Hanatan (花たん, Stylized as HaNaTan) (born January 18, 1986, in Nagoya, Aichi[citation needed]) is a Japanese video creator, utaite and dojin vocalist. Her second moniker is YURiCa (ユリカ) which she usually uses working on collaboration albums.
Hanatan started her musical career in 2008 when she began to upload her cover versions of well-known Japanese songs on Nico Nico Douga and YouTube.[2] Within the utaite scene she is known for her wide vocal range. Songs released by Hanatan feature musical elements from hard rock and "candy" pop but she has also released various dance remixes.
Between 2011 and 2016 she released seven studio albums which were able to enter the official Japanese music charts by Oricon.[1] In 2016, she and Japanese musician Kikuo started a musical project called Kikuohana and released the first collaborative album on March 30, 2016.[3] A second album was published on March 31 the following year.[4]
In her music, Hanatan often uses the flower language such as in naming her albums after flowers like her album EriCa which was named after the same-named botanic name.[2] Several music albums were produced in collaboration with various Vocaloid producers. On her 2015's album Flower Rail involved Vocaloid producers included Darvish P, 40mP, Marasy and buzzG.[10] On the same album, voice actor Hiroyuki Yoshino was featured guest vocals. Hanatan described herself as a fan of Yoshino.[10]
In an 2017 interview with the German-languaged Rock Hard magazine, American rock guitarist Doug Aldrich stated that his publisher contacted him with a request to write some songs for Hanatan, which he described were "similar to Lady Gaga."[11]