Joanna McDonald

Tinashe: Pop Princess

June 10, 2026

her impact and legacy

Tinashe is a pop princess, truly. As the joke goes online, she is the k-pop blueprint, and the blueprint for so much more. With the upcoming release of her album along with the release of single “Too Easy,” I think it’s time to revisit her legacy.

K-pop and plagiarism

Let’s revisit the whole k-pop thing. Tinashe was famously fully plagiarized by k-pop group DIA for their song “WooWoo.” Her original song, Superlove, has basically the exact same sound. Now, art is constantly inspired by itself, but this was pretty blatant. Not only did they copy the song and try to re-heat her nachos per se, they fully copied the entire music video. People have even created mashups of the two songs, showing just how similar they are. Fans recognized the blatant plagiarism immediately after the “WooWoo” song teaser was released. Tinashe herself has actually addressed the controversy, stating via Twitter that “me and the director were tripping when we saw it. She wanted to sum them. Lmfao.” When asked if the “WooWoo” music video was made without her permission, she replied “Lol. Entirely.” Now, did anything ever come out of this? No. But this moment will go down in history as one of the most, if not the most, unmistakable cases of plagiarism in the k-pop industry.

My journey with her

I first discovered the world of Tinashe in 2019, with the release of her first independently produced record, Songs for You. This album blew my mind, and enraptured me in the Tinasheverse. I was familiar with a few of her songs previously, “2 On” obviously being one of them. It’s her most popular song to this day, followed by “Nasty,” in terms of her non-collaborative releases. Her second most popular song is actually “No Broke Boys,” her collaboration with Disco Lines which blew up in a major way in 2025.
To this day, Songs for You means so much to me. The tracklist is flawless, with pop ballads like “Save Room for Us,” dark and mysterious tracks like “Stormy Weather,” and electropop UK rap songs like “Die a Little Bit” featuring Ms Banks. Her song “So Much Better” featuring G-Eazy (yes, that G-Eazy) amazes me but also cracks me up with G-Eazy’s thirsty rap, stating “when I leave the studio I swear I’m fuckin you, I mean forreal Tinashe, let’s leave here right now.” I just know that he truly meant every word he said and that is what gets me.

Label drama

As I mentioned, Tinashe is now an independent music artist. She was famously constantly screwed over by her previous label, RCA. RCA doesn’t have a great track record in how they treat their artists, another notable snub being Normani. After her strong debut with “Motivation,” RCA didn’t take advantage of the momentum she had, and she has fallen off in her music career in ways she truly didn’t have to. RCA even canceled one of her albums, her previously announced 2018 album Nashe. This is rumored to be due to RCA being disappointed by the performance of her previous album, Joyride. Also a music masterpiece, but under-appreciated. It’s been said that the release of Joyride was also pushed back due to Zayn Malik being prioritized by the label over her upcoming releases.

A new era

Finally, Tinashe parted ways with RCA in February 2019. She signed a management deal with Roc Nation in November 2019, and proceeded to release her first self-released album, the previously mentioned Songs for You. Since going independent, she’s had some incredible releases. Songs for You, 333, BB/Ang3l, and her latest album Quantum Baby. Her newest album is planned to release this year, following the latest drop of her track “Too Easy” for the album.

Tinashe has been through the ringer in the industry, faced trials and tribulations that most artists would crumble under the pressure of. But like a diamond, she has used that pressure to only fuel her further. She’s an artist, and nothing will stop her from releasing her art. It’s something that inspired me about her. As she says in “You (Interlude)” from Songs for You, “all these songs for you baby, you know who you are.” I certainly know I’m one of them.