Cross cultural entertainers are more common and more popular than ever. Consider the soaring paychecks of Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, Halle Berry and Lenny Kravitz, all of whom come from families with one white and one African-American parent.

Now, a 15-year-old Hawaiian girl named Jennifer is hoping to reach even loftier heights.

The Japanese-American singer, who has been performing since she was seven and is a local star in Hawaii, is part of an unorthodox project led by Japan's Victor Entertainment.

While Latin-American singers are staples on MTV, Asian artists have had little to no luck establishing themselves in the United States. That's why the company is banking on Jennifer, who hopes her carefully planned marketing blitz will lead to stardom on both sides of the Pacific.

The Jennifer project began a few months ago, when the high school sophomore began practicing her singing and dancing and posing for publicity photos.

This week, her debut, six-song CD was released in Hawaii. Following an intense promotional tour of local radio and TV stations, Jennifer and company move to Japan, where she will market herself as an American performer in an attempt to cash in on the Japanese fascination with American pop music.

The CD will be released in Japan in October, after which Jennifer will travel to several other Asian companies and continue honing her skills for the more critical American audience. Success in the United States, where the music industry dwarfs every other country's market, is the ultimate goal.

'If she was purely American, or purely Japanese, we wouldn't be doing this," Toyohiko Katabami of Victor Entertainment told the Associated Press. 'We see the promotion in Hawaii as part of the promotion for Japan, and that in turn is part of later taking her to America.'

Despite Jennifer's ability to relate to American and Japanese audiences, Katabami said he's not expecting a meteoric rise to fame.

'We're realistic about this,' he said. 'We don't expect to set the world on fire right away.'