Rina Sawayama On Changing BRIT Awards Policy

All The Small Things

Venetia La Manna

Fashion & Beauty, Arts, Education, Society & Culture, Self-improvement

4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2021

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rina Sawayama (she/her) is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and one of the most exciting artists to break through from last year. Born in Japan and raised in London, Rina’s music confronts the issues of identity and conflict with a wild blend of nineties and early noughties influences - everything from Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera to Lady Gaga and Gwen Stefani, to Evanescence and Limp Bizkit.

Rina’s been singing since she was little, but took her first official steps into the music world by joining a hip-hop group at school with Wolf Alice’s Theo Ellis. She broke into the public eye in 2017 with her self-titled EP and in 2018, she released the sex-positive ‘Cherry’, which served as a public declaration of her pansexuality. After finishing a tour with kindred alternative pop spirit Charli XCX, Sawayama signed with Dirty Hit (also home to The 1975) and in April 2020, released her genre-defying debut album ‘Sawayama’. Rolling Stone called it a "thrilling musical adventure" and Elton John proclaimed it “the strongest album of the year by far”; "Rina Sawayama," concluded Paper Magazine, "is our favourite genre".

Despite all this, Rina found out she was not eligible for Mercury Prize or BRIT Award nominations because she doesn’t hold a British passport, despite having lived in the UK for 25 years. Her story inspired a social media campaign and she has been in discussions with the BPI to get these rules changed - and she's succeeded!

Rina is a change-maker and true visionary and I feel honoured to be kick-starting this series with her.

Find Rina: @rinasonline

Listen to Rina’s music: http://dirtyh.it/sawayama

Find me: @venetialamanna

Find the show: @ATSTpodcast

Award nomination updates: Rina changes the game

Recommendations from this episode

The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Yoga With Adriene

Brene Brown on shame and accountability

All The Small Things is co-produced by Holly Falconer, edited by Venetia La Manna, with music composed by William Haxworth and artwork designed by Alex Sedano.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, I'm Venetia Lamanna and welcome to a brand new podcast. This is all the small things.
0:11.0	Now this new podcast is very much a product of lockdown. I am fascinated by how our daily habits
0:18.6	shape us even more so after spending so much time working at home and living at home and doing
0:26.0	everything at home. Now whether we're a one-task ticked off at a time type or we thrive with 35
0:31.6	tabs open, I want to learn more about the rituals that help provide structure when we need it most,
0:36.9	or perhaps if creativity lies in the chaos of it all. I have been sitting on some of these interviews
0:43.2	for quite a long time now and I am fit to burst with excitement. I'm going to be speaking to some
0:48.1	of my heroes, writers, speakers, activists, thought leaders and a monk to learn about the small
0:55.5	things that keep them in check and uncover more about what makes their minds tick. What small
1:01.3	we're going to be hearing about the seemingly small moments that perhaps felt insignificant at the
1:06.2	time but their impact turns out to be life-changing. Make sure you stay tuned to the end of this
1:11.6	episode where I'll be sharing one small thing that has really helped me and my own mental health
1:16.5	over the past few weeks. On to our first guest, I am so delighted to be kick-starting this brand
1:22.4	new series with the incredible Reena Souryama. Reena is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter
1:28.0	and one of the most exciting artists to break through from last year. Born in Japan and raised in
1:33.2	London, Reena's music confronts the issues of identity and conflict with a wild blend of 90s and
1:39.1	early 90s influences, everything from Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera to Lady Gaga and Gwen
1:44.5	Stefani to Evan Essence and Limp Biscuit. It's all in there and more. Reena's been singing since
1:50.2	she was little but took her first official steps into the music world by joining a hip-hop group
1:55.0	at school with Wolf Alice's Theo Ellis. She broke into the public eye in 2017 with her self-titled
2:01.8	EP and in 2018 she released the Sex Positive Cherry which served as a public declaration of her
2:08.5	pansexuality. After finishing a tour supporting Charlie XX, Reena signed with Dirty Hit who are
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -1487 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Venetia La Manna, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Venetia La Manna and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.