This week, 29-year-old British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama called out the BRIT Awards and the Mercury Music Prize for their policies that exclude musicians who don’t have British citizenship. Sawayama, whose family immigrated from Japan to London, has lived in the UK for 25 years but was barred from submitting music to both competitions.
“I’m British!” she wrote in a viral Twitter thread.
I’ve lived here 25 YEARS (most of my life) but I am not British enough to even be ELIGIBLE for the 2 biggest UK Music awards, @MercuryPrize and @BRITs
thank u @misszing for talking to me about this
I just wanna dream the same dream as everyone else https://t.co/CxCvjO1e5F
— RINA SAWAYAMA (@rinasawayama) July 29, 2020
Many other prestigious British prizes, including the Turner Prize and Ivor Novello songwriting awards, do not require British citizenship, which some consider to be a discriminatory policy.
Sawayama is currently on an indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) visa, which means she is a permanent resident and is legally allowed to work in the UK. Japan does not allow dual nationalities, so the musician has kept her Japanese passport.
When she found out she didn’t qualify for the Mercury Music Awards, Sawayama was disappointed.
“It was so heartbreaking,” she told Vice. “I rarely get upset to the level where I cry. And I cried.”
Sawayama’s debut album, SAWAYAMA, received widespread critical acclaim when it was released in April and Elton John called it the strongest record of the year. The album showcased a range of styles and genres, from electronic-dance-meets-New-York-ballroom (“Comme Des Garçons”) all the way to nu-metal (“STFU!”). The musician identifies as bisexual and incorporates references to queer culture and diasporic Asian identity in many of her songs.
