Rina Sawayama reflects on industry misogyny: "I can’t release another album under my current conditions"

During her set at Glastonbury Festival 2023, Rina Sawayama spoke out against Matty Healy, her labelmate at Dirty Hit Records. Though she didn’t say his name, Sawayama referenced the controversial comments The 1975 frontman has been a part of in recent months. Introducing the song "STFU!", she said: “I wrote this next song because I was sick and tired of microaggressions. So, tonight, this song goes out to a white man who watches [pornography series] Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters. I’ve had enough.”

A few months later, at NOS Alive Festival, she appeared to take another dig at Healy, saying: "So I was thinking a lot about apologies. It’s just funny how some people get away with not apologising ever, for saying some racist shit, for saying some sexist shit... Why don’t you apologise for once in your life without making it about your fucking self?”

Sawayama was championed by many for standing up for herself, and calling out Healy's behaviour, but also faced some backlash for it. Now, she's posted a statement on her Instagram, elaborating on how she's been dealing with the aftermath of the controversy last summer.

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"It’s the first time I’ve been honest about my past year (or to a level of detail I feel safe to). Honestly my mental health has been awful and though I was able to complete my 2023 commitments I can’t say it’s been the same this year," she said. "I’ve been lucky to have found ways to keep my business afloat and support myself as well as my team, but when it comes to new music I can’t release another album under my current conditions. I feel really trapped and don’t know what to do."

Whilst she hasn't elaborated on the situation, one can only speculate that Healy owning some of her masters is part of the complication and reason as to why she feels trapped in her current label contract. She has also called out for the article on The Independent to be shared in order to spread the word on misogyny and abuse in the music industry.

"I would like to see more publications amplify this endemic problem outside of this one day too. Like I said in the article I don’t know a single woman who has not experienced some form of misogyny," she continued. "The music industry is absolutely due a MeToo movement and we need your amplification. Otherwise these artists will disappear from the industry. I don’t want any young person to ever have to experience what some of these women have. I want men to amplify this too. This is our workplace and women don’t deserve to be treated like this. This is not some rite of passage and this needs to stop".