Credit: Greg Lin Jiajie

Watch Rina Sawayama cover Billie Eilish song ‘Happier Than Ever’

Wed 28 September 2022 11:30, UK

While in BBC Radio 1’s ‘Live Lounge’, Rina Sawayama covered Billie Eilish’s eerie single, ‘Happier Than Ever’.

Sawayama’s appearance at Maida Vale is part of ‘Live Lounge Month’, including Yungblud, Self Esteem, Wet Leg, The 1975 and many more. Before covering Eilish, the ‘XS’ singer also gave listeners a taste of her new album, Hold The Girl, and performed the title track.

“It’s a little darker, it’s a little moodier,” Sawayama commented of her version of the song. “This is the dilemma about [the] Live Lounge, ’cause it’s like songs you love so much… you don’t want to change it too much, but you want to change it a little bit so it’s fun. So I think that’s what I’ve done. The original is so good [but] I tried to make it a bit more me.”

After the performance, Sawayama was elated that she was finally able to appear in the prestigious ‘Live Lounge’. She took to Twitter to share her joy and told her followers it was “a dream”.

In a review of Hold The Girl, Far Out’s Aimee Ferrier wrote: “Sawayama delivers an interesting second album with Hold the Girl that contains some genuine slices of pop genius alongside cringe-inducing and derivative hooks and lyrics. In fact, lyrics appear to be the main issue at hand. Lines such as ‘Flowers, still look pretty when they’re dying/ Blue skies always there behind the rain’ (‘To Be Alive’) and ‘Doing yoga just to feel untethered but my mind keeps/ Running away/ Chasing hurricanes/ Cos I can’t feel the rain’ (‘Hurricanes’) are pretty terrible”.

Adding: “Nevertheless, Sawayama proves that she is a pop powerhouse, capable of making arena-sized sounds at such an early stage in her career. She undoubtedly has a promising career ahead of her because when she makes a good song – it’s really good. Sadly, Hold the Girl is held back by a choice to pander to the mainstream instead of experimenting with bolder and more interesting sounds.”

Watch the cover of ‘Happier Than Ever’ below.