Rina Sawayama has been honoured at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 with a win for Best Live Act Supported By Grolsch.
Sawayama – who is also due to perform at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 – pipped fellow nominees Megan Thee Stallion, IDLES, Tomorrow x Together and more to the win.
Presented the award by Monroe Bergdorf and Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Sawayama said “I can’t believe I’m getting a middle finger, this is so sick.” She went on to share “story time” telling the attendees, “when I was 15, I posted an ad in the back of NME trying to get some bandmates.”
She went on to joke that she ended up with a drummer and guitarist she wasn’t exactly pleased with.
She added: “It’s so fucking crazy that now I’m getting this. Thank you so much to anyone who helps me with live shows, thank you everyone here. Thank you NME.”
Sawayama delivers a thrilling live show, as NME can attest. In November 2021, we rated her concert at Manchester’s Albert Hall five stars, with reviewer Hannah Mylrea praising it as “a dazzling and moving experience”. The British-Japanese pop star will take her Dynasty Tour to North America in April and May.
Sawayama joins a growing list of winners at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 that so far includes Griff (NME Radar Award) and Lorde (Best Song In The World for ‘Solar Power’).
- READ MORE: Rina Sawayama – ‘SAWAYAMA’ review: deeply personal self-portrait lays waste to genre constraints
Hosted by Daisy May Cooper and Lady Leshurr, the BandLab NME Awards 2022 has seen performances by Sam Fender and Griff and Sigrid. CHVRCHES and Robert Smith, BERWYN, Bring Me The Horizon and Sawayama herself are yet to take the stage at the O2 Academy Brixton.
Check back for the latest news, interviews, winners and more from the BandLab NME Awards 2022.