Rina Sawayama.Photo: James Bee
Rina Sawayamais opening up about the real-life story behind one of her songs.
Rina Sawayama.James Bee
The “XS” singer-songwriter was inspired to “provide a bit of a more empathetic view” on parents, specifically those who are immigrants and “tried to assimilate and buy into this American dream and wish so many things for their child that never worked out.”
She sings on the track, per the outlet, “I’m sorry for the things I’ve done / A misguided love to my only son / We both had to leave our mothers, to get the things we want.”
“I hope that song can set a lot of people free, in terms of the people who have never said sorry to them or who will never see them for the beautiful human being that they are,” Sawayama told the outlet. “I think there’s a lot of people who carry that with them, [feeling like] they represent embarrassment or shame to others. I think those people deserve a sorry.”
In a Juneinterview withEllefor the magazine’s 2022 Women in Music issue, Sawayama spoke about creating songs to represent queer people and their unique experiences in opposition to the largely heterosexual pop landscape she grew up with — and hoping it’ll create real change.
Sawayama, who graduated from Cambridge with a political science degree, has long incorporated social issues into her music. On her 2020 debut albumSawayama,she tackled racism against the Asian community in the music video for “STFU!” and addressed capitalism’s impact on climate change in the lyrics of “XS.”
“[It’s my mission] to make a pop song that sounds good, but also has meaning,” she said in the interview, published during LGBTQ+ Pride Month. “It’s really important to me that it has substance, it has soul.”
“Being kicked out [of your home] for being gay is not something that most of the world experiences, but that feeling of parental rejection is,” she said. “I always try to keep the chorus more universal, generic, so it’s easy to understand, and then try to tell a story in the verses.”
“That’s something that I’ve really amped up for [Hold the Girl], and I will continue to do,” added Sawayama. “If I can heal someone around me or someone that I don’t know with the songs I write, and I’ve been given an opportunity to do so, why wouldn’t I take it?”
source: people.com
