"Goodbye Happiness" is a song by Japanese singer-songwriter

Hikaru Utada , who is also known by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American pop singer, songwriter and producer. By 2010, Utada had become one of the most influential, and best-selling, musical artists in Japan. Born in the United States to Japanese parent ...

. It was released as the lead track from Utada's second Japanese compilation album, ''

Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2 ''Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2'' is Japanese pop singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada's second compilation album, released on November 24, 2010, by EMI Music Japan, the same day as her Universal-released English language compilation album, ''Ut ...

'', in November 2010. The song was commercially successful, topping

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Japan Hot 100 The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and '' Hanshin Contents Link'' since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thur ...

chart in December 2010, and in January 2011 was certified gold by the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include p ...

for more than 100,000 full-length downloads to cellphones.

Composition and inspiration

The song is a pop/

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song with an arrangement consisting of piano, vocal harmonies, percussion and synths, with occasional background 8-bit sounds. The song features background vocals by four women recorded in London in August 2010, described in the documentary ''Hikaru Utada: Ima no Watashi'', as

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. Utada chose this singing style for its nostalgic, dream-like qualities. This is the first instance of background vocals in a Hikaru Utada song not being performed by her. The chorus features increased string instrument-style synths and percussion. The lyrics begin by describing different scenes, a boy in a summer day who has eaten his sweets, and a sunburnt woman wearing a dirty white dress. The lyrics then describe a relationship at the "end of a dream." The song's protagonist hums love songs to herself, and has fun without thinking. She realises she cannot rebuild her relationship, and notices that "when people become alone, they realise the meaning of love." However, she believes it will be good for her to keep living how she is now. Utada wrote the song while attempting to write a love song. She considers the lyrics to be a reconciliation with her former self.

Promotion

The song was used in an advertising commercial campaign for

Recochoku is a Japanese entertainment conglomerate led by founder Max Matsuura and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1988, the company manages J-pop talents like Ayumi Hamasaki and internet sensation PikoTaro. It has also shifted into other busi ...

digital media store, with the commercial airing from November 10 onwards. The music video was bundled on a special DVD that came with pre-orders of the album. The song was performed during Utada's two date concert series '' Wild Life'' in December 2010.

Music video

The music video was directed by Hikaru Utada personally, the first time Utada has worked as a music video director. As a director, Utada used her birth name in

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

(), as opposed to her stage name. Originally Utada planned to have a director other than herself for the music video, however, during meetings with the director, she realised that she was the only person who could express things in the way that she wanted, and decided to film it herself. The video has a concept of Utada as a presenter, and attempted to incorporate entertaining aspects. Utada felt the video had a feeling of looking back on her past self. The video was recorded in a single take, and is shot from a static camera. In the video, Utada sits down at a desk in a bedroom and mimes to the song. She wears headphones, similar to her video for "

Heart Station ''Heart Station'' is the seventh studio and fifth Japanese-language album by Japanese–American recording artist Hikaru Utada. It was released on March 19, 2008 by EMI Music in Japan, and globally on March 26, 2008. It is Utada's eighth consecut ...

". Hand-puppets mime parts of the song, two worn by Utada, and others held by people off-screen. During the chorus, Utada pushes aside her desk chair and dances in the room. During the second chorus, the room darkens and Utada dances on a yellow chair, similar to that of her video for " Automatic". During the bridge, she stands in front of a blackboard with mathematical formulas on it. During the instrumental section of the song, the room darkens and a disco ball lowers. Utada then dons the head piece of her kigurumi Kuma-Chang outfit, similar to her ad campaign for

in 2008. The video ends with Utada dancing with a flag and a hat like her video for "

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". A

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man arrives, with a pizza box full of doves. The video was shot in a set, not Utada's personal bedroom, although many of the items in the room are owned by her. The video has references to video sharing site YouTube. At the start of the video, the YouTube loading symbol appears. In the bottom left corner of the screen, a fake logo reading "UTube" can be seen, and at the end of the video, false suggestions to view Utada's other videos are shown, in the manner that YouTube suggests related videos at the end of viewing something. The suggested videos are all the ones previously referenced. The video was uploaded onto YouTube on November 9, 2010, as the first video on Utada's newly established official YouTube channel.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

"Goodbye Happiness" music video at YouTube
{{authority control 2010 singles 2010 songs Hikaru Utada songs Japanese-language songs Billboard Japan Hot 100 number-one singles Songs used as jingles Songs written by Hikaru Utada EMI Music Japan singles