Rina Sawayama loves being on tour after COVID-19 delayed the promo for her first album.
The ‘This Hell’ hitmaker – who is currently on her ‘Hold the Girl’ tour for her sophomore LP – had the promotion for her debut album ‘Sawayama’ halted due to pandemic in 2020 and is now enjoying she’s getting to see fans in real life respond to both of her records.
The 32-year-old pop star told Billboard magazine: “It’s the fans who couldn’t come and get their records signed the first time are coming round with two vinyls now. They’re talking about their experience about how both albums have helped them through difficult times, so it really feels like I’m promoting two albums in a way.”
Rina got her feedback “all online” and would spend lockdown reading all the comments on social media
She said: “It was all online, it was all tweets, and back then I used to read every tweet and YouTube comment and all of the stuff like that. I was reading every review and comment, and I did that for the first record — I read so many and I really cared about what everyone thought. I’ve very happily moved on from that.”
The ‘XS’ hitmaker is excited to tour the US despite “having to scale down” her performances when she takes the shows stateside.
Rina said: “There’s cities like Nashville, and places in Texas, and North Carolina, where we’ve never been to, and we’re having to scale down the show quite a bit. Even thinking about, if we’re walking five steps in the New York show to get from one end to the other, let’s say, you have to cut it down to two steps in these other places. It’s a weird puzzle, and it keeps things exciting.”
She added: “For a U.K. artist, being able to tour the U.S. and have success doing it is a dream. I feel so lucky that I can do multiple tours and festivals in the same year.”