Hikaru Utada gets that Shiseido money and teases a new song, "Find Love"

Hikaru Utada is feeding their fanbase good. "Pink Blood" ain't been out 10 minutes, their non-binary welcome mat is still IKEA fresh, and a new Shiseido cheque has only just cleared, and yet here we are with the preview of a brand new song "Find Love" and a TV commercial featuring Hikaru themselves.

The cool thing with this commercial (and I don't know if it's intentional or not) is that it gives us familiar locations which we could tie to previous songs of Hikaru's. Walking through the back streets of London, is very "One Last Kiss". Being in a soft lit studio is very "Anata". And the dress Hikaru is wearing is the similar to the one they wore in the music video for "Pink Blood", which was similar to the one they wore for "Hatsukoi".

I have to tell myself every single time, 'Don't be judging these songs on a damn clip', but I like how "Find Love" sounds, because it's so different from anything Hikaru Utada has released before. It's giving me basic GarageBand production, but I do like it. Also, the entire snippet of the song is in English, which leads me to believe the entire song will be.

Hikaru Utada had said on one of their Insta lives some time ago that they had no plans to record and another English language album, but they'd consider featuring an English song or two on an upcoming album. Utada is over y'all. But we been knew. After This Is the One, I doubt many fans expected a follow up. But with Fantôme and Hatsukoi it really did feel like Hikaru had started to consolidate the sounds they'd tapped into for Exodus into their Japanese releases. And with their upcoming album, which will undoubtedly feature "Find Love", it seems that they are fully realising Hikaru Utada and Utada as a whole, which I'm all for. It makes sense. It's how it always shoulda been.

When Hikaru Utada moved from Universal Music to Sony Music in 2017, there also also some clean-up in terms of what establishing the name under which all of Hikaru's releases would fall, which was also a sign that commercially there'd be no more Utada; just Hikaru Utada, regardless of the language of the release - which is exactly what we saw with the release of "Face My Fears" in 2019.

Hikaru also did a short interview with Shiseido where they spoke about what beauty means to them, and it touches on gender. In fact, Hikaru starts off by reflecting on gender and the influence of that on their life. There's no admission of being non-binary, so this interview was more than likely recorded before their Insta live where they came out as non-binary. But regardless, everything Hikaru Utada says in this clip still absolutely stands, and contextualises (not that it needed to) partly why they identify as non-binary.

I do think it's a shame that Shiseido didn't adjust this interview or re-edit it in light of Hikaru Utada identifying as non-binary, as I think a Japanese beauty brand embracing having a non-binary ambassador would be so powerful. Especially alongside out, proud and non-conforming football player Megan Rapinoe, who is also a part of this same campaign. It also ties in perfectly with the slogan of Shiseido's campaign, which is 'Power is you' - which is so damn typical of Japanese marketing, in that it's a slogan that sounds like it means something big, but actually means nothing at all. But, you get what it's trying to say. None of this changes that Hikaru Utada is non-binary and is an ambassador for Shiseido, so...whatever. Hikaru Utada is still a bad bitch who is getting paid, and their face being all over Shibuya not long after their coming out is sure to have people talking, and hopefully about the right things; having much needed discussions about what being non-binary means.

I also think it's worth noting that Hikaru Utada mentioning in this interview that they are a woman doesn't exclude them being non-binary, regardless of the timeline of when this interview took place in relation to whenever Hikaru Utada made the admission to themselves of who they are. Somebody can be non-binary, but still use gendered pronouns and be okay with being referred to as such. Hikaru Utada can be non-binary and still say that they are a woman.

Don't be missing all the action underneath the table because you're too busy reading labels y'all.

And on a wholly different note, it really is looking like we might be getting a new album by the end of this year.

💿 Reviewtada: Pink Blood | One Last Kiss | Dare ni mo Iwanai | Time | Hatsukoi | Fantôme | This is the One | Heart Station | Ultra Blue | Exodus | Deep River | Distance | First Love

🎧 Playlistada: Slaykaru Queentada | Hikaru Utada: R&B | Hikaru Utada: Ballads | Hikaru Utada: Bops | Hikaru Utada: Remixes