UA is not your average pop star. She arrives at an interview in the western Tokyo suburb that is her home on her bike. In a cut-off T-shirt and long, billowing peasant skirt, she looks like a hipster mama, and after the interview in this ordinary cafe, she's off to pick up her son from elementary school.

Even her promotional photos stray far from the sexy template of most divas. She often glares at the camera, looking feral rather than fashionable. Her sartorial choices are eccentric, more shamanic than glamorous. Like Bjork, the artist she most resembles aesthetically, if not musically, UA challenges our conception of beauty.

Yet she is undoubtedly beautiful. It is a beauty best appreciated in action. When she speaks, her whole body heaves forward, much as when she sings, to help her make her point. Her hands constantly dance in front of her, as if some bit of Italian DNA had snuck into her genome.