Fantôme (album)
2016 studio album by Hikaru Utada
Fantôme is the sixth Japanese studio album (ninth overall) by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada, released on September 28, 2016. Although Utada had announced an indefinite hiatus from the public eye in August 2010, they continued writing and composing material with Teruzane Utada and Akira Miyake. Musically, Fantôme contains a collection of tracks that utilizes acoustic and stripped-down instrumentations, alongside influences of pop, electronic, and R&B music. The lyrical content delves into themes of grief, sadness, love, and death—mostly influenced by the death of their mother, their second marriage, and the birth of their son in 2015.
Fantôme was a commercial success in Japan, reaching number one on the weekly Oricon Albums Chart with sales of over 253,000 units, becoming their eighth consecutive domestic number-one album. It additionally topped the US World Albums chart and has sold over a million copies worldwide. It won various awards, including Album of the Year at the Japan Record Awards and the Grand Prix prize at the CD Shop Awards. The singles "Sakura Nagashi", "Hanataba o Kimi ni", and "Manatsu no Tōriame" were released prior to the album's announcement, while "Michi" and "Nijikan Dake no Vacance" were released shortly before the album went on sale.
Background and recording
In July 2015, Utada announced on their blog that they had given birth to a baby boy and had been working on a new album during their pregnancy. In March 2016, it was revealed by their team that they had returned from their five-year hiatus with two new digital singles, "Hanataba o Kimi ni" and "Manatsu no Tōriame", and a campaign called "New-Turn", with songs downloaded by Japanese fans via digital music services having part of their sales donated to planting cherry trees in areas damaged by the by 2011 Tōhoku earthquake.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q26239589. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2016, 2010, 2015 and 2011.
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