I disagree. Yes, America CAN be harsh, and yes, there's definitely a LOT of discrimination, particularly in the music industry (I'm actually writing a paper about that), but I just don't think it will hurt Utada all that much. I'm not naive enough to think that people will think she was amazing or praise her as the greatest singer ever for this performance, but what's going to happen is that a lot of people are going to become curious. They're going to wonder, if she's being compared to all these people, shouldn't be able to sing like them? Well, Utada CAN, she just didn't in this case- but when they look her up on YouTube or Google, they're going to find loads of her live appearances where she sings like an angel, even if she's sick or her voice has been wrecked after hours of performing. It's kind of the basic philosophy of "any publicity is good publicity." People know her name and know that she TRIED. When they see that she can also succeed, they're only going to become more interested in her. This negative situation can also have positive aspects- we shouldn't deny them just because we're used to seeing things in black and white. :3

Shuri/Eli