More about: Rina Sawayama

Rina Sawayama has made Pixels very, very happy indeed by dropping a new single and announcing further details of her forthcoming second album Hold The Girl. 'This Hell' begins with Shania Twain's "let's go girls" and name-checks several more pop stars before it wraps up, including Lady Gaga...doesn't it sound very Chromatica?

Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston and Lady Di all get shout outs too. Pop through-and-through, Rina has still kept some guitars in there to keep a through-line from her excellent pop-metal album SAWAYAMA, which was the Gigwise Album of the Year 2020. 

"Put in as many iconic pop culture moments as I can, but the song is more than that.”

“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."

See Rina live this summer...

JUNE

01 - 02 - Barcelona, Primavera Festival
09 - Portugal, Primavera Festival
26 - Dublin, Mother Pride Block party

JULY

21 - Southwold, Latitude

AUGUST

05 - Katowice, OFF Festival
20 - Osaka, Summer Sonic Osaka
21 - Tokyo, Summer Sonic Festival

SEPTEMBER

03 - Stradbally, Electric Picnic

OCTOBER

12 - Glasgow, SWG3
13 - Glasgow, SWG3
15 - Dublin, Olympia Theatre
18 - Nottingham, Rock City
20 - Manchester, Manchester Academy
21 - Birmingham, O2 Academy Birmingham
23 - Brighton, Brighton Dome
26 - London, O2 Academy Brixton

Hold The Girl arrives 2 September via Dirty Hit.

Issue Three of the Gigwise Print magazine is on sale now! Order here.

More about: Rina Sawayama