Rina Sawayama received “blessing” from ABBA for ‘This Hell’
Dirty Hit’s rising star Rina Sawayama has revealed that her new single ‘This Hell’ recieved “the blessing of ABBA”, citing concerns it shared too many similarities to one of the Swedish outfit’s most iconic singles.
In a fresh interview with the BBC, the Japanese-British popstar revealed that when she was recording ‘This Hell’, she noted the glaring similarities between the main guitar riff and ABBA’s timeless hit ”Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’.
She allegedly “freaked out” when she came across the parallels as ABBA are famous for turning down samples of their work, and when she informed her publishers, they shared her outlook.
“They were like, ‘ABBA are absolutely going to say no to this, and you have to change it’,” Sawayama said. She took the advice and changed the track, but ultimately preferred the first version, so she attempted to “figure this out”, and release it in its original form.
Blessed with A-list contacts, Sawayama contacted one of the other most iconic popstars of the 1970s, Elton John. The ‘Rocket Man’ singer knew ABBA and facilitated communication between the two parties through a contact at the band’s longtime home, Universal.
Sawayama sent a handwritten letter to the band, asking for their permission to use ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’ in ‘This Hell’. “I love your music,” the note is said to have read. “I’m happy to split the publishing. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean [for] this to happen.”
Surprisingly, a few days later, Sawayama recieved a reply from none other than ABBA keyboardist, Benny Andersson. “No problem,” he said. “Absolutely fine. All the best.”
Notably, Sawayama’s personal appeal to ABBA bears many similarities to that of the ‘Queen of Pop’, Madonna, back in 2005, who eventually secured the use of ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’ for her hit single ‘Hung Up’.
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