: Rina Sawayama Is Fighting for Inclusion, One Song at a Time #WorldNEWS Rina Sawayama calls her favorite songs her “problem childs. ” They’re the Japanese British singer-songwriter’s

Rina Sawayama Is Fighting for Inclusion, One Song at a Time #WorldNEWS
Rina Sawayama calls her favorite songs her “problem childs. ” They’re the Japanese British singer-songwriter’s deeply personal tracks that record labels are wont to reject. Take 2019’s “STFU!,” which rages against the racism Sawayama, 31, often faces as a woman of East Asian descent. The song hit multiple walls before Dirty Hit, the indie record label she now calls home, agreed to release it. Other times, it’s Sawayama who says no. After presenting her 2018 single “Cherry,” a proud coming-out song about her pansexual identity, she recalls one label praising its “gay stuff. ” “I was like, Yeah, you’re not signing it,” she says, laughing.
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For Sawayama, it’s crucial to partner with the right people to amplify her stories—especially since she devotes her songwriting to crafting ones that rarely get told. “If it’s a unique story coming from a marginalized group, it’s important that labels let artists be themselves,” she says over Zoom from her home in London. And she is fully herself on Sawayama, her 2020 debut studio album. While daringly blending genres including nu metal, rock and R&B to pioneer a new kind of pop sound, the artist intimately probes at subjects like race, sexuality and growing up in an immigrant family in the U. K. “I’m so fortunate I get to write songs for a living. I’m not going to waste that by writing whatever is already out there,” she says.

Chloe Sheppard
Sawayama was already vocal about being Asian and queer before signing to a label; releasing music was just much harder. She didn’t begin to pursue music full-time until around four years ago. In 2017, she independently released her EP Rina, funding the project by working in an ice cream van, a nail salon, an Apple store and by modeling. As her career has progressed, her forthright expression has extended beyond her lyrics to her visuals. The “STFU!” music video opens with a first date between Sawayama and a white man who commits a series of microaggressions before she roars into the camera, laughs maniacally and launches into the raucous song. “From the beginning, I’ve been passionate about talking about misrepresentation of Asian people,” she says. In other songs, she grapples with how her immigrant family has shaped her. “Dynasty” and “Paradisin’” are infused with reflections on intergenerational pain and exchanges with her mother from her teen years.
Read more: How a Long History of Intertwined Racism and Misogyny Leaves Asian Women in America Vulnerable to Violence
“Chosen Family,” a loving tribute to her LGBTQ community, was originally released on her album but saw new life when she collaborated with Elton John on a duet earlier this year.