Tinashe says she is “just so thankful” for the reaction to her song “Nasty”

It’s been a decade since Tinashe released “2 On,” her one and only Hot 100 song, but now she has another hit on her hands: “Nasty.” Speaking to Variety, she says she had no expectation for the song and was surprised by its reception.

“It’s amazing. I’m just so thankful,” Tinashe tells Variety of the song’s success. “I was saying this to my mom the other day, 10 years later, who would have thought? And I didn’t need this moment.”

She adds, “I came to the place where I didn’t need that validation anymore. And I think that makes it even better, because it’s like holy s***, the universe just worked in such mysterious ways.”

“Nasty” dropped in April ahead of Tinashe’s performance at Coachella. She says early on she recognized a difference in the response. 

“I noticed a difference almost immediately because I started getting hit up by my peers, and I feel like people see my content all the time but it’s very rare I’ll get a DM from Meghan Trainor being like, ‘I love that song,’ or Kehlani or Tyla,” she explains. 

She attributes her current success to “those grinding it out moments where I just had my head down and was just putting out the best music I could and being really consistent and making great visuals.”

Though “Nasty” is doing well, Tinashe’s hope is to continue staying away from expectations.

“I don’t think having expectations is still the answer. I think it’s just being in the moment and allowing everything to play out … because that’s exactly what happened in this moment,” she says. “I want to continue to do that. I don’t want to f*** up the energy by being like, this is definitely going to happen. You just gotta ride the waves.”