Rina Sawayama Deserves to Headline Lollapalooza

Meet the pop star with the best set at Lollapalooza: Rina Sawayama. Dusana Risovic

Let’s get the biggest statement out of the way first: There is no pop star who will perform a concert as daringly conceptual, thought-provoking, or transformative as Rina Sawayama did at Lollapalooza in Chicago over the weekend.

Her one hour performance on Sunday night proves this. It is a theatrical, tour-de-force that speaks to the cultural crisis America is facing, which Rina often addresses directly in the show. There is no better pop star, either, to speak to these times. Rina is queer, a woman of color, and far older than the average pop star. But as her recent album “Hold the Girl” demonstrates, Rina can always blow away your expectations. She’s a master at creating more out of less; conceptualizing vivid scenes on stage that begin in castle before moving to a subway, then a dressing room, until finally, we arrive at hell. She does all of this, too, with a barebones set and very few props. Her performance is so riveting that it stands as probably one of the top five stages I’ve ever seen. While she was slotted right underneath Lana Del Rey on Sunday night, next year, she deserves headlining status. 

Rina rarely addresses the crowd as a popstar, instead for sixty minutes, she portrays herself as an actress: a woman on the edge, eventually scoffing with a snarl, “Your country loves saying people deserve to go to hell. But that actually sounds quite fun!”

Opening with a video of a distraught young girl in tears, before the video slowly flickers to images of an adult Rina, she enters singing “Hold the Girl”, hanging from a ladder, but visually appearing as if she is suspended in midair. Dressed in a Victorian white gown and flanked by two dancers, Rina proves to be a talented dancer herself, using key moments to heighten the tension with a snap or a fierce move. 

“I signed my first record deal when I was 29,” she told the New York Times last year. “Which is just so late for a pop artist, and I love that I’m able to change that in a positive way. I’m able to come to the table with a bit more stories, say, and life experience and things to write about.”

Time has benefitted Rina. Her late arrival in the popsphere means that she has clear autonomy and a message she wants audiences to hear. When she does speak, for example, it is usually pointed at the dark times we’re living in. “Hey America,” she says in a low growl as she blasts into “STFU!”. “I’ve been reading the news, and you’ve got some really fucked up shit going on in this country. You have every right to be angry about it. So let me feel your fucking rage right now!” Mixed into “STFU!” is, wildly, a Korn cover where Rina gives the crowd permission to flip the fuck out. 

Dusana Risovic

This is where Rina excels: Funneling rage and trauma into something so sharp you can almost touch it. She’s not interested in looking pretty, and instead, uses her lyrics as a vessel to appear completely on the verge of nuclear meltdown. But Rina’s performance isn’t all about righteous anger. She’s also reaching for her crown and staking her autonomy. On “Royalty”, she does this literally by declaring that she will take the throne. In the performance for “Commes des Garçons (Like the Boys)”, she rides a subway along with a killer vogue beat and asks, “excuse my ego”, but reminds us "like the boys/ I’m so confident”. 

When she does finally have her classic, big pop star moment, as she rips off her white button up and blue jeans to reveal a red latex corset, she breaks the proverbial fourth wall. Pretending to exit the stage, she takes a seat in an imaginary dressing room as her dancers surround her, fanning her off. “That was good right? It’s so hard,” she comments nervously. “It’s like cunt, slay, cunt, slay.” As she’s handed a Bud Light, which is currently being boycotted by conservatives for their inclusion of a trans model in their marketing campaigns, Rina makes the most pointed political statement of the night and it’s one that she clearly relishes in. “For the record, trans rights are not just limited to Pride month,” she says and clinks the beer with another imaginary drink. “Cheers, babe.” 

Dusana Risovic

Continuing the skit, Rina declares the show over and says she’s relieved. But then, the dancers remind her she still has one song left. “One song?” she asks, shocked. “But we haven’t been paid for that.” She looks back at the audience, suddenly aware that she is still on stage. “I’m feeling lazy today. I’m sweaty. Like sweat is running down my thigh because, you know, when you’re in latex, there’s nowhere else for it to go,” she says after her dancers brandish her latex to dress her as like a cowgirl. “But I guess if we’re gonna give it to ‘em,” she continues with a campy drawl as she eyes her dancers. “We gotta give it to ‘em good.” 

And then, the dressing room melts away (metaphorically, of course) to bring us into hell. If you’re looking for a badass party in damnation, Rina will gladly be your ringmaster. It’s hard to imagine a better or more committed pop star as Rina; one who so fearlessly tears apart every roadblock in her way, when Rina encourages the audience to shout the lyrics, “Got my invitation/ to eternal damnation/ Get in line/ pass the wine, bitch/ We’re going straight to hell!” 

If hell is anything like Rina Sawayama’s masterful, headlining-deserving status set at Lollapalooza, then get in line, bitch! She’ll see you there.