Hold the Girl | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 16 September 2022 | |||
Recorded | Autumn 2020 – Autumn 2021 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 46:04 | |||
Label | Dirty Hit | |||
Producer |
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Rina Sawayama chronology | ||||
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Alternate CD artwork / first anniversary reissued cover | ||||
Singles from Hold the Girl | ||||
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Hold the Girl is the second studio album by Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama. It was released on 16 September 2022 by Dirty Hit.[1] The album was preceded by the singles, "This Hell",[2] "Catch Me in the Air", "Hold the Girl", "Phantom" and "Hurricanes". "Frankenstein" was also released, and "Imagining" as the final single from the album. The album, recorded between 2020 and 2021, features production from collaborators including Paul Epworth, Clarence Clarity, Stuart Price, and Marcus Andersson. Clarity also produced much of Sawayama's debut album Sawayama (2020).[3]
Hold the Girl received critical acclaim upon its release and charted at number three on the UK Albums Chart; the highest-charting album by a Japanese-born solo artist in the history of the chart. It also became Sawayama's first charting album on the US Billboard 200 and highest-charting album in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Scotland and Spain. The album was supported by the worldwide Hold the Girl Tour (2022-23) and US/Canada Hold the Girl: Reloaded Tour (2023). Sawayama also promoted the album via performances on The Graham Norton Show,[4] Strictly Come Dancing[5] and Late Night with Seth Meyers.[6]
In a September 2023 interview with BBC News, Sawayama revealed that she was sexually groomed by a school teacher when aged 17. This heavily influenced the lyrical meaning behind Hold the Girl, particularly the album track "Your Age". Sawayama received sex and relationship therapy for the trauma.[7]