Face My Fears
by Utada Hikaru (featuring Skrillex)

Album: Single release only (2019)
Charted: 98
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Songfacts®:

  • Born in New York City to Japanese parents, Hikaru Utada has been one of Japan's top-selling recording artists of all time since releasing her Japanese-language debut First Love in 1999. Utada has also had some success on the Billboard charts. Her 2009 album This Is the One peaked at #69 and her single "Devil Inside" spent a week at #1 on the dance chart in 2004. "Face My Fears" is her first to reach the Hot 100.
  • Utada wrote "Face My Fears" as the opening theme for the video game Kingdom Hearts III. It is the fourth theme-song contribution the Japanese star has made to Square Enix and Disney's collaborative video game series following "Simple And Clean," "Sanctuary" and "Don't Think Twice."
  • The track was produced by EDM producer Skrillex and frequent Justin Bieber collaborator Poo Bear. Utada and Skrillex first met at a metal festival in Germany. A few years later, she asked him to produce a remix of the song "Chikai" for Kingdom Hearts III, as she she knew that he was a fan of the game. He proposed to instead make a completely new song and Utada agreed to collaborate with him and Poo Bear. The three got together in the studio and wrote "Face My Fears" within an hour.
  • Asked by Billboard whether capturing the magic of Utada's previous Kingdom Heart songs was a challenge, Skrillex replied:

    "It didn't feel daunting for me because I'm a fan of the game. I knew what the song, the melody, the emotion, the lyrics needed to feel like. I'm not saying I have the only perspective or the right perspective, of course, but it really spoke to me. It's a type of language we [Kingdom Hearts fans] all understand. It pulls on your heartstrings."

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