"This Hell" is a song recorded by Rina Sawayama, taken from her second studio album Hold the Girl (2022). It was released as the album's lead single on 18 May 2022 through Dirty Hit, and was written by Sawayama with Lauren Aquilina, Paul Epworth and Vic Jamieson. Epworth produced the song along with Clarence Clarity.

A music video directed by Ali Kurr was released on 15 June 2022.^[1] The video sees Sawayama preparing for an old-western wedding with Evangelical protestors sporting signs that "condemn her to eternal damnation."^[2] It received a nomination at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, in the Video for Good category.

Background and production

In April 2022, Rina Sawayama kicked off the North American leg of her Dynasty Tour, promoting her 2020 debut LP, Sawayama. The tour's last show was held in New York City on 13 May 2022. On 11 May, selected journalists received black-and-red pamphlets with the phrases "Rina is going to hell" and "An invitation to eternal damnation", teasing the new era.^[3] The next day, Sawayama posted a picture of the pamphlet with the caption "#RinaIsGoingToHell".^[3] She was also announced as a performer for the The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon a week before her performance on the show.

The song was inspired by female country singers. Sawayama expressed she wanted to write an "euphoric and tongue-in-cheek" country-pop song. "Country music at its core to me represents comfort, brilliant storytelling and authentic expression of the writer's reality," she explained. The song was written by Sawayama with Lauren Aquilina, Paul Epworth and Vixen. Epworth co-produced the song with Sawayama's long-time collaborator Clarence Clarity. In a press release, Sawayama said that her entire career she wanted to work with Epworth. "I knew it was meant to be when we finished this song in a day."^[4]

Cover art

The single's cover art depicts Sawayama posing on a chair on a floor with water against a red background. The photo was shot by Sawayama's long time friend and collaborator Thurstan Redding, and it was creative directed by her friend Chester Lockhart.^[5] For the shoot, Sawayama was styled by Jordan Kelsey, while her makeup was done by Mona Leanne, her hair by Jake Gallagher, and her nails by Angel's Nailz. The set was designed by Miguel Bento.^[5]

Composition

It's an important song for me given the human rights that are being taken away from minorities at a rapid rate in the name of traditional religious beliefs, more specifically I was thinking about the rights being taken away from the LGBTQ community when I wrote this song. When the world tells us we don't deserve love and protection, we have no choice but to give love and protection to each other. This Hell is better with you."

— Sawayama on "This Hell"^[4]

"This Hell" is a country-pop songs with glam rock and metal elements.^[6][7][8] It was written as a response to "human rights that are being taken away from minorities at a rapid rate in the name of traditional religious beliefs", particularly the rights of the LGBT community;^[9] the lyrics contain references to several gay icons,^[6] namely Britney Spears, Whitney Houston and Princess Diana, and criticise the paparazzi's "cruelty" towards them.^[8] Musically, the song is composed in the key of A Minor, with a tempo of 121 beats per minute.^[10]

During the recording of the song, Sawayama "freaked out" realizing its prominent guitar riff sounded like 1979 hit single "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" by Swedish group ABBA, which songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus generally do not allow anyone to sample any of their tracks. Sawayama contacted her publicists, who told her to change the melody as "ABBA are absolutely going to say no to this."^[11] Sawayama re-recorded the song with what Mark Savage from BBC News noted as an inferior guitar hook, but then she reached out to her friend Elton John to contact the group. Through a contact at Universal Music, John sent the original recording of the song to the band, accompanied by a handwritten letter from Sawayama herself.

"I said: 'Look, I love your music. I'm happy to split the publishing. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean this to happen.'"

— Sawayama on her letter sent to ABBA.

A few days later, Sawayama received a responce from Benny Andersson. "No problem," the letter read. "Absolutely fine. All the best." During an interview with BBC News, Sawayama told reporter Mark Savage that she felt that "This Hell" has the blessing of ABBA.^[12]

Release and promotion

On the day of the Dynasty Tour's last show on 13 May 2022, Sawayama blanked out her Instagram account. This is the second time she blanks out her Instagram account, the first time being in 2019 ahead of the release of "STFU!", the lead single of Sawayama. She then posted a picture of her stepping on the "Rina is going to hell" pamphlet.^[3] During her show at the Dynasty Tour, Sawayama confirmed that the new era would begin "the next week", and a snippet of an unknown song was played.^[14] When fans found the pamphlets, they noticed that the title of a song, "This Hell," was written inside with its lyrics in the background.

On 17 May 2022, Sawayama announced the release of "This Hell" a day after announcing her second LP titled Hold the Girl, which was released on 16 September 2022. "This Hell" served as the album's lead single, and was released on 18 May 2022 through Dirty Hit.

Critical reception

The song received positive reviews from music critics. Sarena Moss from Gay Times commented it is an "encapsulation of 21st century sounds and country pop" described it as a "euphoric and timeless" track.^[15]

Music video

The music video for "This Hell" premiered on YouTube on 15 June 2022, at 5pm GMT. It was directed by Sawayama's long-time collaborator Ali Kurr, who previously directed the music videos for "XS" and "Bad Friend" in 2020. Sawayama's friend Chester Lockhart served as the creative director of the music video.^[16]

The music video received a nomination for the Video For Good award at the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards, which was held on August 28, 2022.^[17]

Behind the scenes

Live performance

Sawayama debuted "This Hell" live on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, for the episode on 19 May 2022.^[18] This is her second performance on the show, the first one being in October 2020 when she performed "XS". It was also performed at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend on the Future Sounds Stage on 29 May 2022.^[19]The song was part of the setlist for Sawayama's two shows at Primavera Sound 2022.

Every time "This Hell" was performed live by Rina Sawayama.

Date	Type	Event	Venue	City
2022
19 May	TV show	The Tonight Show	NBC Studios	New York
29 May	Festival	Radio 1's Big Weekend 2022	War Memorial Park	Coventry
1 June	Festival	Primavera Sound 2022	Poble Espanyol	Barcelona
2 June	Festival	Primavera Sound 2022	Platja del Fòrum	Sant Adrià de Besòs
10 June	Festival	NOS Primavera Sound 2022	Parque da Cidade	Oporto
24 June	Festival	British Summer Time 2022	Hyde Park	London
22 July	Festival	Latitude Festival 2022	Henham Park	Southwold
6 August	Festival	Outside Lands Festival 2022	Golden Gate Park	San Francisco
20 August	Festival	SUMMER SONIC Tokyo 2022	ZOZO Marine Stadium	Chiba
21 August	Festival	SUMMER SONIC Osaka 2022	Maishima	Osaka
3 September	Festival	Electric Picnic 2022	Stradbally Hall	Laois
14 September	Show	Hold the Girl release	PRYZM	London
15 September	Show	Hold the Girl release	Electrowerkz	London
18 September	Show	Hold the Girl release	Village Underground	London
2023
3 June	Festival	Forbidden Fruit	Royal Hospital Kilmainham	Dublin
10 June	Festival	Governors Ball Music Festival	Flushing Meadows–Corona Park	New York
16 June	Festival	Bonnaroo Music Festival	Great Stage Park	Manchester
24 June	Festival	Glastonbury Festival	Worthy Farm	Pilton
29 June	Festival	Roskilde Festival	Dyrskuepladsen	Roskilde
1 July	Festival	Open'er Festival	Lotnisko Gdynia-Kosakowo	Gdynia
8 July	Festival	NOS Alive	Passeio Marítimo de Algés	Oeiras
4 August	Festival	Osheaga Festival	Parc Jean-Drapeau	Montreal
5 August	Festival	Head In The Clouds Festival	Brookside Park	California
6 August	Festival	Lollapalooza	Grant Park	Chicago
25 August	Festival	Leeds Festival	Bramham Park	Leeds
27 August	Festival	Reading Festival	Little John's Farm	Reading
22 September	Festival	Twilight Concert Series	Gallivan Center	Utah
24 September	Festival	Life is Beautiful	Downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street	Las Vegas
1 October	Festival	Portola Music Festival	Pier 80	California
7 October	Festival	Austin City Limits	Zilker Park	Texas
11 October	Festival	ACL Nights	Stubb's Bar-B-Q	Texas
14 October	Festival	Austin City Limits	Zilker Park	Texas
2024
1 March	Special event	Gucci Ancora in Japan[20]	National Stadium	Tokyo

Lyrics

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.

• Rina Sawayama – vocals, songwriting
• Lauren Aquilina – songwriting
• Paul Epworth – production, songwriting, synthesizer, programming, drum programming
• Vic Jamieson – songwriting, guitar
• Clarence Clarity – production, guitar, programming, synthesizer
• Robin Schmidt – mastering
• Geoff Swan – mixing
• Riley MacIntyre – sound engineering
• Cameron Gower-Pooler– vocal producer

References

v · d · e Hold the Girl
Era Photography Videography Hold the Girl Tour Hold the Girl: Reloaded Tour
"Minor Feelings" "Hold the Girl" "This Hell" "Catch Me in the Air" "Forgiveness" "Holy (Til You Let Me Go)" "Your Age" "Imagining" "Frankenstein" "Hurricanes" "Send My Love to John" "Phantom" "To Be Alive" "Flavour of the Month"
Unreleased tracks "Missing Summers"
Dirty Hit • 2022

v · d · e Rina Sawayama songs
Rina (2017) "Ordinary Superstar" "Take Me as I Am" "10-20-40" "Tunnel Vision" "Time Out" (Interlude) "Alterlife" "Through the Wire" (Interlude) Cyber Stockholm Syndrome"
Sawayama (2020) "Dynasty" "XS" "STFU!" "Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)" "Akasaka Sad" "Paradisin'" "Love Me 4 Me" "Bad Friend" "Fuck This World (Interlude)" "Who's Gonna Save U Now?" "Tokyo Love Hotel" "Chosen Family" "Snakeskin" "Tokyo Takeover" "Lucid" "We Out Here" "Bees & Honey" "Love It If We Made It"
Hold the Girl (2022) "Minor Feelings" "Hold the Girl" "This Hell" "Catch Me in the Air" "Forgiveness" "Holy (Til You Let Me Go)" "Your Age" "Imagining" "Frankenstein" "Hurricanes" "Send My Love to John" "Phantom" "To Be Alive" "Flavour of the Month"
Non-album 2013 "Sleeping in Waking" "Terror" "Who?" 2016 "This Time Last Year" "Where U Are" 2018 "Valentine (What's It Gonna Be)" "Cherry" "Flicker" 2020 "Dance in the Dark" 2023 "Eye for an Eye" Unreleased "6°" "Alone Together" "Animal" "Capital" "Da Beach" "Enough" "How We Were Then" "Louis" "Love Tonight" "Now" "Missing Summers" "Mission: U" "Model Minority" "Play on Me" "Proud" "Same Ol' Mistakes" "Scream It in Your Heart" "Sleeping" "Supporting Role" "Ready or Not" "Rina 2.0" "Wait for Me" "Whatever" "Yesmen"