She said: “Seventeen to me is a child. You’re in school. You have no autonomy most of the time. If a schoolteacher is coming onto you, that’s an abuse of power. But I didn’t realize until I was his age.”  

Rina, who admitted to attending sex and relationship therapy in her thirties, said that these experiences influenced the track “Your Age” from her 2022 album, Hold The Girl.  

Listen to “Your Age”, below.

She continued: “I remember distinctly how uncomfortable that made me, but I didn’t put the two and two together. And it was through this very intense form of therapy, which I feel so lucky to be able to have access to, that I was able to come to terms with that, and it completely broke my whole world apart.”  

The singer, who was nominated for best new artist at the 2023 Brit Awards, added that whilst writing the album was one of the most difficult things, the reception has been incredible. She said: “It makes me so happy when I see especially like women or femmes in the audience connecting to it because I haven’t talked about this in specifics. I’ve just said it’s about a period in my life when I was younger, but I know the truth and when I look out to the audience, and I see femmes or women connecting to it, I’m like maybe you know what I’m talking about, maybe you’re feeling it right now.”  

Whilst Rina does not have a direction for her third album, she is ready to close this chapter. “I would love a day where I can just write a song that’s just about love or sex”, the popstar added.  

Hold The Girl is the sophomore album by British popstar Rina Sawayama. The album, which follows up from her self-titled record, includes hits such as “This Hell”, “Catch Me in the Air”, and “Hold The Girl.” The 2022 album achieved great commercial success and debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart. Across the pond, the record debuted at number 166 on the US Billboard 200.  

The 2022 album received positive responses from critics, in which Hannah Mylrea from NME called it “The best British pop album of the year.”  

.@charli_xcx had the best reponse to the Brits’ failure to nominate any women for best artist. pic.twitter.com/zCkHN2FP50

— Mark Savage (@mrdiscopop) February 12, 2023

Charli has now made waves with her decision to part with Atlantic Records, whom she signed a five album deal with at just 16 years old. The details of her new record deal have not yet been revealed, but Charli did tease fans with a glimpse of her “brand new recording contract” in her ‘In the Bag’ video for British Vogue.

Charli reveals that she has signed a two album deal, stating in the video “We’re in business!” Rumours subsequently began to circulate that she had signed with Dirty Hit, an independent label home to No Rome, Pale Waves and Charli’s boyfriend George Daniel’s band, The 1975.

Charli has previously worked with numerous artists signed with Dirty Hit, most recently teaming up with George Daniel to remix Caroline Polachek’s new single, ‘Welcome To My Island’, so it wasn’t surprising that fans thought she may have signed with Dirty Hit herself.

However, she quickly put these rumours to rest, replying to a fan on Twitter saying “i’m too expensive for them.”

i’m too expensive for them https://t.co/1ZXWeqERfJ

— Charli (@charli_xcx) February 22, 2023

Speaking to NME in October 2022, Charli revealed that she wasn’t sure about becoming an independent artist, saying, “I like not having to foot the bill for everything at the beginning, that’s quite scary. Especially when you want to do things on the kind of scale that I did on the last record. I’m still exploring, definitely.”

She concluded that, “there’s so many interesting options that would work for me.”

Charli’s latest album CRASH released in March 2022 debuted at No.1 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming her first album to top the chart. CRASH also became her highest charting album in the US to date, debuting at No.7 on the Billboard 200.

Following this success, Charli expressed her confusion surrounding the lack of recognition for female artists at the Brits, tweeting “i only came to speak the truth hunny.’

i only came to speak the truth hunny: https://t.co/vJj5hYrPYS — Charli (@charli_xcx) February 12, 2023

Despite her lack of nomination for Best Artist, Charli was later seen wearing a very on-brand tongue in cheek outfit, with a slogan t-shirt reading ‘REAL WINNER.’

REAL WINNER pic.twitter.com/GKuWS9m3UV

— CHARLI XCX UPDATES (@FckyeahCharli) February 12, 2023

Fans are eagerly awaiting news on Charli’s plans for 2023, with hints at further collaborations and even a potential book being on the horizon.

Stream Charli XCX’s latest album here.

“I’m impartial,” he says. This also marks the second year for the best artist prize, as the BRITs replaced best male and female awards with one gender-neutral category in 2022. Mo remains aware of the constant criticisms and Newsbeat aren’t the first ones to bring the matter up.

Mark Savage, a BBC Music correspondent interviews Mo about the music industry as a whole. Mo says, “No-one gets into this industry being like, ‘I must win this award, I must be nominated for that’. “And the people that are watching it, the young kids who are like, ‘Oh, I want to be like Adele or Beyoncé, or Sam Smith, they just want to be like their first idols. This is a celebration of music first.”

Mo likes the fact that artists are speaking out, as he uses a lot of music in his routines. He tells Newsbeat, “They’re being heard and their opinions are being listened to. It’s nice to be a part of musicians who are using their platform to have an opinion on society and life.”

Regardless of criticisms or non-criticisms, all eyes are focused on Mo within a second when he’s on stage. He confessed that he’d be lying if he said that wasn’t nervous ahead of Saturday. “This is a big occasion for me and for so many people,” Mo says. “I think it’s nice to have some nerves you know, I think the day I don’t have any nerves is the day that this is too normal.”

Mo shares what he has learnt from last year’s BRIT Awards as a ‘first-timer’ host. He says that he will “probably be a bit calmer than last year” when he was “shouting a lot”. “What you could expect is a bit more controlled chaos on my behalf. I’m doing a suit change as well so I’m doing two different colours. He tells Newsbeat.

In all seriousness, Mo expressed that this experience as a host from last year’s awards shaped his confidence in this year’s awards. He says, “Last year, I wasn’t that confident in doing it but I’ve kind of got one under my belt now.”