{"id":138122,"date":"2025-10-22T10:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/138122\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T10:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:59:14","slug":"rina-sawayama-sends-big-love-to-sabrina-carpenter-but-calls-out-cultural-insensitivity-of-snl-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/138122\/","title":{"rendered":"Rina Sawayama sends &#8220;big love&#8221; to Sabrina Carpenter but calls out &#8220;cultural insensitivity&#8221; of &#8216;SNL&#8217; performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/rina-sawayama\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rina Sawayama<\/a> has shared her thoughts on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/sabrina-carpenter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sabrina Carpenter<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/series\/saturday-night-live\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saturday Night Live<\/a> performance, praising the star but commenting on the performance\u2019s martial arts theme.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"post-content-read-more\">\n<li><strong>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/album\/sabrina-carpenter-mans-best-friend-review-review-3889055\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sabrina Carpenter \u2013 \u2018Man\u2019s Best Friend\u2019 review: pop\u2019s bawdy troubadour hits the melodic G-spot<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Carpenter performed the song \u2018Nobody\u2019s Son\u2019 from her latest album <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/album\/sabrina-carpenter-mans-best-friend-review-review-3889055\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Man\u2019s Best Friend\u2019<\/a> on SNL on October 18. The performance had a martial arts theme, with Carpenter herself wearing a short white robe and black belt and dancers acting out a fight sequence.<\/p>\n<p>The singer was making her hosting debut on the long-running show, serving as her own musical guest, and also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/watch-sabrina-carpenter-perform-manchild-and-nobodys-son-on-snl-3900181\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">performed her single \u2018Manchild\u2019<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/sabrina-carpenter-addresses-mans-best-friend-cover-controversy-on-snl-im-not-just-hornyim-also-turned-on-3900265\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">made reference to the controversy over the \u2018Man\u2019s Best Friend\u2019 album cover<\/a>, and poked fun at her friend Taylor Swift\u2019s song \u2018The Fate Of Ophelia\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The following day, Sawayama posted a clip of the performance on her Instagram Stories, and wrote, \u201cBig love to Sabrina but fellow artists creative teams \u2026 if we are clearly referencing a culture, please can you do so with the research, respect and care it deserves. Shoes on tatami is jail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tatami are soft mats used in traditional Japanese rooms, and etiquette dictates that people shouldn\u2019t wear shoes on them.<\/p>\n<p>Sawayama was born in the Japanese city of Niigata and moved to London with her family when she was five years old. While adjusting to life in the UK, she tried to \u201cpreserve\u201d her Japanese culture, in part by listening to Japanese artists, and in 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vogue.co.jp\/_static\/special\/woty\/2019\/winners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Vogue Japan<\/a> named her one of its women of the year.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/glastonbury-2025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Glastonbury Festival<\/a> two years ago, she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/rina-sawayama-seems-to-call-out-matty-healy-during-glastonbury-set-3460681\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spoke out against The 1975 frontman Matty Healy<\/a>, previously a director at her record label Dirty Hit, following a controversial podcast appearance on which he mocked the appearance of rapper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/ice-spice\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ice Spice<\/a> and said that he watched a racially charged pornography series.<\/p>\n<p>Introducing her song \u2018STFU!\u2019, she said: \u201cI wrote this next song because I was sick and tired of microaggressions. So, tonight, this song goes out to a white man who watches [pornography series] Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters. I\u2019ve had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She then seemed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/rina-sawayama-seemingly-calls-out-matty-healy-again-during-nos-alive-set-3467240\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">call Healy out again during her set at NOS Alive<\/a> in Portugal a couple of weeks later.<\/p>\n<p>Not long after, former collaborator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/charli-xcx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charli XCX<\/a> unfollowed Sawayama, with fans speculating that it was related because Charli was dating, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/charli-xcx-and-george-daniel-marry-again-at-star-studded-sicily-wedding-with-matty-healy-in-attendance-3892615\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">and is now married to<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/matty-healy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Healy<\/a>\u2019s bandmate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/george-daniel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George Daniel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Charli then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/charli-xcx-responds-to-fan-speculation-over-her-unfollowing-rina-sawayama-3491151\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">addressed the drama on X (Twitter)<\/a>, writing: \u201cLook \u2013 this all got a bit crazy \u2013 me and Rina spoke about things on the phone just now. My unfollowing (which happened a couple of weeks ago) was over a personal disagreement between friends which we\u2019ve now spoken about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, Sawayama \u2013 who released her most recent album <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/album\/rina-sawayama-hold-the-girl-review-3310150\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Hold The Girl\u2019<\/a> in 2022 \u2013\u00a0said that she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/rina-sawayama-says-she-cant-release-her-next-album-under-my-current-conditions-3599219\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">couldn\u2019t release her next album \u201cunder my current conditions\u201d<\/a>, admitting: \u201cI feel really trapped and don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/features\/misogyny-music-industry-rina-sawayama-self-esteem-interview-b2508677.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Independent<\/a> that, since the previous summer, she had \u201cfelt intense racist misogyny in a way that I\u2019ve never felt before,\u201d adding: \u201cIn public and private I feel as though I\u2019ve been repeatedly gaslit, disrespected, ignored, even cyber-bullied for calling out blatant racist and sexist behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rina Sawayama has shared her thoughts on Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s Saturday Night Live performance, praising the star but commenting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,19,17,337,4513],"class_list":{"0":"post-138122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-pop"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}