{"id":464045,"date":"2026-05-28T08:15:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/464045\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T08:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:15:21","slug":"self-esteem-on-plans-to-take-a-hiatus-i-want-to-test-myself-hopefully-itll-make-my-art-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/464045\/","title":{"rendered":"Self Esteem on plans to take a hiatus: \u201cI want to test myself \u2013 hopefully it’ll make my art better\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Self Esteem<\/a> has spoken to NME about her plans for a hiatus \u2013 revealing that she wants to take time away from the hectic pace of the music industry and make something \u201cbeautiful and interesting\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Sheffield singer, songwriter and actor \u2013 real name Rebecca Lucy Taylor \u2013 caught up with us on the red carpet at the 2026 Ivor Novellos, where she was nominated for Best Song Musically and Lyrically and Best Contemporary Song.<\/p>\n

Her appearance at the event came while she is currently focusing her efforts on acting, performing in the 50th anniversary revival of David Hare\u2019s play Teeth \u2018N\u2019 Smiles, having completed an intense touring cycle last summer in celebration of her critically-acclaimed second album \u2018A Complicated Woman<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, she spoke candidly about the physical and mental toll that promotion cycle for the album had on her<\/a>, revealing that it left her feeling \u201cknackered\u201d, \u201cfed up\u201d and \u201crock-bottom depressed because of music\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, as she gears up to play some more live dates over this summer \u2013 including an opening show at the new British Airways ARC arena in Olympia, London<\/a> \u2013 Taylor told NME that she is in \u201cneed of a bit of a breather\u201d and will be using the time after festival season to \u201ctake a few months off to have a think\u201d about what comes next.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got an idea about what my next record is [going to be like],\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you\u2019re not careful, it\u2019s you giving more and more in an industry that will take more and more if you let it. So I\u2019m making myself stop so I can have a think and I can make some better art for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also explained that the huge response to \u2018A Complicated Woman\u2019 and the theatrical live show that accompanied it was \u201canother reason why I\u2019m having some time off\u201d, so that \u201ceveryone forgets\u201d the high bar she set for herself at each of the gigs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want to do is make an album and then let the album speak to me about what that show should be,\u201d Taylor said, rejecting the idea of trying to \u201cbeat\u201d what she did with her 2025 record.<\/p>\n

\"SelfSelf Esteem live at Glastonbury 2025. Credit: Derek Bremner for NME<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we did last time, but it\u2019s hard and a lot of people don\u2019t understand the insane financial [aspect],\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s so expensive to put a show on, and you don\u2019t get much back from it. You don\u2019t make any money from music being bought or listened to, so it\u2019s really hard to go \u2018I\u2019ll top it with bigger and more\u2019 \u2013 because I won\u2019t be able to! But I will be able to do something beautiful and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018Focus Is Power\u2019 singer then said that she hopes to take a similar approach to Lady Gaga<\/a> when it comes to taking some time away from the public eye, citing how the pop star used downtime to study alongside artists Jeff Koons and Marina Abramovi\u0107, and channeled that inspiration into her 2013 album \u2018Artpop<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s like when I\u2019m acting I study the text, it feels like doing English Literature at school again. I want to test myself and unearth things in my brain, that\u2019s the plan, and then hopefully it\u2019ll make my art better.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the 2026 Ivors, Self Esteem was up for Song Musically and Lyrically with her song \u2018Focus Is Power\u2019, and the trophy ultimately went to Jacob Alon<\/a> for \u2018Don\u2019t Fall Asleep\u2019. She was also shortlisted for Best Contemporary Song with \u2018I Do And I Don\u2019t Care\u2019, but lost out to Kae Tempest<\/a> and Fraser T. Smith<\/a> for \u2018I Stand On The Line\u2019.<\/p>\n

Other winners on the night included Rosal\u00eda who was crowned International Songwriter Of The Year<\/a>, Radiohead<\/a>\u2019s Thom Yorke<\/a> who was handed the Academy Fellowship award by Harry Styles<\/a>, and George Michael<\/a> who posthumously received the Academy Fellowship.<\/p>\n

Other winners included CMAT<\/a> who won Best Album and Sam Fender<\/a> getting the trophy for Songwriter Of The Year.<\/p>\n

As well as the headline gig at the new British Airways ARC venue, Self Esteem will be playing at multiple festivals this summer, and also performing at three outdoor shows in the UK this summer, taking place in Reading, York and Cardiff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other gigs include a supporting slot for Pulp in Manchester<\/a>, as well as for Florence + The Machine in Edinburgh<\/a>. Visit here<\/a> for tickets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Self Esteem has spoken to NME about her plans for a hiatus \u2013 revealing that she wants to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409,875],"class_list":["post-464045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music","tag-pop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}