- Culture
- 16 Jun 22
Sophomore album Hold The Girl will land ahead of Rina Sawayama's forthcoming tour spanning the UK and Ireland this October - including a show at Dublin's 3Olympia Theatre on October 15 and Electric Picnic festival.
Rina Sawayama has dropped a fun-filled music video for new single 'This Hell' and it's anything but understated.
The new visual, directed by Ali Kaur, opens with opens with a woman carrying a wedding dress through a hotel corridor in her underwear. It then goes on to depict a lavish country wedding, followed by a line-dancing, fantastical after-party. Cowboy hats and rhinestones are largely featured throughout, because of course.
The video follows through on the theme of the song - the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights. Throughout the video we see people protesting against the wedding, even at the ceremony - but by the end, there is an air of unity as two of the protesters join in for the after-party.
Speaking about the track, Sawayama said: "It’s an important song for me given the human rights that are being taken away from minorities at a rapid rate in the name of traditional religious beliefs, more specifically I was thinking about the rights being taken away from the LGBTQ community when I wrote this song. When the world tells us we don’t deserve love and protection, we have no choice but to give love and protection to each other. This Hell is better with you."
On release of the track in May, the London-based Dirty Hit label artist shared the wide range of influences behind this mix of pop, country, and glam rock.
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"The past couple of years I’ve been listening to lots of female country singers and wanted to write a euphoric and tongue in cheek country pop song," the Japanese-British act says. "Country music at its core to me represents comfort, brilliant storytelling and authentic expression of the writer’s reality."
'This Hell' references a tonne of powerhouse female musicians, but the video pays specific homage to the newly married Britney Spears. After the wedding ceremony we see Rina don a red latex bodysuit and cowboy hat - a throwback to the iconic 'Toxic' music video - while singing the lyrics "Flame red, caught the moment, posing for the paparazzi, fuck what they did to Britney, to Lady Di and Whitney".
This video is the first visual drop from the British-Japanese singers sophomore album Hold The Girl which is set to drop on September 2. Sawayama named Taylor Swift's autobiographical Folklore as an influence for the release.
Her pop, glam-rock and electro-pop-fuelled debut album, SAWAYAMA topped all the 'Best Of' lists back in 2020.
Read about Hold The Girl here, and all the details about Rina's highly anticipated tour here.
Watch the video for 'This Hell' below.
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TOUR AND FESTIVAL DATES:
6/26 – Dublin, Ireland @ Mother Pride Block Party
7/22 – Southwold, England @ Latitude Festival
8/5 – Katowice, Poland @ OFF Festival
8/20 – Osaka, Japan @ Summer Sonic Osaka
8/21 – Tokyo, Japan @ Summersonic Festival
9/3 – Stradbally, Republic of Ireland @ Electric Picnic
10/12 – Glasgow, Scotland @ SWG3
10/13 – Glasgow, Scotland @ SWG3
10/15 – Dublin, Republic of Ireland @ Olympia Theatre
10/18 – Nottingham, England @ Rock City
10/20- Manchester, England @ Manchester Academy
10/21 – Birmingham, England @ O2 Academy Birmingham
10/23 – Brighton, East Sussex, England @ Brighton Dome
10/26 – London, England @ O2 Academy Brixton