Utada Hikaru on hiatus from being an artist starting next year

Utada Hikaru will release a single collection album titled "Utada Hikaru SINGLE COLLECTION VOL. 2" this autumn. She has made it clear that she will take a hiatus from being an artist starting next year.
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This was announced on 8/9 via Utada's blog on her official site. Her first best collection in about 6 and 1/2 years, "Utada Hikaru SINGLE COLLECTION VOL. 2" will include such hit songs as "dareka no negai ga kanau koro", "Be My Last" and "Beautiful World" as well as new songs. They are works patterned to encompass Utada's work from 2004 onward.

On her blog Utada looked back on her career from her debut up until now and cleared up the reason behind her decision to go on hiatus by saying "There is a part of me inside that has stopped growing since I began my way of life as an artist when I was 15 years old. That part of me is one that is very important to me as a person". She clearly is stating that now that she has fulfilled herself as an artist this year, she is focusing on "personal development".

At this point she is not yet sure when she will return to being an artist, but is declaring that she will definitely return to the music scene at some point by saying "When I would think 'I wonder if I was able to grow a little bit as a person?' I naturally wanted to take a break. When the time comes that I think "I want everyone to hear my music!", then that's exactly what I'll do" and "I don't know if it will be in 2 years or 5 years, but I'll return a more mature person".

Source: http://natalie.mu/music/news/35915

I know that this will definitely disappoint some of you Utada fans out there, but it just feels like it's been SO long since she's been relevant...maybe it's just me.

Shut up, she's always been relevant! At least in my heart T____T
I will miss her a lot, I almost fainted when I read these news D:

In other news.. Hello mognet, it's been a while How has everyone been?

Hello again Mognet indeed.
I think like others, I have carried Utada's relevance around with me regardless of what else was going on - not a flawed line of action to my mind.

I was heartbroken to learn one night that her In the Flesh tour was right across the water from me in London (I live in Ireland), when it was a week over. A few months before I had signed off from the Island Music list because all they gave me was spam and no Utada news... It would have been the perfect break from beating my head off the table over a final-year thesis.

With this, well, I take it that my chance of ever catching Utada in Europe again has plummeted. I do presume she's taking a hiatus from her US/English-language career, too? Her proclamation seems rather complete, so I imagine so.

This would have been rather bad news to start the day with, had I not just gotten surprise present post. Nonetheless, I'm just going to hope that part of her journey of self-exploration involves travel through Europe and several unadvertised low-key gigs in bars. Gah! I am happy, in that she did always seem (in her tracks) to be a good, interesting person, and just at the end of college and in unemployment I can well understand that feeling that you're identity is stagnating. So the potential musical results of this effect are beautiful, but painfully tantalising.