Hikaru Utada is the face of Cartier, and gives us a lil’ video featuring “Somewhere Near Marseille”

Bad Mode has been out for 6 months now, and STILL songs from the album are getting promotional tie-ins. One thing Terzuane gon’ do is make sure that his child gets PAID.

Hikaru Utada is the face of Cartier’s latest Trinity collection, which includes a range of jewellery designed by Chitose Abe, the founder and creative director of the clothing brand Sacai.

I’m not big on fashion, but I know Sacai. It’s been blowing up in a big way over the past few years, and has become beloved in the streetwear community via coveted collaborations with Nike. Sportswear collaborations seems to be a rite of passage for all luxury brands these days. Although Japanese fashion brands have always found their way into the streetwear and Hypebeast community for their cool factor. Comme des Garçons. Issey Mikaye. Undercover. All beloved in streetwear and Hypebeast circles, long before any of these brands did anything with Nike.

HENNYWAY.

Back to Hikartier Utada.

Cartier also shot a promotional video starring Hikaru Utada, featuring the Bad Mode closer and queer summer anthem “Somewhere Near Marseille”. And coincidentally, it’s pretty similar in terms of colour scheme and vibe to the studio shots from their 2021 Shiseido commercial; with the whole deal of Hikaru in a white dress, and the use of red light. 100% unintentional. But it creates a cool parallel and sense of consistency regardless.

It’s a gorgeously shot video, which could easily be extended into a music video for “Somewhere Near Marseille”. A radio edit though. Because as cool as this concept is, I don’t think it could hold my attention for 12 minutes. Although the YouTube algorithm would absolutely love it.

The video is directed by Yuichi Kodama, who Perfume fans may be familiar with, given that he's directed a whole bunch of their music videos, including “Secret Secret”, “Natural ni Koishite”, “Nee” and “Pick Me Up”. And he also directed Namie Amuro’s music video for “New Look”. Yuichi has a reputation for directing videos which involve some form of product tie-in.

I do wish we’d gotten one signature hair style for Bad Mode though. There’s been no one consistent hairstyle that Hikaru has had throughout the promotional of the album. But nothing was ever gonna top the Fantôme bob.

Hikaru Utada, Cartier | Shot by Shoji Uchida

Whilst some of Hikaru Utada’s promotional tie-ins rarely have some form of personal connection to them (far from uncommon when it comes to celeb brand tie-ins and endorsements), Cartier does have a personal connection to Hikaru Utada. Unlike Kingdom Hearts. A bitch has never played that game, and will never play it. Don’t ask them about it.

If you cast your mind back to the music video for “Hanataba wo Kimi ni”, you may recall there being multiple close-ups of Hikaru Utada’s hands and noticing her wearing three rings. One on her left hand and two on her right. These rings are from a Cartier Trinity collection, which were given to them by their mother; something Hikaru Utada had shared WAY back when she had the This Is the One bob. They also mention their rings being a gift from their mother in an interview on the Cartier website. Because, obviously.

It’s nice to see Bad Mode still being pushed in some form 6 months after it released. It’s felt like there has been a steady stream of promo and Hikaru Utada related activity to keep interest in them and the album, which is really cool and very unconventional for a Japanese album release. A tour is usually what does this. But Hikaru’s team have found some pretty neat ways to keep the momentum of Bad Mode going, ‘cos we know a bitch ain't touring for shit. It’d be good to see this become more of a common thing with all Japanese album releases. Japanese labels dropping promo for an album like a hot brick once it releases and a tour is underway has always felt strange to me. And I think in this day and age where streaming is now very much a big deal in Japan, and J-pop is far more global, that post release promo for albums separate from tours should be up for serious consideration.

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