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With the NPR offices still closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Rina Sawayama was the latest artist to perform for their Tiny Desk Concert series and make creative use of their “at-home” mandate.
Sawayama and her band played from the top floor of a London office building dressed in fashion-forward blazers and situated behind a giant conference table covered in notepads, pens, and teleconference devices — objects that now feel like they might as well be ancient artifacts.
“I’m the CEO,” Sawayama joked at one point during the set, seating herself on top of the giant desk. She took the opportunity to play a few highlights from her debut albumSawayama, which she released last year in the midst of quarantine. “I’ve been dying to play this,” Sawayama said, and her enthusiasm showed as she and her band tore through “Dynasty” and “XS.” She then finished the set with a tender rendition of “Chosen Family,” incorporating the piano parts that Elton John wrote for his and Sawayama’s duet version of the song.
Sawayama is scheduled to finally go on tour in North America this fall, kicking off September 28th at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall and ending with two back-to-back shows at Brooklyn Steel in New York on October 24th and 25th. Tickets are available on her website.
