Rina Sawayama sent a handwritten note to members of ABBA following concerns her recent single This Hell featured similarities to their hit Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).
The track was the first to be lifted from the British-Japanese star’s forthcoming second album ‘Hold The Girl’, but during the process Rina says she noticed similarities to the Swedish supergroup’s classic.
Speaking to the BBC, she admitted she “freaked out” over the parallels, particularly owing to ABBA’s reputation for turning down samples of their work.
Revealing her publishers shared similar fears, she explained: “They were like, ‘ABBA are absolutely going to say no to this, and you have to change it’.”
Although she worked on different versions of the track, she was drawn to the first recording and, desperate to release the single in its original form, Rina called pal Elton John, who knew the members of ABBA and initiated contact.
She reportedly sent them a note, reading, “I love your music. I’m happy to split the publishing. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean [for] this to happen,” to which keyboardist Benny Andersson apparently replied: “No problem. Absolutely fine. All the best.”
Rina will release the follow-up to 2019’s ‘SAWAYAMA’ on September 16 – as the result of a two-week production delay – and previously admitted penning the collection during the pandemic was a challenge.
“I wrote a record during lockdown, which was really difficult,” she said. “I felt I just didn’t have anything to write about because, like a lot of people, I wasn’t doing anything.
“But I managed to do it and it is coming out this year.”
Adding that she got the seal of approval from Elton, she continued: “We spent some time in the summer together and he has this humongous boombox which he listens to music on.
“I played him my songs and he loved them.”
‘Hold The Girl’ is available to pre-order now.
