There’s a new assignment flooding social media: uplift Tinashe. It took me about 30 minutes to scroll through videos and photos of Tinashe to find the origin of this trend on X.
Serena Mira brought this to life when she tweeted, “trying to think of a million ways to uplift tinashe and the activity that has the most impact so far is just posting this video with no context.” The video in question is simply a one minute snippet from the singer’s music video to her track “Melatonin.”
“I’ve been a fan of Tinashe since the release of her ‘333’ EP,” Mira said. “So seeing her gain such a mass amount of praise because of something I started made me really happy.”
The devotional and often comedic “uplift Tinashe” movement treats supporting the singer like a religious practice. For some fans, it means posting tweets with photos or music video snippets on X; for others, tweeting uncanny jokes and simply tagging her name into it.
But “uplifting Tinashe” has become more than just a viral meme. It collectively celebrates her decade-long career in which she has been met with many barriers in her pursuit of creative freedom. For the devoted fans who have spent years championing the Los Angeles-based artist, Tinashe has always been a pop star and the world is finally recognizing that.
Even Charli XCX clocked in as she brought out Tinashe as a surprise guest on October 9 at Austin City Limits Music Festival during her set and urged the audience to “f***ing uplift her baby!”
Beneath the meme and celebratory posts about the new album, which received a rare 9.0 score from the music website Pitchfork, lies a more complicated story about the music industry. It concerns countless Black artists, like Tinashe, who are segregated into categories and receive little support or recognition compared to their white counterparts who make the same exact sound.
Her experience offers a window into that disparity and the meme offers fans a way to push back against it.
An artist ahead of her time
Tinashe, born Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe, has been a star since childhood. She’s a singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. Her debut acting career began in 2004 with “The Polar Express” (yes, she was the motion capture model for the animated Hero Girl) debuting as a singer in 2007 with the girl group The Stunners alongside Hayley Kiyoko. After The Stunners disbanded in 2011, she began her solo career producing, writing and releasing three mixtapes: “In Case We Die,” “Reverie” and “Black Water.”
In her mixtapes, listeners are met with pop ballads and her angelic yet powerful R&B vocals, similar to the early sounds of 2010 pop hits like Rihanna’s “Pour It Up” and Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River.” Her earlier projects reveal the birth of her artistry, and I would argue that her mixtapes are like the female counterpart of Timberlake’s “Justified” era because of their exceptional vocals, dance forward tracks and elegant sass.
After the 2012 release of “Reverie,” Tinashe signed to the record label RCA, which was the beginning of a reckoning. In countless interviews, Tinashe has shared how her label failed to recognize her for the artist she already knew she was. RCA struggled to find where she fit in, unsure whether to categorize her as an R&B artist or anything else. Never a popstar.
“For years I felt misunderstood, overlooked, the butt of the joke… but I kept going,” Tinashe said on a post on Instagram as she celebrated her album. “People would say ‘she’s still making music? Why hasn’t she quit by now?’ but I never gave up on myself or my artistry…”
That sentiment captures what makes uplifting Tinashe so resonant. Fans aren’t simply celebrating an album rollout, they’re celebrating an artist who continued creating even when the industry gave her little reason to believe she could reach mainstream status.
So when Tinashe’s “Popstar” album topped #1 on iTunes charts and surpassed Taylor Swift’s “Life of A Showgirl: The Encore” album, it was an unexpected surprise, but also a win that should have happened a long time ago.
One would think that Tinashe’s 2014 debut album “Aquarius,” with the hit track “2On” ft. Schoolboy Q, would put her on a trajectory to being recognized as an artist capable of blending R&B with the energy of club music. But despite “Aquarius” ranking No.17 on Billboard 200, the label failed her.
Her label never took her seriously, prioritizing other artists and other sounds. Most notably, Zayn Malik was immediately signed to RCA following his 2015 departure from One Direction, just between the time of the announcement of Tinashe’s second album. She believes this is one of the many reasons why the label pushed her aside.
In a 2018 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Tinashe revealed that she leaked one of her own songs, “Party Favors,” just so she could release something to create buzz for her fans. She even had to buy back her own track “Joyride,” from Rihanna, which was set to be on the superstar’s “Anti” album. She later titled her second album after the track.
After countless delays and restrictions to her creative freedom, “Joyride”’s release did not feel like any success. In 2019, she decided to break her contract and went back to being a completely independent artist.
Tinashe’s experience with RCA reflects the frustrations of an artist whose creative ambitions and visions do not align with their label’s priorities. She has repeatedly spoken out against an industry that categorizes artists before allowing them the freedom to define themselves. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she argued that the industry should abolish all genres because “it creates a huge sense of isolation for the creative when they’re trying to experiment.”
As a Black artist signed to RCA records, she described a divide between the teams promoting the urban department in her label and those pushing pop acts.
“It was not the same department that was pushing [pop]. Those were the stages I wanted,” she said.
This raises a question about who gets the resources, visibility and freedom to succeed.
Who gets to be a pop star?
Genre labels can help listeners discover new music and give artists a way to communicate their sound. But restrictive classifications also influence how an artist is marketed, which audiences are targeted and where music is recognized. Beyond artistry, it also pigeonholes audiences when artists’ music reaches far beyond the category they were placed into. For Black artists, this is a constant struggle.
The Grammy Awards offer one example of how those distinctions have been institutionalized. In 2013, the Grammys introduced a new category to celebrate non-traditional R&B: Best Urban Contemporary, which Frank Ocean’s “Channel Orange” album took the first win. But by coding the category as urban, the Grammys further exemplified the problem of grouping Black artists and their music because of their race.
Producer Tricky Stewart, known for major hit tracks such as “Baby” by Justin Bieber and “Water” by Tyla, criticized the term in an article by The Fader.
“The industry has come up with [urban] to mean music they don’t like, but if it’s music they love, and the world loves, then it’s pop,” he said.
Beloved artist Tyler the Creator also criticized this on the Grammys red carpet in 2020 after winning Best Rap Album for “Igor.” Speaking with CNN, he expressed disappointment that Black artists with genre-bending sounds are continuously put in a rap or urban category. “I don’t like that ‘urban’ word — it’s just a politically correct way to say the n-word to me,” he noted.
In 2020, the Grammys renamed the category Best Progressive R&B Album, which describes records with elements of R&B that include samples and elements of hip-hop, rap, dance and electronic music, according to Pitchfork.
Albums like “Gemini Rights” by Steve Lacy, Thundercat’s “It is what is” and SZA’s “SOS” album have since won in this new category. But the change only addresses terminology; it does not address the issue of how Black artists are being categorized.
SZA has similarly spoken about this issue with Dazed during her tour for “SOS,” an album that blends pop-rock tracks and ballads that could be in the same lane as Taylor Swift’s ballads with the traditional hip-hop sounds her listeners are most familiar with.
SZA explains how being defined as an R&B artist is reductive and artists like Justin Bieber — whose discography is filled with R&B tracks and folk music — is considered a pop artist. She expresses how she simply wants the space and opportunity to make whatever her heart desires without a label, without it being “based on the color of [her] skin.”
The new progressive R&B category was renamed as an attempt to award the characteristics of an album’s musical compositions or performances. But with the allegations of racial bias in the Grammys Awards, I won’t be surprised if Tinashe’s “Popstar” album falls under Best Progressive R&B and isn’t nominated in the Best Dance Pop Recording category.
On October 10, Tinashe posted on X that she submitted a few tracks from her new album to the 2027 Grammys, including “Too Easy” for Best Dance Pop Recording, and “Crash Out” as Best Pop Solo Performance.
After submissions are made to the Grammys, the Recording Academy Awards Department confirms eligibility and goes through an additional screening. If passed, submissions go through a genre-based screening committee who then nominate and ensure each record is placed in its proper category.
Tinashe the popstar
Across the 39-minute album, listeners are met with club anthems, where the singer confidently moves on a dance floor. It’s an eclectic album blending electronic textures, pop and R&B vocals, as well as house and Zimbabwean influences through the mbira (also known as a thumb piano).
“Popstar” presents Tinashe as an artist comfortable with experimentation. She also shares the vulnerability she carries as an artist in a few of her tracks as she confronts the uncertainty of her career. But most importantly, she doesn’t really care about success anymore.
On the opening track “Sunglasses,” she softly establishes that confidence as she sings, declaring her individuality as a pop artist: “There’s a billion of us, but there’s only one of me / an independent shorty and they’re so intimated by it.”
The track is the perfect opening to her world and the years spent navigating an industry she continuously struggled in, yet she dances her way through it with a cheeky and sensual style.
“Too easy,” channels the infectious early-2000s pop sound with a memorable hook and vibe, recalling the era she began her career in. The song seamlessly blends into the following track “Melatonin,” with the current state of Electro-Pop, showcasing her ability to blend genres and still be relevant without losing her identity.
But the album isn’t full of victory laps. On the drum and bass track “Empty Stadium,” Tinashe reflects on her dreams and fears; the fear of not succeeding as an artist, even with all the sacrifices she made to have the creative freedom she longed for.
While going independent gave her control over her music, it also meant taking risks. As an independent artist she has released six albums, none of which ranked above No. 100 on Billboard, but she never gave up.
“I inevitably reached a place where I no longer craved the validation of accolades, awards, or even mainstream success because it was too painful to care anymore,” Tinashe said in an Instagram post. She made this album as a testament to herself, not expecting this recognition to come from it.
When “Nasty” was released in 2024, it reached No. 69 on Hot 100 and was loved all over the internet, even getting its own trending dance on TikTok by Nate De Winer as fans matched her freak. The track’s confidence and playful vibe returned her to the mainstream, where “No Broke Boys” was then remixed by duo Disco Lines, bringing a wave of newer audiences. This renewed interest helped sustain her name.
With “Nasty” and “No Broke Boys,” she gradually started creeping back into the charts that she was once in back in 2014. She gave up the idea of winning mainstream recognition to simply make music for her own desire.
“Popstar” has blown up in ways even she couldn’t have imagined. It topped at No. 10 within five days of its release, which served as a turning point after years at the bottom of Billboard charts.
Pitchfork naming “Popstar” album of the year is a major breakthrough. Having a Black queer artist like Tinashe at the forefront of pop is so important and needed moving forward as we attempt to pay homage and respect to the Black and queer artists that are often overlooked.
“I love the uplift Tinashe movement,” Mira said. “But it is disappointing to see that it took a twitter trend after many years of unrewarded hard work on her part for her to get this recognition.”
This is why uplifting Tinashe is so important and it’s not simply to prove that she was always a star; it’s to ask why the industry needed so much convincing.
So before anyone gets out of bed and begins their morning routine, we must not forget to first uplift Tinashe.
Edited by Nia Crichelle Robertson.