the cover of the Interview magazine June 2005 issue.  "Exodus '04" was released at the end of June 2005 and featured remixes from The Scumfrog, Richard Vission, JJ Flores and Peter Bailey. In the UK, Mercury added another 2 remixes for "You Make Me Want to Be a Man" in the original album Exodus 04, titled "You Make Me Want to Be a Man [Bloodshy & Avant Mix]" and "You Make Me Want to Be a Man [Junior Jack Mix]." By the end of the year Utada was voted "Number 1 Favorite Artist of 2004" by Oricon's annual readers poll.  The fourth single from Exodus, "You Make Me Want to Be a Man", was released in October 2005 in the UK. "Devil Inside" became a club hit in the U.S. and topped the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Airplay charts. Both the Exodus album and the "You Make Me Want to Be a Man" single were released in the UK, with different artwork from the USA and Japanese versions.

What happened in 2004?
Her first singles compilation album Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 was released on March 31, 2004.