Who Is Calvin Harris' New Gal Pal Tinashe?
Taylor Swift isn't the only one on the rebound. Her ex, 32-year-old DJ Calvin Harris, is rumored to be hooking up with 23-year-old R&B crooner Tinashe Jorgenson Kachingwe, who goes simply by Tinashe. "They have been seeing each other on the DL," an insider told Page Six in July 2016. "It's only been weeks, so it's still pretty casual right now. They've been on a few dates."
We know what you're thinking: who the heck is Tinashe? Fortunately, we've done the hard research for you. Find out why the "Superlove" singer could become the next big thing in music—and why Swift should avoid getting into a fight with her at all costs.
She was bullied
Despite being insanely talented, Tinashe admits she had a rough time fitting in during middle school and high school. "Legions of kids would gang up on me and throw stuff at me for no reason," she told Billboard in 2014. "It was mean. I tested out after 9th grade and started working."
"I actually did get bullied a lot in school," she said in an interview with Bullett. "I missed out on prom and graduation and the whole college experience but I don't feel bad about it because everything else I was doing was what I actually wanted."
Tinashe said her problems connecting with her peers led her to develop self-doubt. "Nobody wanted to f*** with me," she told Complex. "As far as the guys go, nobody wanted to like me or date me. They'd talk to me in secret and then at school they'd ignore me. Literally ignore me to my face. And psychologically that messes with you. It makes you feel that you must be genuinely unattractive if this person doesn't want anyone to know that you even talk. That's bad."
She has a black belt in taekwondo
What's one way to get revenge on guys who wouldn't talk to you growing up? Earn a black belt in taekwondo. That's exactly what Tinashe did as a youngster in California. "I'm legitimately a black belt," she said in an interview with Global Grind. "I could kick someone's a**. I feel like I have the ability to, but I've never unleashed my fury on anyone. However, I sparred a girl...when I was younger in a competition, and I won, like, gold medal in the state of California...I think I was 11." Tinashe said she practiced taekwondo for about three years before moving on to other hobbies.
She wrote her first song at age six
In an interview with Complex, Tinashe's mother, Aimie Kachingwe, claims she came home from work one day to discover that her 6-year-old daughter had written her very first song.
"She said, 'Mom, I wrote this song.' On the piano she had written out the score in her own way," Kachingwe said. "It was this very heartfelt song about being alone in the night. She went to her piano teacher and said, 'Can you help me write the score?' She helped her write a real one, and then Tinashe performed it at a piano concert. The other kids were up there doing 'Chopsticks,' and she did this song."
According to Complex, that song, called "Deep in the Night," was included as an interlude on Tinashe's debut record, Aquarius.
She was in a girl band
In 2007, Tinashe became one-fifth of the all-girl group The Stunners, which was apparently put together by Vitamin C—you know, the singer behind that song that plays at every high school graduation. Although The Stunners performed as an opening act on Justin Bieber's My World Tour in 2010, the band never garnered great success on the charts. The group's biggest single, "We Got It," reached no. 14 on the U.S. dance charts. The ladies disbanded in 2011.
Incidentally, the Bieber connection did land Tinashe an appearance in the music video for his hit single, "Baby," in 2010. "It was super random," she told MTV News. "I think they just asked me if I wanted to be in the video as a cameo, and I was just like, 'Sure.' I wasn't doing anything. So I just came and did it and I didn't really know what to expect. Drake was in it. Good times."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQQ1sjfktcQ
She was on Two and a Half Men
In addition to recording, Tinashe has dabbled in the acting business. Her most famous stint came in 2008 when she landed a three-episode arc on Two and a Half Men playing the love interest of character Jake Harper, played by Angus T. Jones.
For now, at least, Tinashe insists that music is her main focus. "I hope in the future to kind of get back into it and do some more acting," she told Stereogum. "I think that makes sense for me in the future. But I wanted to establish myself as a musical artist so people would know I was taking it seriously and it wasn't just something I was trying out for fun."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnTxsTs_SjY
She's written songs for other artists
Tinashe's knack for songwriting has extended to other artists. Included on that list: the all-girl group Fifth Harmony, who featured three songs co-written by Tinashe on their 2016 summer release, 7/27. "She's a necessary player in the game," Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui told SPIN magazine. "I think honesty is such a lost value in this industry at this point, especially when you're dealing with mainstream pop. I think people have a hard time being true to themselves in the public eye—because people are so judgmental—but I really admire the fact that she does that and she doesn't give a f*** what people say."
She's super ambitious
Tinashe already has her sights set on becoming the next great pop star. "I'm a big advocate of going after what you want in general, and those things—a Grammy, mainstream success—are genuinely what I want," she told SPIN. "A lot of times people try not to say what they really want because they think it makes them look pretentious or overreaching, but for me, that's the only way to go. You can't dumb yourself down because you're afraid that people are going to take offense to the fact that you want to be successful. That's dumb."
Even her friends agree that success is the only option for Tinashe. "She's always been ambitious," a friend told SPIN. "Even when she was in school, she was always in the top classes. I mean, she has a Grammy as the background on her phone."
"I have no Plan B," Tinashe told Complex. "I've set this up so that my entire life is based on this, and if this fails I have nothing else. No career options. No life options. I've sacrificed so much for this; failure is so beyond an option. There can only be setbacks. It'll eventually work because it can't not work...And it's never a fully hopeless situation, because I'll always have some support."