Rina Sawayama

Japanese-British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama addresses questions of identity and conflict through an eclectic fusion of sounds, folding R&B, nu-metal, club rhythms, and early-2000s teen pop into her anthemic pop constructions. After surfacing in the early 2010s via atmospheric alt-pop singles, she gained wider notice with her debut EP, the 2017 release Rina. Expanding on that project’s foundation, she delivered the ambitious, boundary-crossing full-length Sawayama in 2020, which earned strong critical praise. She sustained that momentum with the equally eclectic 2022 album Hold the Girl and contributed both an appearance and an original song to the 2023 feature John Wick: Chapter 4.

Sawayama entered the world in Niigata in 1990 and relocated with her parents to northwest London at age five. To preserve family traditions while following a standard British curriculum, her parents placed her in a Japanese school. Transitioning later to an all-English middle school brought fresh pressures around belonging and adaptation. Shortly afterward her parents endured a difficult divorce, prompting Sawayama to confront her own sexual orientation. Throughout adolescence she balanced the roles of diligent student and emerging club enthusiast; despite occasional conflicts that troubled her mother, her academic record earned her admission to the University of Cambridge, from which she earned a degree in political science. While at Cambridge she discovered support within local queer spaces and took initial musical steps by forming a hip-hop group alongside Theo Ellis of Wolf Alice.

Drawing from Utada Hikaru and early-2000s mainstream hits, Sawayama issued her debut single, “Sleeping in Waking,” in 2013. Two further non-album tracks, “Where U Are” and “This Time Last Year,” appeared in 2016 ahead of the 2017 arrival of her Rina EP. That collection included the sinuous R&B cut “Tunnel Vision” featuring Shamir and the driving pop track “Alterlife,” which landed on multiple year-end best-of lists. While readying her first studio album she released the ’90s-inflected, sex-positive single “Cherry,” an open statement of her pansexuality.

Following a tour with like-minded artist Charli XCX, Sawayama joined Dirty Hit and launched the campaign for her breakthrough record. Sawayama reached listeners in April 2020 and received widespread acclaim. Rooted in early-2000s textures, it merged the teen-pop sensibilities of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Destiny’s Child with harder-edged references to Evanescence and deftones. Powered by singles “STFU!” and “Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys),” the album charted in Japan and throughout the U.K., while reaching the Top Ten on both the U.K. Indie and U.S. Heatseekers rankings. A remixed edition surfaced later that year. Sawayama joined Charli XCX on the 2022 hit “Beg for You” and teamed with Pabllo Vittar for the single “Follow Me.”

She opened the next album cycle in 2022 with “This Hell,” a single that fused Shania Twain and Lady Gaga influences and previewed her sophomore effort, Hold the Girl. Issued that September, the LP broadened her stylistic range across tracks such as the Kelly Clarkson-tinged “Phantom,” the Corrs-inspired “Catch Me in the Air,” and the electronic-pop title song. In 2023 she appeared in and supplied the single “Eye for an Eye” to John Wick: Chapter 4, and she partnered with Empress Of on the pop release “Kiss Me.”