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# Musicians Rina Sawayama, Iza named to TIME Next Generation Leaders list 2021
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/musicians-rina-sawayama-iza-named-to-time-next-generation-leaders-list-2021/
- Published: 2021-10-14T14:33:45.000Z
- Updated: 2021-10-14T14:33:47.000Z
- Description: 31-year-old singer and songwriter Rina Sawayama is one of only two musicians to be named to TIME Magazine’s 2021 Next Generation Leaders list. The other is Afro-Brazilian pop star Iza.. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2021/10/musicians-rina-sawayama-iza-named-to-time-next-generatio
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Conventions & Awards, Music Business, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 09:48

31-year-old singer and songwriter Rina Sawayama is one of only two musicians to be named to TIME Magazine’s 2021 Next Generation Leaders list.

The other is Afro-Brazilian pop star Iza.

TIME’s 2021 list of Next Generation Leaders puts the spotlight on “trendsetters and trailblazers who are guiding the way to a brighter future.”

**Here is how Time describes Sawayama:**

“Rina Sawayama calls her favorite songs her ‘problem childs.’ They’re the Japanese British singer-songwriter’s deeply personal tracks that record labels are wont to reject. Take 2019’s ‘STFU!,’ which rages against the racism Sawayama often faces as a woman of East Asian descent….for Sawayama, it’s crucial to partner with the right people to amplify her stories—­especially since she devotes her songwriting to crafting ones that rarely get told.”

**On Iza:**

“I don’t talk about racism because it’s a subject I’m fond of,” she explains. “I talk about it because it’s necessary.”

Iza is symbolic of the new era she’s fighting for—a global cultural embrace of not only Afro-latino artists, but of people and their humanity. “Through the music I can say so much,” she says. “Our microphone is a weapon and it needs to be used.”

**See the full TIME 2021 Next Generation Leaders list [here](https://bit.ly/2GLCCp4?ref=hypebot.com).**

**Bruce Houghton* is Founder and Editor of [Hypebot](https://www.hypebot.com/) and [MusicThinkTank](http://www.musicthinktank.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and serves as a Senior Advisor to [Bandsintown](https://www.bandsintown.com/?ref=hypebot.com) which acquired both publications in 2019\. He is the Founder and President of the[ Skyline Artists Agency](https://skylineonline.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and a professor for the [Berklee College Of Music](https://online.berklee.edu/courses/touring-101?ref=hypebot.com).*