Rina Sawayama was announced as winner of the award for Outstanding Music Video at yesterdays WOWIE Awards which streamed on the WOWPresents Youtube channel. She was given the award for the music video for her song ‘XS,’ which features a mysterious bottled product being sold on a television shopping channel, as well as scenes of Sawayama dancing with backup dancers in a theatre.
The video moves to a climax when her two backup dancers pour the liquid over the singer, causing her to behave erratically and drink the liquids. The video then cuts to a scene of some scientists in lab coats extracting the liquid from an imprisoned female/mystical being and ends with the singer being electrocuted in a rubbish pile while passers by drink more of the mysterious orange liquid.
‘XS,’ was released on the 2nd of March 2020, with the video premiering the following month on the 17th of April. The video has been hugely popular since its release, clocking 5,359,542 views on Youtube to date, so it makes sense that the WOWIE Awards would recognise this. ‘XS,’ was released as a single from the artist’s debut studio album ‘Sawayama,’ which came out on the 17th of April, with the deluxe version releasing two days ago with vinyl, cassette and CD copies available on her store as well as the usual streaming platforms.
View this post on Instagram
The deluxe version of ‘Sawayama,’ includes a number of bonus tracks, ‘We Out Here,’ ‘Bees & Honey,’ a cover of The 1975’s ‘Love It If We Made It,’ as well as several acoustic versions of tracks like ‘STFU!,’ ‘Bad Friend,’ and ‘Chosen Family.’ The deluxe version also features a live version of ‘XS,’ and remixed versions of ‘Comme des Garcons,’ ‘XS,’ and ‘Bad Friend.’ There is more than enough to sink your teeth into with this deluxe version and it does not seem like a cheap cash in which leaves you wanting after a couple of added tracks like some might.
While Rina Sawayama may not yet have managed to enter into the official charts for singles or albums yet, she is certainly starting to make a splash with her songs and videos, the video for ‘XS,’ reaching over five million views and receiving an award when only a few months have passed since its release is certainly a very great achievement for an emerging, up and coming artist and clearly a sign of someone on their way to some very real success.
Rina Sawayama has tour dates scheduled for 2021, full UK dates are as follows:
9/11/2021 – Albert Hall – Manchester
11/11 – Beckett Students’ Union – Leeds
13/11 – SWG3 TV Studio – Glasgow
15/11 – Institute – Birmingham
16/11 – Electric Bristol – London
17/11 – Roundhouse – London
