RINA SAWAYAMA
Pitching herself as a pop futurist, Rina Sawayama is certainly paving the way with her ridiculously wriggly earworms about queer love. Case in point is her latest tune Cherry. “Even though I’m satisfied, I lead my life within a lie, holding on to feelings I’m not used to, ‘cause, oh, they make me feel alive,” she coos. The Japanese-born, London-based singer bears the fruits of identifying as pansexual on the track, and the implications of that while also being in a heterosexual relationship. Sounds heavy, but the song floats as a soft-synth bop. One you can bounce along to when Rina swings by London’s Heaven on 19 October.