Rina Sawayama (she/her) is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and one of the most exciting artists to break through from last year. Born in Japan and raised in London, Rina’s music confronts the issues of identity and conflict with a wild blend of nineties and early noughties influences - everything from Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera to Lady Gaga and Gwen Stefani, to Evanescence and Limp Bizkit.
Rina’s been singing since she was little, but took her first official steps into the music world by joining a hip-hop group at school with Wolf Alice’s Theo Ellis. She broke into the public eye in 2017 with her self-titled EP and in 2018, she released the sex-positive ‘Cherry’, which served as a public declaration of her pansexuality. After finishing a tour with kindred alternative pop spirit Charli XCX, Sawayama signed with Dirty Hit (also home to The 1975) and in April 2020, released her genre-defying debut album ‘Sawayama’. Rolling Stone called it a "thrilling musical adventure" and Elton John proclaimed it “the strongest album of the year by far”; "Rina Sawayama," concluded Paper Magazine, "is our favourite genre".
Despite all this, Rina found out she was not eligible for Mercury Prize or BRIT Award nominations because she doesn’t hold a British passport, despite having lived in the UK for 25 years. Her story inspired a social media campaign and she has been in discussions with the BPI to get these rules changed - and she's succeeded!
Rina is a change-maker and true visionary and I feel honoured to be kick-starting this series with her.
Find Rina: @rinasonline
Listen to Rina’s music: http://dirtyh.it/sawayama
Find me: @venetialamanna
Find the show: @ATSTpodcast
Award nomination updates: Rina changes the game
Recommendations from this episode
The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Brene Brown on shame and accountability
All The Small Things is co-produced by Holly Falconer, edited by Venetia La Manna, with music composed by William Haxworth and artwork designed by Alex Sedano.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com