Rina Sawayama shared her shimmering debut album, Sawayama, back in April. Throughout her record, Sawayama honed her bold electro-pop sound through opulent hits like “XS” and “Bad Friend.” Now, the singer has teamed up with Spotify to share a cover of a song of her choice for a Pride edition of their recurring Spotify Singles series.
Sawayama elected to pull from Lady Gaga’s back catalog for her cover. Though Lady Gaga also just released an album herself, Sawayama elected to revisit Gaga’s 2009 sophomore album The Fame Monster. Sawayama transformed Gaga’s overlooked track “Dance In The Dark” from a club-ready track to an electro-pop ballad. Using her emotive vocals to color the song, Sawayama crooned a rendition of “Dance In The Dark” over wailing guitars and metallic synths. “Some girls won’t dance to the beat of the track / She won’t walk away but she won’t look back / She looks good but her boyfriend says she’s a mess,” Sawayama sings.
Announcing the cover on Twitter, Sawayama said she recorded the cover in quarantine and the track is one of her favorite songs.
SOOO excited to share this exclusive @Spotify Singles Pride cover with u ! one of my fave songs by @ladygaga, Dance in the Dark. I recorded this at home, working remotely with @clarenceclarity. Happy Intersectional Pride everybody
stream here: https://t.co/k5temuNezm pic.twitter.com/CJTBILkkzR
— RINA SAWAYAMA (@rinasawayama) June 29, 2020
Listen to Sawayama’s “Dance In The Dark” cover below, and revisit our review of Sawayama here.
Sawayama is out now via Dirty Hit. Get it here.