is a song by Japanese musician

Hikaru Utada , also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese and American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. She is best known by international audiences for w ...

. It was released as a double A-side single with the song " For You" on June 30, 2000.

Background and development

In Spring 1999, Utada released her debut album '' First Love'', which became the most commercially successful album of all time in Japan. After this success, she released two follow-up singles, " Addicted to You" (1999) and " Wait & See (Risk)" (2000), which were both produced by American production team

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III (born June 6, 1959) and Terry Steven Lewis (born November 24, 1956) are an American R&B/ pop songwriting and record production team. Their productions have received commercial success since the 1980s with var ...

. For "Time Limit", Utada enlisted the help of American producer

Rodney Jerkins Rodney Roy Jerkins (born July 29, 1977), better known by his stage name Darkchild, is an American record producer, rapper, and songwriter. He has collaborated with a broad range of popular artists. Jerkins has won two Grammy Awards from 19 nomi ...

, and recorded the song at Darkchild Studios in New Jersey. The song was co-composed with Takuro of the band

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, the first time Utada had shared the role of songwriter since her 1998 pre-debut album '' Precious'' as Cubic U. For Utada's second album ''

Distance Distance is a numerical or occasionally qualitative measurement of how far apart objects, points, people, or ideas are. In physics or everyday usage, distance may refer to a physical length or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two co ...

'' (2001), she worked together with Takuro again on the song "Drama". The "For You" / "Time Limit" single was released right before Bohemian Summer 2000, her first wide-scale tour of Japan, and on the same day as the

DVD single A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of m ...

release of her previous single, "Wait & See (Risk)".

Promotion and release

The song was first unveiled on June 12, 2000, when a 60-second preview of "Time Limit" was previewed on Japan FM Network radio stations, a week before "For You" was previewed. To promote the single, Utada appeared in magazines released in June and July, such as ''Pati Pati'', ''What's In?'', ''Pia'', ''Tokyo Walker'' and ''Popteen''. Utada performed "Time Limit" live on ''

Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ ''Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ'' was a Japanese music variety show on Fuji Television hosted by the comedy duo Downtown, which consists of Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada. It is a very popular show with comical hosts who like to pick on t ...

'' on June 26, 2000. This show was one of the highest-rated episodes of the program, taking in a 22.1% share of viewers for the time slot, however was beaten by Utada's previous appearances on the show in 1999 and later in 2001. On the June 29 episode of '' Utaban'', Utada performed both "For You" and "Time Limit".

Music video

A music video was created for the song, featuring footage of a live performance by Utada on her Bohemian Summer 2000 tour. The footage was taken from the July 1, 2000 concert at the

Yoyogi National Gymnasium Yoyogi National Gymnasium, officially is an indoor arena located at Yoyogi Park in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, which is famous for its Suspended structure, suspension roof design. The arena holds 13,291 people (9,079 stand seats, 4,124 arena sea ...

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Critical reception

Sato of OngakuDB.com noted the song's layered chorus work, and felt that to fully appreciate this, the song was better suited to listening at home on CD, rather than hearing it on television. CDJournal reviewers felt that Utada's "tightly structured" vocals made it into a "superior pop" song. The "For You" / "Time Limit" single was successful enough to win a Song of the Year award at the 15th

Japan Gold Disc Award The is an award presented by the Record music Industry Association of Japan in the field of music. The Japan Gold Disc Awards have multiple Grand Prix categories, including: Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year (download and ...

Track listings

Personnel

Personnel details were sourced from "For You/Time Limit"'s liner notes booklet. *Paul Foley – Pro-Tools editing *

– arrangement, production, rap, recording * Takuro Kubo – writing * Harvey Mason, Jr. – pro-tools editing, recording *Dexter Simmons – mixing *Hikaru Utada – all vocals, arrangement, writing

Charts

Sales and certifications

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Time Limit 2000 songs 2000 singles Hikaru Utada songs Songs in Japanese Oricon Weekly number-one singles Song recordings produced by Rodney Jerkins Songs written by Hikaru Utada