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And Barry Obama is the first black president in the USA!! Are these two stories even newsworthy? They shouldn't be.

The fact is Hikki was born in America.. As famous as she is in japan I believe she is a US citizen. We might as well celebrate when an eskimo does something newsworthy.

Regardless, the billboard top 200 is a joke of a system.. But if you want to be happy about it here is one thing: We the fans got her on that billboard.

Not her.. we did. I'm fairly sure her marketing was a disaster and the only reason it sold even half as well as it did was because of her loyal fans. She hasn't broken out or anything. Not yet anyway.. Unless I've completely missed something.

FYI Barak Obama becoming the first black president of the U.S. is very newsworthy.
And if Utada becomes the first Asian artist to break into the U.S. market then it will be newsworthy too.

Ya your right.. Racial differences should be emphasized wherever possible. Also top 100 album sales on the top 200 chart.. Hmm.. It's top 200 for a reason. BoAs self titled topped at 120 something... Is this breaking out or not? Where is the line really drawn....

I guess in the opinion of the journalist it's at 100 of top 200.. Half way. In my opinion the whole thing is BS

Yay i'm so happy for Hikki

I wonder, had TITO's intended release date, March 24th, or 26th, focused fully on maintaining a coherent distribution strategy, strictly ensuring that Digital and CD?s release date was tattooed on the Media PR, Publicists, etc souls, then there would not have been the ?stop start, start stop effect? created by pushed the CD release date back to 12 May.

These stats are ironic in that although Hikki went a ?little bonker?s? by working her tail off in the first 2 to 3 weeks, one could see by the 26th Hikki was overdoing it, TITO succeeding in, Utada becoming the 1st Japanese musician to have a top 100 chart placing in this short period of time!

And yes absolutely, a big nod of respect too all Hikki?s American fans, who did Hikki proud, turning out in there thousands for the events, and pushing TITO to a measurable success in such a short space of time, something that Hikki should be proud of too?I hope Utada returns and finished what she started?

Nothing's special. Whatever her race is, she has an american and japan citizenships by the way. And that's made her an american in america (and a japanese in japan).
And F.Y.I, theres so many asian musician/singer that not "listed" or "labelled" as an asian that charted in the top 200 in this past 10 years.
If she charted in Antartica Top 100, that's noteworthy.

Well, yeah guys, she IS a US Citizen and all ... but what I think overshadows that is the fact that she's mad big in Japan and it may seem like she's crossing over to the States even thought she's actually from the States. I guess knowing her huge status in Japan is a hard thing to ignore especially if it's stressed in w/e news report (even thought we ALL know that it should be more looked upon as her being a 'new artist' just beginning to come out like any other American musician... it kind of brings me comfort knowing that a lot of people didn't even know she was Asian when they heard her songs for the first time). Besides, a little bit of publicity doesn't hurt much, does it? (Even though the sources for this info is only shown to a specific audience *coughotakus?!cough*, it's still something).

That and if you want to look at it more closely, it kind of gives Asians as "yay" factor? ...I don't know, just knowing this news makes me feel proud of my Asianness. That's just me personally though. >_>

But anyway... I dunno. I guess anyone can look at it the way they want, whether it's a bother if her ethnicity plays some sort of roll or not. Either way i think it's good news if not noteworthy.


[Another thing -- reason why Obama being the first BLACK president should be such big news is because there's still a hostile bigot movement in America that still makes up noticeable clusters in certain areas. Most of the US isn't even racist anymore but the KKK and the Neo-Nazis are still frighteningly passionate in their racist ideals. Other than that, if you live/are used to diversity and the acceptance of other races, then it isn't a big deal really (I didn't find it very WHOA but I tried looking at it from a bigger perspective). Yeah. /off-topic]

omg i'm so happy for her!

i wonder if she knows this also