{"id":197101,"date":"2025-10-02T12:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/197101\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T12:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:19:09","slug":"fka-twigs-talks-eusexua-grammys-and-moving-forward-after-shia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/197101\/","title":{"rendered":"FKA Twigs Talks Eusexua, Grammys and Moving Forward After Shia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt wasn\u2019t all that long ago \u2014 six months, to be exact \u2014 when things were looking pretty bleak for FKA Twigs<\/a>. The British artist, long a critical darling for her hyper-expressive musical style \u2014 a blend of R&B and electronic and avant-garde pop \u2014 and provocative fashion and dance moves, had just released her first album in five years, Eusexua. The project\u2019s rollout was a carefully curated and choreographed series of drops \u2014 teaser tracks (\u201cDrums of Death,\u201d \u201cPerfect Stranger\u201d) accompanied by eye-popping videos (\u201cChildlike Things\u201d featured Kim and Kanye spawn North West rapping in Japanese) \u2014 to culminate in a performance at Coachella in April and an elaborate tour. Three days before she was due to hit the stage in the Southern California desert, everything was scrapped. Twigs could not enter the U.S. because of visa issues.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Emma Summerton<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was one of the most painful times of my career,\u201d says the 37-year-old artist, whose real name is Tahliah Barnett. \u201cJust the emotional and physical and financial ramifications that fell on FKA Twigs the business was catastrophic. All I wanted to do was perform in front of my fans \u2014 go to Mexico and do Coachella and tour America. The creative on that show was brilliant. We worked so hard on it \u2026 and it all slipped through my fingers like sand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWho dropped the ball or was responsible for the confluence of costly mistakes isn\u2019t entirely clear. \u201cIt was so many small reasons why, but none were within my control,\u201d Twigs says. \u201cI was kept in the dark about how bad it all was. The flights and the visas and the stage advancing, none of it was done. And I don\u2019t know how to do that because it\u2019s not my job. But you know what? I\u2019ve learned a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, Twigs today is fluent in all manner of touring, she says, boasting, \u201cNow I know about buses and freighting; how many days it takes to get from New York to Mexico in a truck; how to get through customs.\u201d She\u2019s also decided to forgo having a music manager. \u201cIt\u2019s something new that I\u2019m trying. I have a small team around me, and none of them have a management title,\u201d she says. Unaware that it\u2019s the model employed by Taylor Swift, Twigs pauses, then remarks: \u201cWell, it certainly works for her, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tValentino bra, shorts; Hugo Kreit necklace; FKA Twigs\u2019 own earrings; Dsquared2 shoes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Emma Summerton<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, it\u2019s working for Twigs, too. In September, Eusexua (pronounced yoo-sek-shoo-a) shortlisted for the U.K.\u2019s prestigious Mercury Prize, and the Grammy buzz surrounding the album is only getting louder as voting kicks off Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe acclaim is understandable. Eusexua was conceived on the dance floor and delivers the euphoria of a club scene in its techno- and house-driven heyday. Picture a night in Ibiza where melodies provide the ecstasy and the instrument is Twigs\u2019 multifaceted voice, defying register in shifting from a whispery soprano to guttural pulses in the most surprising of ways.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEusexua is a pinnacle of human experience \u2014 a feeling of pure nothingness but of endless possibility, like losing yourself on the dance floor for eight hours,\u201d Twigs explains. \u201cIt\u2019s the height of an orgasm, it\u2019s losing yourself in a book. It\u2019s being present whilst eating food, it\u2019s even the hours that you lost as a child playing games. It\u2019s a feeling of true presence in yourself \u2014 a constant state of everything and nothing all at once.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEusexua also is poised to be awards bait in a year when Swift is not competing, and saccharine pop doesn\u2019t always impress the Grammys\u2019 industry voters who choose nominees by committee. But do Grammys even matter to Twigs?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I was younger,\u201d she concedes. \u201cBut less so now. I have never been in this for awards. \u2026 I\u2019ve always felt very confident in my cultural impact more than what numbers look like on Spotify or how many trophies I have in my recording studio. I\u2019ve consciously and actively done things so that I can be on the right side of myself as an artist. But in the same breath, I have been releasing music for two decades, and it would mean something to be recognized by other musicians and people who care a lot about music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTwigs has collaborated with a broad spectrum of artists, from rap heavies (Future, Ty Dolla $ign) to pop superstars (The Weeknd) and EDM giants (Fred Again, Skrillex), making her already difficult-to-categorize music even more challenging in the tricky genre races of the Grammys. \u201cMy place isn\u2019t anywhere, to be honest,\u201d she offers unapologetically. \u201cI will be an artist that always changes styles to the glee and frustration of my fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBlumarine cardigan; Willy Chavarria pants; Miu Miu socks; artist\u2019s own jewelry; vintage YSL shoes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Emma Summerton (2)<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be certain, little of Twigs\u2019 career so far has been mainstream. The singer first broke out as part of an alternative R&B wave, but rather than stay in that lane, her music evolved to incorporate disparate styles \u2014 trip-hop, opera, club-ready grooves \u2014 while her imagery favored the strange and even unsettling over the hypersexualized beauty norms of her female peers. A dancer since the age of 12, choreography presents as performance art in Twigs\u2019 world, where she consistently takes physical and visual risks \u2014 like a recent work of digital art in which she is pictured nude and pregnant on a stripper pole. (\u201cI\u2019m pregnant with my next project,\u201d she explains of the forthcoming EUSEXUA Afterglow, out Nov. 14.)<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, there are curious contradictions to Twigs. She\u2019s railed against AI, going so far as to testify in front of the Senate in April 2024 about protections needed to safeguard artists (and regular people) from unauthorized digital replicas of themselves (she created a deepfake Twigs to exert some control of her likeness), but admits she\u2019s never used ChatGPT and insists on making her digital-forward music with analog technology. \u201cI left the computer years ago,\u201d she says of music production.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne would think that Twigs would feel most comfortable in the dance arena, but even under the lights of a nightclub \u2014 like the one in Prague where Eusexua as a concept was birthed (\u201cI\u2019d been so stressed for so long and gone through so much, and had this moment on the dance floor where none of it burdened me and I realized I could get back to my purest sense of self\u201d), there\u2019s a struggle.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tDolce & Gabbana bra; Dsquared2 tank; Better Jewelry bracelets; FKA Twigs\u2019 own earrings, nose ring; Commando underwear; Falke tights; Rick Owens shoes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Emma Summerton<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m now entering my fourth decade of dancing for a living, and whenever I\u2019m forced to dance, I\u2019m really miserable,\u201d Twigs says. \u201cA lot of dancers feel this way \u2014 where [physically] you just don\u2019t want to be a dancer anymore. It\u2019s more about the movement. [On tour,] we\u2019re not dancing, we\u2019re creating movement as a pack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou could say the same of her acting roles. Since debuting in 2019\u2019s Honey Boy, Twigs seems drawn to challenging characters within an ensemble. After a turn in 2024\u2019s The Crow playing opposite Bill Skarsgard, she next appears in the indie The Carpenter\u2019s Son, a biblical horror film starring Nicolas Cage, playing none other than Mother Mary.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love the family aspect of being involved in a film,\u201d she says, praising Cage for being the \u201cperfect collaborator\u201d and observing \u201chis old Hollywood star power\u201d firsthand. \u201cWhen he walks on set, you know that Nicolas Cage has arrived,\u201d says Twigs. \u201cBut I never felt intimidated. He made me feel very welcome, and I learned so much from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEven so, to take on one of the most famous women in history \u2014 and through a lens so bloody and violent \u2014 is a mighty tall order. \u201cThe Virgin Mary has been portrayed as a woman who is very agreeable \u2014 she\u2019s a virgin, she\u2019s sweet and she obeys. I personally didn\u2019t feel that for my Virgin Mary,\u201d says Twigs of her approach. \u201cI felt like she\u2019s somebody very powerful who doesn\u2019t have to say a lot. I didn\u2019t want to mistake her peacefulness for weakness. The peace within her, that we see so much in pictures and in scripture, came from the strength and knowledge and tenacity that she had to raise the savior. And that\u2019s an incredible amount of pressure and responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTwigs can relate. \u201cWhen it\u2019s my music, I\u2019m Mother, and I make every single decision,\u201d she says, contrasting the freedom she felt ceding control to director Lotfy Nathan. But after production, and back in her offscreen life, she went back into leader mode and looked after her crew of dancers \u2014 the same troupe whose 2025 plans got upended with the postponement of the tour \u2014 housing nine of them in her London pad while retooling the show.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy back was against the wall, and I came out kicking,\u201d she says of the pivot following the Coachella debacle. \u201cI made a lot of music. I hunkered down, created and held people close to me. We lived together and danced and trained and brought the show back to life. \u2026 I felt like I was weathering a storm and I turned something really horrific into something positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTwigs has some experience in this realm. In December 2020, she revealed publicly that a year-long romantic relationship with Honey Boy star and writer Shia LaBeouf had become abusive. Twigs sued LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress, alleging incidents of physical violence, including being strangled. She also described in the lawsuit a pattern of psychological manipulation in which LaBeouf exerted control over her daily life and kept her isolated from friends.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat I went through with Shia was the worst thing I\u2019ve ever been through in the whole of my life,\u201d she told The New York Times at the time of the filing. \u201cI don\u2019t think people would ever think that it would happen to me. But I am not immune.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tJ Phoenix corset; Lady\u202fGrey large earrings; FKA Twigs\u2019 own smaller earrings, bracelets; Falke tights; vintage YSL shoes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Emma Summerton (2)<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of the abuse to Gayle King in 2021, Twigs shared, \u201cIt\u2019s a miracle I came out alive,\u201d adding, \u201cPeople often ask, \u2018Why didn\u2019t you just leave?\u2019 What people don\u2019t realize is that it\u2019s not one thing. It\u2019s very subtle. It\u2019s a very gradual step-by-step process to get somebody into a position where they lose themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two settled privately in July, ahead of a scheduled trial date, for an undisclosed amount and released a joint statement that read: \u201cWe wish each other personal happiness, professional success and peace in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked whether she feels a sense of safety with the chapter behind her, Twigs answers, \u201cNo, I wouldn\u2019t say I feel safe. I feel really passionate about being involved with organizations such as Sistah Space and No More, to help survivors in any way that I can. I think it\u2019s less about me at this point and more about looking forward. Just, you know, moving on with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThese days, that means performing in front of the biggest crowds she\u2019s ever seen, bookending the summer with main-stage slots at Barcelona\u2019s Primavera Festival and London\u2019s All Points East, where she stepped in for Doechii and delivered a racy set that some British outlets described as \u201cX-rated.\u201d Coachella is back on the schedule, too, in what is sure to be a triumphant appearance in 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwigs\u2019 focus is now on the fans who have waited years for her return. And having observed a sort of collective angst in crowds she\u2019s performed for in the U.S. and Europe, community is top of mind. \u201cSeeing people singing every single lyric\u2014 words I\u2019ve made \u2014 it makes me quite emotional. It\u2019s like they\u2019re saying them back to me,\u201d she says. \u201cI wrote them at a time when I felt very scared \u2014 scared for myself, scared for my future as an artist, scared for my future as a human. I worry about community. Whether it\u2019s women or the trans or queer communities or people of color, I have these huge thoughts that keep me awake at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt all comes back to Eusexua and the idea that there are places \u201cwhere we can be together,\u201d she says. In other words, communing. \u201cIt sounds so obvious, finding salvation within dance music and a sense of community,\u201d says Twigs. \u201cBut there are times in my life where I am in this fearful place, and it doesn\u2019t feel obvious at all that I could belong to something bigger than myself. Every single person has had a moment where they\u2019ve probably sat by themselves and thought, \u2018What does this mean? Where do I belong? Like, who am I?\u2019 And to have a moment, an evening\u2019s reprise from that, among a group of like-minded people, could be the difference of life and death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMiu Miu bra, tank; CDP tee; stylist\u2019s own turtleneck; Dsquared2 underwear; Falke tights; artist\u2019s own jewelry; Buffalo shoes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Emma Summerton<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tRead more from THR\u2019<\/a>s Music Issue<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the Oct. 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t all that long ago \u2014 six months, to be exact \u2014 when things were looking pretty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,25416,114001,26320],"class_list":{"0":"post-197101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-fka-twigs","11":"tag-music-issue","12":"tag-thr-cover-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}