Rina Sawayama Is Fighting for Inclusion, One Song at a Time

Rina Sawayama calls her favourite songs her “downside childs.” They’re the Japanese British singer-songwriter’s deeply private tracks that report labels are wont to reject. Take 2019’s “STFU!,” which rages towards the racism Sawayama, 31, usually faces as a girl of East Asian descent. The tune hit a number of partitions earlier than Soiled Hit, the indie report label she now calls house, agreed to launch it. Different instances, it’s Sawayama who says no. After presenting her 2018 single “Cherry,” a proud coming-out tune about her pansexual identity, she remembers one label praising its “homosexual stuff.” “I used to be like, Yeah, you’re not signing it,” she says, laughing.

For Sawayama, it’s essential to accomplice with the precise individuals to amplify her tales—particularly since she devotes her songwriting to crafting ones that not often get informed. “If it’s a novel story coming from a marginalized group, it’s essential that labels let artists be themselves,” she says over Zoom from her house in London. And she or he is totally herself on Sawayama, her 2020 debut studio album. Whereas daringly mixing genres together with nu steel, rock and R&B to pioneer a brand new type of pop sound, the artist intimately probes at topics like race, sexuality and rising up in an immigrant household within the U.Okay. “I’m so lucky I get to jot down songs for a dwelling. I’m not going to waste that by writing no matter is already on the market,” she says.

Sawayama was already vocal about being Asian and queer earlier than signing to a label; releasing music was simply a lot tougher. She didn’t start to pursue music full-time till round 4 years in the past. In 2017, she independently launched her EP Rina, funding the mission by working in an ice cream van, a nail salon, an Apple retailer and by modeling. As her profession has progressed, her forthright expression has prolonged past her lyrics to her visuals. The “STFU!” music video opens with a primary date between Sawayama and a white man who commits a collection of microaggressions earlier than she roars into the digital camera, laughs maniacally and launches into the raucous tune. “From the start, I’ve been captivated with speaking about misrepresentation of Asian individuals,” she says. In different songs, she grapples with how her immigrant household has formed her. “Dynasty” and “Paradisin’” are infused with reflections on intergenerational ache and exchanges along with her mom from her teen years.

Learn extra: How a Long History of Intertwined Racism and Misogyny Leaves Asian Women in America Vulnerable to Violence

“Chosen Household,” a loving tribute to her LGBTQ neighborhood, was initially launched on her album however noticed new life when she collaborated with Elton John on a duet earlier this yr. “It’s so widespread that queer individuals get pushed out of their households. After which they discover one other household that they are often a part of,” Sawayama says of the tune’s inspiration. She’s excited concerning the growing LGBTQ illustration in music, from Lil Nas X dominating the charts to Sam Smith and Demi Lovato popping out as nonbinary. Sawayama has additionally demonstrated her assist by actions like signing an open letter in 2020 to the U.Okay. Minister for Girls and Equalities that known as for a ban on conversion therapy.

Her dedication to preventing for inclusivity has prolonged to music awards. In July 2020, #SawayamaIsBritish trended on Twitter after she spoke out about being ineligible to be nominated for the Mercury Prize and the BRIT Awards. Although she has lived within the U.Okay. for many of her life, she couldn’t be thought-about for the awards as a result of she holds an “indefinite depart to stay” visa as a substitute of a British passport. (Sawayama was born in Japan, which doesn’t enable twin citizenship.) “I assumed their guidelines round eligibility had been outdated,” she says. Following a dialog with the British Phonographic Trade, which governs each ceremonies, she shared in February that the group was altering its guidelines—these with out citizenship might now be nominated. “It was making individuals conscious that there’s nonetheless gatekeeping in tradition within the U.Okay., which is such a various nation,” she says.

Sawayama has practically completed writing her second album, due subsequent yr. She says the upcoming mission addresses matters she has by no means talked about. “I uncovered a few issues about myself, and it actually landed me in a bizarre place psychologically,” she says of her pandemic lockdown expertise. “Writing about it has type of healed me,” she says. If it’s something like her earlier work, its brutal honesty will doubtless immediate therapeutic in her listeners too. “Some individuals assume doing higher is incomes more cash and reaching extra profession highs, and I believe that may turn out to be fairly futile,” Sawayama says. For her, it’s at all times been—and at all times might be—about one thing else: “Making individuals really feel seen.”

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