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Rina Sawayama announces second album ‘Hold The Girl’

Watch a trailer for the 'SAWAYAMA' follow-up now

By Will Richards

Rina Sawayama posing for a press photo
Rina Sawayama. (Photo: Press)

Rina Sawayama has announced full details of her upcoming second studio album – it’s called ‘Hold The Girl’ and you can find out all you need to know below.

Sawayama has been teasing the follow-up to 2020 debut album ‘SAWAYAMA’ for a while now, most recently sending fans leaflets and stickers emblazoned with the slogan: “RINA IS GOING TO HELL.”

The Dirty Hit-signed singer has now confirmed her new album ‘Hold The Girl’ for a September 2 release, and shared a dramatic trailer for the album.

Check out the new trailer below.

https://twitter.com/rinasawayama/status/1526231585087008769

Over the past year, Sawayama has been dropping hints about what to expect from her second album. Back in November of last year, she teased what to expect on her new album, sharing that writing on Zoom during lockdown “somehow they yielded good songs”.

At the time, the pop singer said: “I’m working with some incredible people. I’ve got a couple of songs with [producer] Paul Epworth.”

She also shared that she was working with electronic musician Stuart Price on much of the album, who has worked with the likes of MadonnaDua Lipa and New Order.

“Most of the songs were started with me and Clarence Clarity, so it’s still got that core that ‘Sawayama’ had,” she continued.

During her UK headline tour last November, Sawayama debuted brand new song called ‘Catch Me In The Air’, which you can see footage of below.

Introducing the song, she said: “I wrote this song because, in these unprecedented times, I am touring my first record at the same time as finishing my second record. 

“I thought that the first record was really personal, and it was, but this new record is even more personal.”

She continued:  “This song, I wrote it about my mum, who is a single mum. You know how intense that relationship is, they feel like a sister or a brother or they feel like a sibling, or they even feel like a child sometimes.

“I felt throughout my life my mum and I have caught each other when we’re falling.”

Reviewing the London show on that tour, Rolling Stone UK said: “On the final night of the UK and Ireland shows she performs like it’s the tour opener – meticulously rehearsed and never relenting in energy. She’s bursting at the seams of the intimate venues she’s played on the Dynasty Tour, proving her pop prowess that could easily take on a much bigger crowd. Someone get this star in an arena.”