“You’re giving me / Too many things lately,” says the opening verse of Kingdom Hearts‘ iconic track “Simple and Clean” by Hikaru Utada. And that’s certainly how Kingdom Hearts fans may feel right now, but positively, of course. With Kingdom Hearts 4 finally on the way (and looking good), those who love the magical video game world have a lot to celebrate. And any fans at Coachella got to experience the magic of the franchise in a whole new way. Hikaru Utada opened their set with a performance of Kingdom Hearts’ nostalgic theme and sang one other fan-favorite song during their performance.
One Twitter fan captured a look at the magic of “Simple and Clean” come to life.
UTADA HIKARU OPENED WITH SIMPLE AND CLEAN AT COACHELLA AHHHHH!!!!!! I CRIED 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/FE4RCnM9er
— ☆オードリーAudrey☆ (@aitaikimochi) April 17, 2022
Long-time fans of Kingdom Hearts will know that the franchise first released 20 years ago, in 2002. And “Simple and Clean” quickly became the song of Kingdom Hearts. For some, that’s twenty years of belting out “Simple and Clean is the way that you’re making me feel tonight.” It honestly makes us emotional just seeing the video of it, performed now in 2022 with the series still as popular as ever. So we can’t imagine what it was like to see Hikaru Utada perform in person.
The full version can be listened to, here:
To the even greater delight of Kingdom Hearts fans, the singer also sang the song “Face My Fears” during their Coachella set. This Hikaru Utada song was the opening theme in Kingdom Heart 3.
UTADA HIKARU ALSO SANG FACE MY FEARS AT COACHELLA- QUEEEEEN!!!!!! 👑👑 pic.twitter.com/m0TqLROuc1
— ☆オードリーAudrey☆ (@aitaikimochi) April 17, 2022
Hikaru Utada and Skrillex‘s “Face my Fears” even has a fully Kingdom Hearts music video.
If you are a fan of a franchise, you get a thrill of delight whenever it pops up somewhere unexpected. And, in this case, seeing such nerdy Kingdom Hearts Easter eggs coming out of Coachella feels especially fun. “Whatever lies beyond this morning is a little later one,” but for now, we’ll enjoy all these Kingdom Hearts treats.