Utada Hikaru Scores Biggest Digital Hit Ever

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mojo-photo-utadahikaru.jpgVariety is reporting Japanese superstar Utada Hikaru has achieved the record of largest-selling digital single ever, with “Flavor of Life” moving over seven million units. Label EMI made the claim despite the fact that there’s no real official body who counts these things, so it can’t be verified; however, the next-highest-sellers (O-zone’s nightmarish “Dragostea Din Tei,” with four million units, and in the US, Daniel Powter’s almost-as-horrific “Bad Day,” with two million) are so far behind, I guess nobody’s questioning it.

“Flavor” was available in a format to anyone’s, er, taste: mobile phone ringtones, mobile downloads, home computer downloads, ring videos, and “ringback” tones (the new thing where you hear it instead of a ring when you call somebody). Perfect for Japan where people basically live out of their cell phones.

Who is Utada Hikaru, you may be asking? It’s understandable: despite her massive Japanese success, an attempt to market her in the US as “Utada” failed miserably, and much of her best material still isn’t available domestically. You can listen to excerpts of both versions (the regular and “ballad” style) of “Flavor” on her official website here, but you can’t buy it. Unfortunately you also can’t buy the single that, in my opinion, is her best so far: the charming Madonna-reminiscent “Traveling,” which I’m admittedly partial to since it was utterly omnipresent during a brief trip to Tokyo six years ago. So, check out the awesome (if slightly overwhelming) video and an mp3 below.

Utada Hikaru – “Traveling” (from Deep River, 2002, on Toshiba/EMI)

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“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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