Rina Sawayama Discusses Importance Of Age Diversity In Music Industry

• Rina will release her second album, Hold The Girl In September.
• Japanese singer has worked with Lady Gaga and Charli XCX.
• Amended the criteria for singers to be nominated for both the Brit and Mercury Awards.

Rina Sawayama will release her second album, Hold The Girl In September, This Hell, a massive bop influenced by Shania Twain, was just launched. Rina’s career is on the rise, thanks to high-profile collaborations with Lady Gaga and Charli XCX. The singer may be singing about crashing her way to hell, but her career is on the rise as well.

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Rina made news last year when she successfully amended the criteria for singers to be nominated for both the Brit and Mercury Awards, allowing individuals who do not have British citizenship but have resided in the country for at least five years to be considered. The Japanese singer, who has resided in the UK for 27 years, was first advised that her debut album, XS, ‘wasn’t British enough’ to join the awards. Following the #SAWAYAMAISBRITISH campaign, she was thankfully nominated for the rising star Brit Award.

‘It’s just one little thing that stops people from feeling like they can’t achieve their fullest potential,’ Rina says, speaking to Grazia at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, ‘I went to Cambridge and studied politics and I felt like so many people helped me along the way to get there. And I just want to do that in any way that I can to try and change things.’

But another thing Rina, 31, does say is that the music industry can get better at age diversity. ‘My first album deal was at 29,’ she says. ‘And maybe that’s the thing which really needs to change. People need to think that it’s not all about the teenagers. There’s like a lot of people who are in their mid 20s and late 20s with incredible stories. I definitely wonder in hindsight now, with all the labels that turned me down for the first record, I wonder if that was a factor.’ She adds, ‘I really love seeing artists like Self Esteem. And one of my favourite records last year was Jessie Ware’s record. It’s nice to see that diversity in age.’

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There have been rumours swirling that Rina is going to support Lady Gaga on tour, when Gaga is in London next month, performing at Tottenham Stadium. Rina provided her vocals on Gaga’s remix album for Chromatica (and later met Gaga in Vegas after Rina’s teams tour bus broke down). ‘I don’t think I’d be doing music if it wasn’t for her,’ Rina says. ‘Gaga really created the blueprint for authenticity and like just being yourself.’