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Rina Sawayama releases new single, announces tour dates

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 19 May 2022

Rina Sawayama has released ‘This Hell’, the first single from her new album ‘Hold The Girl’, which she announced earlier this week. She has also announced UK and Ireland tour dates for the autumn.

“I had so much fun writing ‘This Hell”, she says of the Paul Epworth produced track. “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”.

“Country music at its core to me represents comfort, brilliant storytelling and authentic expression of the writer’s reality”, she adds. “I’ve been dreaming of working with Paul Epworth my entire career so I knew it was meant to be when we finished this song in a day. I 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”, she goes on. “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”, she concludes. “This hell is better with you”.

‘Hold The Girl’ is set for release on 2 Sep, and Sawayama will tour the UK and Ireland the following month. Tickets go on general sale on 27 May. Here are the dates:

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

Listen to ‘This Hell’ here: