Rina Sawayama Shares New Video For Track “Hold The Girl”

After sharing the third single from her forthcoming album Hold The Girl due September 16th via Dirty Hit, British-Japanese pop sensation Rina Sawayama shares the visuals for the title track, which premiered on BBC Radio 1 last week as Clara Amfo’s Hottest Record In The World.

Directed by Ali Kurr, the cinematic video sees Rina stuck in a time loop within the bounds of a 19th-century farmhouse until she finally breaks free. The video is a metaphor for Rina’s emotional breakthrough in therapy, which sparked her to write the song. “Hold The Girl” is the first song she wrote for the forthcoming album.

Speaking about the origin of the new single, Rina says, “’Hold the Girl’ was the first song I wrote for the record at the end of 2020–I had gone to therapy and had a revelation, so I decided to write this song…that was the start of it. I was crying before going into the studio to write about it.”

Along with the new single, Rina has announced her North American headline tour happening this November. The 13-date run will see Rina playing iconic venues like the Great Hall at Avant Gardner in New York City, Roadrunner in Boston, The Eastern in Atlanta, and the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

The American leg of the Hold The Girl tour will follow on from her UK and Ireland dates this October, where she will play to a sold-out O2 Brixton Academy marking a legendary moment in the pop star’s career. Rina will also perform sets at Summer Sonic in Japan and Electric Picnic in Ireland.

RINA SAWAYAMA TOUR DATES

• 20th Aug 2022 – Osaka, Japan – Summer Sonic Osaka
• 21st Aug 2022 – Tokyo, Japan – Summersonic Festival
• 3rd Sept 2022 – Stradbally, Republic of Ireland – Electric Picnic
• 12th Oct 2022 – Glasgow, Scotland – SWG3
• 13th Oct 2022 – Glasgow, Scotland – SWG3
• 15th Oct 2022 – Dublin, Republic of Ireland – Olympia Theatre
• 18th Oct 2022 – Nottingham, England – Rock City
• 20th Oct 2022 – Manchester, England – Manchester Academy
• 21st Oct 2022 – Birmingham, England – O2 Academy Birmingham
• 23rd Oct 2022 – Brighton, East Sussex, England – Brighton Dome
• 26th Oct 2022 – London, England – O2 Academy Brixton
• 1st Nov 2022 – New York City, Brooklyn Mirage
• 4th Nov 2022- Boston, Roadrunner
• 5th Nov 2022 – Maryland, The Fillmore Silver Spring
• 6th Nov 2022 -North Carolina, The Fillmore Charlotte
• 8th Nov 2022 – Atlanta, The Eastern
• 9th Nov 2022 – Nashville, Marathon Music Works
• 11th Nov 2022 -Dallas, House Of Blues
• 12th Nov 2022 – Austin, Emo’s
• 13th Nov 2022 – Houston, White Oak Music Hall
• 16th Nov 2022 -Phoenix, The Van Buren
• 18th Nov 2022 -San Diego, SOMA
• 21st Nov 2022 – Oakland, Fox Theater
• 23rd Nov 2022 – Los Angeles, Hollywood Palladium

The album showcases Rina’s talent for bending huge chart influences and blockbuster melodies to her will with precision-tuned songwriting and powerful vocals. The 13-tracks of Hold The Girl will feature the previously released singles “This Hell,” which debuted with a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and features an Ali Kurr-directed video, along with “Catch Me In The Air,” which premiered as Zane Lowe’s New Music Daily pick on Apple Music 1 and arrived with a visualizer created with fan-submitted footage of Rina performing the song across her recent UK and US tours.

Hold The Girl follows Rina’s critically acclaimed debut SAWAYAMA and will see Rina once again juxtapose intimate storytelling with arena-sized songs creating another ambitious and original album to excite fans and critics alike. Written and recorded over the last year and a half, Rina teamed up with long-term collaborators Clarence Clarity and Lauren Aquilina as well as enlisting help from the likes of the legendary Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence & the Machine), Stuart Price (Dua Lipa, The Killers, Madonna) and Marcus Andersson (Demi Lovato, Ashnikko) for their magic touch. The product of Rina and these collective minds coming together is an album that melds influences from across the pop spectrum and is a bold and honest statement of Rina’s evolution; coming to terms with her past and the jubilation of turning to the future.

In 2020, Rina’s debut album SAWAYAMA became one of the most critically acclaimed albums that year landing on over 50 albums of the year lists, including the New York Times (#2), The Guardian (#3), and Rolling Stone (#6). The last 18 months have seen Rina Sawayama achieve a magnitude of milestones including changing the Mercury Prize and BRITs eligibility rules which meant Non-British artists could apply if they have been permanent residents in the UK for more than 5 years. In 2021 Elton John joined forces with the pop star to release a special rendition of “Chosen Family,” a powerful and emotional ode to her LGBTQ+ family. Elsewhere Rina injected new life into Lady Gaga’s instant club classic “Free Woman.” 2023 will see Rina in her film acting debut as she stars in John Wick 4 alongside Keanu Reeves.