DEEP RIVER

Deep River is the third studio album (fourth overall) released by Japanese singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada, released in June 19, 2002. It sold just over 2.35 million copies in its first week of release (succeeding 2,026,870 units by First Love and 3,002,720 by Distance in their respective debut week), charting at #1 on the weekly, monthly and yearly Oricon charts. Deep River is ranked as Japan's 5th highest album in debut sales, and 8th in the all-time album sales in Japan. The final track, "Hikari", would be her first single to reach #1 on the Oricon Weekly Singles chart three times, and the Japanese version of the theme song for Square Enix's RPG video game, Kingdom Hearts. The English version, "Simple and Clean," (released in her COLORS single), also accompanied promotion of "Kingdom Hearts" in overseas versions. The album was cited by many fans and critics as Utada's most acclaimed work, as well as achieving the Triple Crown at the 17th Golden Disc Awards in Japan. According to IFPI, the album is listed at #18 on the Top 50 Global Best Selling Albums for 2002.