Rina Sawayama is a rising force in pop, and she put herself on many people’s radars in 2020 with the release of her exceptional debut album, Sawayama. She continued to build upon her sterling reputation last night with a performance of “XS” on The Tonight Show, which was her US television debut. Joined by a band and dancers, Sawayama began dramatically backlit before launching into the song that melds pop with metal and critiques modern consumerism.
Sawayama previously said of the track, “‘XS’ is a song that mocks capitalism in a sinking world. Given that we all know global climate change is accelerating and human extinction is a very real possibility within our lifetime, it seemed hilarious to me that brands were still coming out with new makeup palettes every month and public figures were doing a gigantic house tour of their gated property in Calabasas in the same week as doing a ‘sad about Australian wild fires’ Instagram post. I mean, I’m guilty of turning a blind eye, too, because otherwise it makes me depressed. We’re all hypocrites because we are all capitalists, and it’s a trap that I don’t see us getting out of. I wanted to reflect the chaos of this post-truth climate change denying world in the metal guitar stabs that flare up like an underlying zit between the 2000s R&B beat that reminds you of a time when everything was alright.”
Watch Sawayama’s performance above and revisit our review of Sawayama here.
