"Chosen Family" was a song that originally appeared on British pop singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama's 2020 album Sawayama, a stripped-down Danny L. Harle-produced ballad about finding your own kin when your blood lets you down. The song resonated so much with Elton John that he added his own vocal and piano talents to the track for a new edition, out today.
The collaboration comes after Elton John played Sawayama's single "Comme Des Garçons" on his Apple Music Radio show Rocket Hour and was thoroughly impressed. In a press statement, John wrote, "Rina doesn’t just represent the cross-cultural mix of inspiration from which the best music always thrives, but a generation who have grown up with the internet and the entire history of music at their fingertips and mix together whatever they please with real love and understanding, unconstrained by old ideas of genre or boundary. To my mind, she’s the brightest embodiment of this: a brilliant, confidence-oozing, endlessly fascinating songwriter and performer."
Listen to the new version of "Chosen Family" below.
Rina Sawayama tour dates
9/28 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
9/29 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
10/5 - Portland, OR - Holocene
10/6 - Seattle, WA - Washington Hall
10/12 - Denver, CO - Globe Hall
10/13 - Denver, CO - Globe Hall
10/15 - Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line
10/16 - Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge
10/18 - Toronto, ON - Mod Club
10/19 - Montreal, QC - Corona
10/20 - Boston, MA - Royale
10/22 - Washington, DC - Union Stage
10/23 - Philadelphia, PA - The Foundry at The Fillmore
10/24 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel
10/25 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel
11/9 - Manchester, UK - Albert Hall
11/11 - Leeds, UK - Beckett Students' Union
11/13 - Glasgow, Scotland - SWG3 TV Studio
11/15 - Birmingham, UK - Institute
11/16 - London, UK - Electric Brixton
11/17 - London, UK - Roundhouse