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Pride

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Catching her breath as she opens up a Zoom call, Rina Sawayama is quick to offer an explanation.
“Sorry if there’s some slight background noise,” she says, as a low rumble of hushed conversations echo behind her. “I’m in rehearsals right now and trying to step out. Everywhere else is too cold, so I have to sit in the corner of the rehearsal room for this.”

It’s indicative of the British pop star’s life as of late — when she speaks with Billboard, she’s putting the final touches on her Hold the Girl Tour, an international set of live dates that began Wednesday, Oct. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland that will see her perform in Great Britain, North America, New Zealand and Australia through January 2023.

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The show simply continues on the momentum Sawayama has been building throughout the year — along with completing her long-delayed U.S. tour of her debut album Sawayama, the star has been hard at work promoting and releasing Hold the Girl, her critically-acclaimed sophomore set dealing starkly with mental health and childhood trauma through the lens of alternative pop songs.

For Sawayama though, the release of Hold the Girl has felt more like putting out two albums at once — since COVID-19 effectively shut down much of the promotional work surrounding her debut in 2020 (as well as her original European tour), the star has been working double duty when it comes to unveiling the new project.

“It’s the fans who couldn’t come and get their records signed the first time are coming round with two vinyls now,” she explains. “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.”

A lot has changed for the singer since debuting Sawayama — back then, for example, the star says that because she didn’t have a live opportunity to commune with her fans, she found herself diving deep online to figure out what the response to her work looked like.

“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,” she says. “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 subject matter has also evolved — throughout the new LP, Sawayama explores the idea of parenting her inner child and coming to terms with traumatic events from her childhood. Songs like the title track and “Forgiveness” seek to create reconciliation, while others like “Your Age” and “Frankenstein” seethe with rage at having gone through pain in the first place.

It’s an album dappled with personal truths and revelations that Sawayama was ready to share after a few years of therapy. The therapy process itself was “really hard,” she says, as she was encouraged to “come to a realization that your whole world is turned upside down.” But once she had moved past that, the writing and producing process of her album “was very good for me.”

Then, it came time to promote the project, which came with its own complications for the singer. “I talked about the very deep, emotional parts of the record to too many people, and it felt like I was sort of re-traumatizing myself every time,” Sawayama offers. “I think I did 120 interviews for this record, and I really thought I could handle it emotionally — but it was quite a lot. I never got specific, but even just alluding to the trauma, your body sets up this little reaction inside of you where it’s getting ready for fight or flight.”

But instead of succumbing to the emotional exhaustion of reliving some of her darkest moments over and over, Sawayama is choosing to find the silver lining in the promotional push. “I think it was a lesson that you can be boundaried about what you talk about; you can share it with the people who understand, but you don’t have to share it with everyone,” she says, relief hanging off each word.

As a cadre of excited voices begin to rally behind her once again, Sawayama is more than happy to refocus onto the task at hand — creating a show that fans are going to love. “It’s my favorite bit of what I do,” she says, excitedly.

The Hold the Girl Tour promises to be a spectacle in and of itself, with Sawayama describing the everything as “bigger.” She’s teamed up with production company WFB Live — who helped craft Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia Tour as well as Post Malone’s 12 Carat Tour — to take the same number of people on stage (two band members, two backup dancers, and Sawayama) and make it feel more extravagant.

Sawayama quickly rattles off just a few examples of the amped-up production — new lighting rigs, stunning choreography, interesting stage pieces — before coming to her own conclusion of what they’re accomplishing. “We’re now maximizing the sound, maximizing the slay,” she says, before laughing at her own joke.

It’s a strange experience for the star, especially with her U.S. tour set to kick off on November 1 in Brooklyn, NY — despite having spent the earlier part of this year touring the States, Sawayama is returning a mere six months later and playing venues doubled in size. Plus, she adds, they’re traveling to states they didn’t get to hit the first time around.

“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,” she says. “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.”

That excitement remains in the singer’s voice throughout the interview, as she remains in awe of the task at hand. “For a U.K. artist, being able to tour the U.S. and have success doing it is a dream,” she says. “I feel so lucky that I can do multiple tours and festivals in the same year.”

“Success” is an important word to associate with Sawayama at the moment — after unveiling Hold the Girl in September and earning a No. 3 debut on the U.K. Albums Chart, the singer officially became the highest-charting Japanese artist in the history of the U.K charts.

It’s especially important for an artist who fought publicly for recognition as a British artist back in 2020, prompting the BRITs to change the rules for their eligibility regarding British citizenship. “When I heard that, it was like, ‘Oh my god, maybe I’m helping make that happen for someone else right now,’” she explained, adding that BLACKPINK earning their No. 1 position on the chart that same week felt appropriate. “Just to see all of this East and Southeast Asian representation like that is something I never would have thought could happen five or six years ago.”

With the whiplash of her tour-to-album-back-to-tour schedule weighing on her, Sawayama takes a moment to breathe as she lays out her plans for the future. “I’m allowed to take time with my third record,” she says, audibly relaxing as she does. “It’s been a very crazy, very fast journey; with the first and second albums, I felt like I was working with a lot of limitations in terms of writing and promoting it. I feel like I’ve made a lot of different mistakes with the first and second record — I’m immensely proud of them, but on the third record, I want to consolidate and take time to really focus on what I enjoy and love.”

As we head into the weekend, why not start it off right with a few songs from your favorite queer artists? Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of First Out, our weekly roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.

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From Girl in Red’s continuation of an old classic to Tove Lo’s masterful new single, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:

Girl in Red, “October Passed Me By”

Despite already having a song about the month of October in her repertoire, Girl in Red is ready to revisit the autumnal season with her latest single. “October Passed Me By,” at its core, feels like a follow-up to her breakout song “We Fell In Love In October,” reflecting on the relationship that inspired the latter with a wistfulness unbecoming of her age. The bare-bones production gives way to the singer’s high-quality lyricism, as she looks back on a love that she thought would define her.

Tove Lo, “Grapefruit”

With her highly-anticipated new album Dirt Femme due out in a week, Tove Lo is making sure her fans are as ready as possible with “Grapefruit.” The new synth-driven, infectious pop track sounds like an in-line offering from an artist making a dance-pop comeback. It’s writing marks something much deeper; Lo gets incredibly real as she sings honestly about bulimia, as she painfully counts out the reasons she despises being stuck in the abusive cycle of living with an eating disorder.

Doechii, “Stressed”

For her last few releases, alternative hip-hop star Doechii has been making sure to let fans know exactly how much of a boss she really is. On “Stressed,” though, the singer takes a step back to address a moment of insecurity. Letting her words flow effortlessly out, Doechii spits on maintaining a public image of composure and confidence, while internally battling doubt and distress. It’s a tender moment backed up by the kind of R&B production that will have you immediately vibing right along with with her.

MUNA, Live at Electric Lady

Not everyone is going to get the chance to see MUNA while they embark on the rest of their U.S. tour. So, the band is making sure everyone gets a taste of their live sound. With their new Live at Electric Lady EP, the group takes five songs — three from their latest self-title album, one from their sophomore effort Saves the World, and even a cover of a fan-loved Taylor Swift track — and interprets them live in studio. It sounds even better than you would expect, proving yet again the trio’s penchant for performance.

Hope Tala, “Stayed at the Party”

Neo-soul star Hope Tala has been singing a lot about parties lately, and it makes sense why; parties act as microcosms of human interaction, making them rife for storytelling. Enter “Stayed at the Party,” Tala’s latest track that takes a left turn at the concept and examines why she’s at the party in the first place. Set as a quiet, internal dialogue between her and a romantic interest, “Stayed at the Party” forces Tala and her audience to come to terms with the things that they’re avoiding, rather than dancing the night away.

Betty Who, BIG!

For Australian pop act Betty Who, revelation is the name of the game. On her latest album, aptly titled BIG!, Who takes massive swings only to see them regularly pay off. Whether it’s on her anthem of self-acceptance (“Big”), a sweeping ode to moving on (“Someone Else”), or a heartbroken ballad of losing friends over time (“Grown Ups Grow Apart”), BIG! never feels unwieldy — it’s always squarely in the singer’s corner.

After more than 20 years in the spotlight, queer indie pop duo Tegan and Sara Quin are taking a moment to reflect on their humble origins.

High School, the new Amazon Freevee television adaptation of the sisters’ 2019 memoir of the same name (out Friday), follows the lives of teenage Tegan and Sara (played by TikTok stars Railey and Seazynn Gilliland) as they come to grips with their sexualities, learn to live with one another, start their careers and survive the “universally sh–ty” experience of being teenagers, as Tegan told Billboard.

Not only is the show a fascinating look into life as a misunderstood teen in the ’90s; it’s a testament to the pair’s staying power as a musical duo. Their decade-spanning career has seen the Quin sisters take on whatever mantle best suited them in the moment, constantly adapting to the kind of art they were interested in making.

Look no further than the pair’s upcoming tenth studio album Crybaby, due out on Friday, Oct. 21 via Mom + Pop Records. The project blends elements of punk, pop and folk music to create yet another new sonic landscape that feels uniquely suited for Tegan and Sara

With their new show, a new record and years of experience under their belt, it would be only natural that the twins start thinking about their legacy as pioneering performers. Billboard is here to help in that exercise — below, Billboard staff members take a look back at the 15 songs (in no particular order) that best exemplify the breadth of work Tegan and Sara have given their fans since 1999.