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Rina Sawayama says This Hell “has the blessing of Abba”

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 2 September 2022

Rina Sawayama has revealed that her recent song ‘This Hell’ almost sounded very different, after she realised that its guitar riff sounded similar to Abba’s ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’. As this dawned on her, she says, she “freaked out”.

What do you do in these situations though? Of course, you turn to someone who can offer a reassuring voice. And so, she explains to the BBC: “I contacted my publishers, and they freaked out too. They were like, ‘Abba are absolutely going to say no to this, and you have to change it’”.

So that’s what she did. A version of the song exists somewhere with an entirely different guitar riff. But, as that last sentence suggests, there is a twist in this story.

In a last ditch attempt to stick with the original, she got in touch with Elton John, with whom she had recorded a duet version of her song ‘Chosen Family’ in 2021.

“I was like, ‘You know what? This is crazy. I’m sure I can figure this out’”, she says. “So I called up Elton John and I said, ‘Elton, do you know Benny or Bjorn from Abba?'”

As you might expect, he did. So, he managed to get a copy of the song to Abba, along with a handwritten note from Sawayama, saying: “Look, I love your music. I’m happy to split the publishing. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean this to happen”.

Days later, she goes on, she received a letter back from Andersson, telling her that the song had been approved, which read: “No problem. Absolutely fine. All the best”.

“So that song”, she says, “has the blessing of Abba!”

And seemingly without having to give up a portion of the rights to Abba either. Unless there were some follow up messages we’re not party to in this telling of the story.