Rina Sawayama—a name that many may or may not know yet, but soon everyone will! This year, Rina released her self-titled album called “Sawayama”. It has ranked number 8 on the lists of best albums released in 2020 by Metacritic and even received an overall score of 89. For those who are not familiar with Metacritic, that is an amazing score. Her album doesn’t shy away from genre bending and has a song for all music enthusiasts ranging from metal, 2000’s r&b, pop, and many others.
Although her music is amazing, and I haven’t stopped listening to her album on repeat, it is her personality that turned me into a crazy obsessed fan. Rina is finally giving the asain community more representation within the world of mainstream music! She is very open about the racism she faces everyday within her home country of England and incorporates that into her music. That’s not the only hot button topic she is willing to sing about either. She sings about her family trauma, her identity crisis and even has sapphic themes in her songs.
Rina has inspired a whole new group of artists—those who feel they missed their moment due to age. Rina released her debut album at the age of 30 and often speaks out about ageism in the pop community. In fact, she equates a lot of her songs and music video visuals to the experiences she had in her early 20’s.
If you’re just looking for some new music or seeking an artist that shares your values,Rina is a great place to start! She is such a talented artist, and all of this is shown through her songs, lyrics and visuals in her music videos. Although I would say that Sawayama is an unskippable album, my personal favorites are Love me 4 Me, Bad friend, and XS! If this is how amazing her debut is, I can’t wait to see what she has in store for the rest of her career.