Utada Hikaru Final Distance remixes

In 2001, Jpop diva, Utada Hikaura released “Final Distance” her 7th Japanese-language single and the 1st single from her Deep River album. “Final Distance” was the first song that Utada Hikaru’s ex-husband Kazuaki Kiriya filmed the music video to and it was the first time that Utada Hikaru collaborated with Japanese rapper M-Flo. The song debuted at #2 on the Oricon charts in its first week and had a tie-in as the NTT docomo M-stage CM song.

“Final Distance” originally appeared in the Distance album, and was planned to be released as a single. However, Utada heard of a school stabbing rampage in which 6 year old schoolgirl Rena Yamashita (山下玲奈) had died. Rena had previously won an essay competition; writing about how she wanted to become a singer just like Utada. Utada decided to rearrange the song into ballad form, creating the song “Final Distance”.