Rina Sawayama: Therapy made me realise I was groomed at 17

[matsjhummels]

Rina Sawayama: Therapy made me realise I was groomed at 17 https://t.co/qyzdkI2ckv
- BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 28, 2023

• Rina Sawayama reveals that the inspiration behind her sophomore album Hold the Girl was "a relationship with an older man" - she was 17 and he was a schoolteacher in his 30s.
• She says, "Seventeen to me is a child. You're in school. If a school teacher is coming onto you, that's an abuse of power. But I didn't realise until I was his age." She says she was then slut-shamed by her peers for it.
• She didn't realize that she was groomed until she began seeing a sex/relationship therapist when she was older and saw the relationship from a different perspective.
• Her song "Your Age" is about reaching the same age as this teacher and realizing how wrong it was of him to engage in a relationship with a 17-year-old: "'Cause now that I'm your age / I just can't imagine / Why did you do it? / What the hell were you thinking?"

She also talks to BBC about her frustrations with the music industry, how her sexuality informs her art and growing up with racism in the UK (I can't access it outside of the UK so no summary, sorry).

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