Queen Rina

June 5, 2021 4:02 AM

How Rina Sawayama Turned Pop Inside Out — And Built One of Its Fastest Growing Fanbases: With her genre-obliterating sound and gripping lyrics about identity, Rina Sawayama became one of the most exciting queer voices in pop. Now she’s making room for anyone else who feels like an outsider. [Billboard]

Mentioned in the article:
STFU! music video
Chosen Family with Elton John performance/lyric video
Dynasty live Tiny Desk performance
XS music video
Her YouTube channel
Performing XS on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Lucid music video
Audio of Who's Gonna Save U Now?

posted by ellieBOA (3 comments total)

I was only familiar with Lucid, which seemed to me to be good albeit somewhat generic dance pop. So I questioned the "genre-obliterating" part...and then I looked at a couple of the other videos. WOW! STFU reminds me of a somewhat obscure band called Snake River Conspiracy. And XS leans a bit toward Lucid but is still strikingly different. Thanks for posting this!
posted by rednikki at 8:57 AM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

Love her! I actually discovered her album shortly before the pandemic, but its been on heavy rotation since.
posted by vespertinism at 8:03 PM on June 5, 2021

> "STFU reminds me of a somewhat obscure band called Snake River Conspiracy."

Oh, it totally does! (They get played a lot in my living room.)
posted by kyrademon at 4:24 AM on June 6, 2021