Rina Sawayama has shared “Hold the Girl,” the title track to her upcoming album.
“’Hold the Girl’ was the first song I wrote for the record at the end of 2020,” Sawayama shared in a statement. “I had gone to therapy and had a revelation, so I decided to write this song… that was the start of it. I was crying before going into the studio to write about it.”
The soaring pop anthem finds Sawayama telling someone to “hold the girl” before undergoing an epiphany. “Reach inside and hold you close,” she sings, “I won’t leave you on your own/ Teach me the words I used to know/ Yea I forgot them long ago/ So hold that girl.” Later, she identifies the girl as living inside herself, saying, “The girl in your soul’s seen it all/ And you owe her the world/ So hold the girl.”
Hold the Girl arrives in full on September 16th, and pre-orders are ongoing. So far, Sawayama has previewed the LP — which follows 2020’s SAWAYAMA, one of the best albums of the year — with Song of the Week “This Hell” and “Catch Me in the Air.” Watch her perform the former single on Fallon here.
This November, Sawayama will take Hold the Girl on the road. See the artist’s upcoming tour dates here, and grab tickets via Ticketmaster beginning Thursday, July 28th (use code ELECTRIC).