Hikaru Utada brought Kingdom Hearts representation to Coachella

polygon.com:

The past few years have brought quite a few blessings to Kingdom Hearts fans: Sora in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a new mainline Kingdom Hearts game, and now, pop artist Hikaru Utada has graced the attendants at Coachella 2022 with a live performance of two tracks from the Kingdom Hearts series: “Simple and Clean” and “Face My Fears.”

Coachella is an arts and music festival held in California annually. It’s known for regularly featuring an all-star line up of performers, with this year bringing in major artists like Doja Cat. Hikaru Utada opened their set at the event with the emotional pop hit, “Simple and Clean” from Kingdom Hearts. Later in the set, Utada sang another fan favorite from the game series, “Face My Fears,” which was created with dubstep artist Skrillex.

Utada was a guest of 88rising’s Head in the Clouds Forever. At time of publication, the archived footage of Coachella is no longer available in certain countries. However, the group will be returning to the Coachella stage the following weekend, so there’s a chance fans will be able to see the performance live on April 23. Otherwise, you can see it in the embedded clips below.

UTADA HIKARU OPENED WITH SIMPLE AND CLEAN AT COACHELLA AHHHHH!!! I CRIED pic.twitter.com/FE4RCnM9er

Here is Utada performing “Face My Fears” below.

UTADA HIKARU ALSO SANG FACE MY FEARS AT COACHELLA- QUEEEEEN!!! pic.twitter.com/m0TqLROuc1

This was a nostalgic and mesmerizing performance, even if Mickey and Sora were nowhere to be seen. Utada’s work was widely popularized in the early 2000s, partially due to their music being in Kingdom Hearts, but the singer continues to release new music. More recently, their music formed part of the Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time